Need some advice on a big smoke...

[itschris]

Hey guys, twice a year at my office, my buddy and I do a charity BBQ to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project and Shrines Hospital for Children. We have about 4,000 people in our 4 buildings so we get a good turnout. Last time we raised $3K and sold out in 40 minutes.

This time around I have my two Stumps Smokers along with my buddy's trailer offset so we'll be doubling our capacity to 30 butts. My normal routine is no injection and foil at 170. We spend the night out in the parking lot of our two biggest towers to get the interest going. The thing is, I have zero interest in foiling 30 butts at 3am. I know some of you don't foil, but I'm not sure how that changes things. My questions are:

Does it shorten the cook time?
I'm assuming I would have to inject right?
How much injection would I need for 30 butts?

 

[pjtexas1]

i also wrap butts but can understand not wanting to wrap 30 butts. here are my thoughts...

it will probably take longer to cook as the foil speeds up the process
i never inject so i can't help with that
the best part of wrapping is catching the juices to put back into the pulled meat so you would lose that unless you have a pan under somewhere to catch the drippings.
maybe flip the butts in the Stumps to keep the bark from getting too crunchy?

 

[dadsr4]

You could cook in disposable pans and cover those, it could be easier and you would be saving the juices.

 

[mattmountz94]

Last time i cooked a butt i cooked in a disposable pan the entire time no foil on top. Still had good bark 75% around. Was the best butt i had to date and all the juice in the pan was like gold mixing back in.

I normally cook no wrapping and no injection entire time.

 

[pjtexas1]

i thought about cooking in pans too but they take up a lot of space if you are already pushing your capacity limits. not sure but it sounds like the op might be in that situation but if not pans are cheap and make taking the food out of the cooker very easy. you could probably fit 2 butts in a full size pan.

 

[DownHomeQue]

yea once I go over 20 butts or racks of ribs.. Wrapping goes out the window.. I will put them on early stay by your firebox.. keep your temp up.. more loaded your cooker I personally like to run the temp up a bit.. I normally cook around 300-275 but I will bump them up to 350-300 range.. gets all that meat done without getting oversmoked..

 

[Ron_L]

Recruit a couple of coworkers and make an assembly line. If you are going to hold the butts in a cooler you'll have to foil them anyway. I would rather use the time to foil than inject that many butts. That way you have the foil juice to put into the meat.

Unless you have one of those power injector with multiple needles :-D

 

[gun smoke]

I only wrap if I have to hold them so at the end of the cook and like pjtexas said if anything it might take a little longer. you don't have to inject but I normal do and I use chris lilleys with a little less salt. I did 30 butts a month ago and it was less than a gallon. I have written down x4 on the recipe = 15 butts. sounds like a good time and a great cause good luck!!! I know a lot of people like to pull by hand but on a cook that size I love my roman pork puller

 

[Ron_L]

I only wrap if I have to hold them so at the end of the cook and like pjtexas said if anything it might take a little longer. you don't have to inject but I normal do and I use chris lilleys with a little less salt. I did 30 butts a month ago and it was less than a gallon. I have written down x4 on the recipe = 15 butts. sounds like a good time and a great cause good luck!!! I know a lot of people like to pull by hand but on a cook that size I love my roman pork puller

YES! One of the local guys made one of those and brought it to an OBR deployment. Drop a butt in a 5 gallon bucket (food safe) and two minutes later it is pulled!

 

[itschris]

Thanks for the advice guys. It'll just be my buddy and I. We usually head out around 4pm to the parking executive parking lot to get started. Our friends come and hangout... until after we have the grilled all the brauts and what not for dinner and the beer is all gone. By 11pm, it's a ghost town. So we won't have any help.

I do usually put the butts in pans when I foil, but I'm just not going to have the room this time... and again... at 3am, I don't want to be foiling 30 butts. I've actually modified a pan to sit on the deflector plate of my Stumps smokers to catch drippings for other type of cooks... I'm thinking it'll work here too.

So my take is that it should take a loner to cook the butts without foiling. That's good to know since I was thinking the exact opposite. I normally do my butts at 225, but I'll bump up to 245-250. I have gurus for both smokers to help circulate and regulate the temps. Do you think I need to rotate the butts during the cook?

 

[SteelSmokin]

I never wrap (unless to hold once off the smoker) and I've never injected and mine fall apart and are real juicy. Takes about 15-17 hours and have bark all the way around. i don't think you can go wrong with any of this advice butts are pretty hard to mess up.

 

[Ag76]

I only wrap if I have to hold them so at the end of the cook and like pjtexas said if anything it might take a little longer. you don't have to inject but I normal do and I use chris lilleys with a little less salt. I did 30 butts a month ago and it was less than a gallon. I have written down x4 on the recipe = 15 butts. sounds like a good time and a great cause good luck!!! I know a lot of people like to pull by hand but on a cook that size I love my roman pork puller

I had never heard of a roman pork puller, so I googled it. That looks like a "must have" item if doing a large number of butts at the same time. My search has found the following two pork pullers:

Ro-Man Pork Puller - $68.95 - http://www.porkpuller.com/

Cajun Bandit Butt Shredder - $32.95 - http://cajunbandit.com/accessories/

Does anyone know if the Ro-Man is actually worth more than twice the price of the Cajun Bandit?

What are the differences, other than price, between the two?

Thanks.

 

[JohnnyB]

I had never heard of a roman pork puller, so I googled it. That looks like a "must have" item if doing a large number of butts at the same time. My search has found the following two pork pullers:

Ro-Man Pork Puller - $68.95 - http://www.porkpuller.com/

Cajun Bandit Butt Shredder - $32.95 - http://cajunbandit.com/accessories/

Does anyone know if the Ro-Man is actually worth more than twice the price of the Cajun Bandit?

What are the differences, other than price, between the two?

Thanks.

Just by looking at them, the Ro-Man is a much more beefier item. The blades on the Cajun look to be fairly thin material. Both stainless.

 

[itschris]

I just ordered the Pork-inator... very similar to quality and style of the Ro-Man. Both are equal as far as I've read. I believe the Ro-Man is one piece while the Porkinator's disc screws on. People complain that it unscrews itself, but I don't know why they just don't reverse the drill. Simple fix and it's easier to clean when it comes apart.

I'll be using this for this upcoming cook on the 30 butts. I think the key is to use it sparingly to initially break down the butts, then just finish up with bear claws or whatever you normally use to get the right consistency.

 

[blazinfire]

I had never heard of a roman pork puller, so I googled it. That looks like a "must have" item if doing a large number of butts at the same time. My search has found the following two pork pullers:

Ro-Man Pork Puller - $68.95 - http://www.porkpuller.com/

Cajun Bandit Butt Shredder - $32.95 - http://cajunbandit.com/accessories/

Does anyone know if the Ro-Man is actually worth more than twice the price of the Cajun Bandit?

What are the differences, other than price, between the two?

Thanks.

Just by looking at them, the Ro-Man is a much more beefier item. The blades on the Cajun look to be fairly thin material. Both stainless.

I also had to look up the Ro-man pork puller. If you make a lot of pulled pork this looks like the best tool for the job.

I agree with JonnyB. I like how the Ro-man is built compared to the blades on the Cajun

 

[Jason TQ]

Another brethren organized a fundraiser I helped at last month and we did 24 butts, 12 briskets and 24 racks of ribs. We did wrap all the big meats and it can be done quickly if you have the setup ready for that and at least 2 guys. So have all the foil torn into the sheets needed and spread out on tables so you can drop butts down say 12 at a time on tables wrap and then repeat.

It isn't necessary of course so don't stress over it. Also I wouldn't inject that much meat. Have fun!