Thursday night I threw some rub on three 6.5lb boston butts. I got these for my son's birthday party. Everything I seen said a butt would take about 5-6 hours. So I woke up early on Saturday morning and got the PBC running at 5:30 a.m. Some of you may have read my previous thread about my PBC running hot. Well I decided to trust in the PBC and set my intake per the manufacturer's recommendation. To make the cooker work the same every time I decided to measure out how many briquettes I put in the coal basket. I used one full chimney starter full of KBB charcoal and dumped it into the charcoal basket. I then grabbed another 25 briquettes and lit them in the chimney starter and got them until they were ashed over. I dumped those into the charcoal basket along with all the other briquettes and added a mini split of oak to the smoker.
I waited approximately 30 minutes to let the temps settle and the smoke from the split to get settled. I then hung my 3 pork butts. It was a tight fit but they all fit in there. I also put my maverick probe in there to see how the temps went during the cook. The plan was to let the butts cook until they hit 160 then foil them. I checked them at 3 hours and they were right around 130. I was a bit in a panic at this point. I was expecting them to be a bit hotter, not to mention my pit probe was reading lower than expected as well. I opened the intake more to help and also noticed the drippings of the 3 butts were putting out the coals. Opening the intake brought the temps back to where I was expecting them.
At the 4 hour mark I had made the decision they were going in the oven to finish. I put them in an aluminum pan and covered it in tin foil. They went in the oven at 375. Well what I wasn't expecting was the 3 butts put out so much juice it considerably slowed my cook. At the 6 hour mark I was hoping they would be at or close to 200 but instead they were right at 180. Well chopped pork it is. I chopped up the butts and apologized to the birthday guests. I was a bit disappointed and discouraged. Well that all changed when 30 people came through and made their plates and some came back for more. I was told by many that the pork was great. I thought the flavor was awesome but would have been happier with pulled pork. The smoke ring was very visible.
So a few tips so you don't repeat my misfortune:
-Stick with what the manufacture recommends for intake.
-When adding more meat plan on adding more time
-If possible have the food finish early, you can always reheat later
-More often than not you will be your toughest critic