Pit smoking a huge 28-lb pork butt

[Croy9000]

A friend gave my brother-in-law a massive bone in 28-lb pork butt from a whole hog yesterday (as pointed out below this is likely a shoulder not butt). I do have a Backwoods Chubby smoker, but no way this thing is fitting. So we are thinking about cooking it on a pit we would throw together, along with some oak firewood. Would it be saner to cut this thing in half, or even quarters? I assume that would dramatically cut down on the cook time. Also, any tips on how much wood I should pickup?

Thanks!

 

[Burnt at Both Endz]

Sounds more like a pork shoulder instead of a butt?

 

[Croy9000]

Hah maybe you are right. Thats just what he told me. He sent me a pic of it and its definitely one piece of meat.

 

[Burnt at Both Endz]

Does it look like #405?

https://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/ap_pigc.html

 

[Croy9000]

Yeah it does look more like 405B in that chart.

 

[PatAttack]

Yes, Sir.

That's a whole shoulder.

You could build a small block pit to cook it on.

 

[halfcocked]

My Publix had whole fresh hams in that category over the Christmas holidays. That's what I thought yours would turn out to be. By last week they were selling the last of them for .99 a pound. I passed already having two butts in the freezer and no space for more. Besides, the potential cook was daunting.

 

[jzadski]

Could possibly finagle purchasing in a new smoker to cook it on :-D

 

[Croy9000]

We don't mind trying to cook it on a block pit just for the experience and fun of it. Always wanted to cook on pure wood coals (my smoker uses a charcoal basket).

Mainly just wanting to know if this was you, would you cut it into smaller pieces, or cook it whole. Also, for such a long cook, do you personally prefer starting early in the morning for an all day cook, or later in the evening and pull an all nighter. Though I guess either way this might be close to a 20+ hour cook.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

Cutting it in half or into quarters sounds like the most reasonable solution to the issue. If it is a full shoulder there's going to be a leg bone running all the through the meat, so use a good saw to cut through it without causing too much splintering. I use a reciprocating saw when I cut off the legs during whole hog cooks and that works well enough...just need to use a sharp knife to score the skin side to allow the saw to penetrate to the bone.

 

[Burnt at Both Endz]

You can cut the cushion meat off for a later smoke and cook it as a picnic shoulder.

https://howtobbqright.com/2015/10/09/whole-pork-shoulder/

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

We don't mind trying to cook it on a block pit just for the experience and fun of it. Always wanted to cook on pure wood coals (my smoker uses a charcoal basket).

Mainly just wanting to know if this was you, would you cut it into smaller pieces, or cook it whole. Also, for such a long cook, do you personally prefer starting early in the morning for an all day cook, or later in the evening and pull an all nighter. Though I guess either way this might be close to a 20+ hour cook.

Using hot coals is a fun time, but it certainly has its own learning curve. Outside of the pit construction you'll also need a burn barrel and someone to keep that wood burning non-stop for the entirety of the cook. I've done it many times but I absolutely hate baby-sitting the burn barrel because I'm so nervous about wind taking a few hot coals and causing a fire. Truthfully it's also a waste of wood as you're losing so much energy by only utilizing the hot coals. Just my own personal take.

I still can't imagine a 28Lb pork shoulder...even on 200Lb+ hogs the whole shoulders usually come in at round 18-20Lbs. Can you post a pic of the packaging? I'm curious as to whether or not it's a few different hunks of pork shoulder (may be referred to as "pork cushion") all packaged together.

The only reason I'm bringing up the weight is because generally that will determine your cook time. I do whole hogs (usually about 150Lbs) at 250-275° in about 10-12 hours...max. So your cook time obviously will depend on the weight which can be altered by cutting it down to more manageable sizes.

Just as a reference this is a chart which kind of shows the shoulder / loin values and weights of differently sized hogs. If you combine the picnic weight and the Boston butt weight of a 270Lb pig you're at 21Lbs. The Boston Butt and the Picnic comprise the entire pork shoulder.

https://porkgateway.org/resource/composition-and-value-of-the-shoulder-primal/

 

[Pife]

That must have been a huge hog. Bigger isn't better..IMHO. Do you know the origin of the hog? Might have been an older breeder.

That said..I'd cook it. It will fit in my cooker..come on over!