Deciding what temp to get 8lb of butt done in 10h

[petard]

TLDR Summary: Any suggestions on what dome temp I should aim for to get a 9-10 hour cook on an 8lb butt without wrapping in foil?

A bunch of the better half's family is coming over tomorrow at around 4:30 PM for a birthday celebration. Since that side of the family has a serious pulled pork deficiency in their diet, I'd like to do a good deed.

I have an 8lb bone-in shoulder, rubbed and ready. My initial plan was to start at around 0100 and aim for a 23 hour cook. But with the gathering rescheduled from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, that is less than practical schedule-wise now. Besides, it's 14F and windy... I'd rather not sit outside for an hour plus vacuuming the fire box and sorting/stacking lump just right to keep a medium egg burning steady for that long.

So I'd like to start the butt around 0600 and pull/plate at 1700. Backing it out, I figure that means I'd like it to hit 200-ish internal temp by around 1530-1600.

I'd kind of like to avoid foil if possible.

Any suggestions on what dome temp I should aim for to get a 9-10 hour cook on an 8lb butt without wrapping in foil, or pointers to a site that might have a table/calculator for this?

[Fwismoker]

275*

[Blownmope]

10 hrs????why???

[S.Six]

275-300°

[Lastrajm]

10 hrs????why???

I gotta agree here if you're saying 10 is to long for an 8#er. I can get those down in 6-7 w an hour rest or so at 275.

[KevinJ]

Did a 9# bone in today in just over 7 hours cooking at 300

[petard]

10 hrs????why???

I guess my instinct is to cook it as slow as time permits. If there's nothing to be gained by stretching it out, I'm happy to cook a little faster.

[mchar69]

You asked dome temp.
Nope, grate temp, as likely your dome therm is 50 degrees off.
Put an oven therm on the grate to make sure.

[Biloxidman]

You asked dome temp.
Nope, grate temp, as likely your dome therm is 50 degrees off.
Put an oven therm on the grate to make sure.

+1. My Kamado Joe dome therm consistently reads 40-50 degrees lower than my grate probe. Grate probe read 310, dome therm read 265-270. Last weekends 10 lb bone in shoulder took 6 hours, but I did foil in a pan to get that delicious pig juice to make mix back in.

[Doog]

I do 275 with foiling @160 7-8 hours on my offset.

[Smoking Piney]

I cook my butts between 275 and 300 - no foil. A 8# butt will make it at less than 10 hours with those temps. Butts are pretty forgiving with temperatures- shoot for 300. If it gets done early, FTC it until you're ready to serve.

[Ron_L]

Whatever you decided, you're probably cooking by now (or you probably should be :-D)

If you want to serve at 5, I'd be shooting to have the butt done and resting by 3. That gives you a buffer in case the butt is stubborn.

[IamMadMan]

I assume you have calculated in a rest period for the pork?

Personally I would go 300°, and if by chance you finish early, the rest period is in place. If by chance it takes longer, the rest period can be shortened as a cooking time buffer.

Wow, I see Ron beat me to hitting the enter button first... LOL

[petard]

So the weather did me in. I went to arrange the coals and wood chips in the egg last night and found that the lid had frozen shut. I've never had that happen before. It was frozen solid, though. I was able to lift the 105lb egg by the handle on the dome. 20 minutes with a hair dryer did no good, and I didn't want to pry too aggressively and chew up the gasket.

But the butt was already rubbed and sitting in the fridge.

So into the oven it went. 275F starting at 0600-ish. Basted it with its own juice a couple times. Covered it with foil for the last 2 hours. Took it off 1300-ish with IT in the mid-high 190s, wrapped it in foil and towels, let it rest till 1615. Pulled it and served with my usual sauce.

Everyone loved it. I was a little disappointed because this was a really good butt. Smoke and bark would have gone a long way.

This exercise did convince me that high 200s feels like the way to go. The texture on this one was great.

[GlobalTJB]

I have sliced a boneless butt in half or thirds and smoked them that way in 3-5 hours. I know that slicing a muscle is taboo, but this worked out well. The meat tasted the same and I had a lot more bark.