These went a total of 14 hours, around 230*. I don't think they really cooked any faster or slower, a little faster maybe since the cavity in the meat where the bone was is exposed to heat readily instead of the bone taking on much of the heat. The big advantage was that with the bone removed more surface area is exposed for developing bark and rubbing that incredible Oak Ridge Dominator rub on. There wasn't much of a fat cap on these, already trimmed about the way I would have trimmed them, just a 1/4" at most.
I'll definitely be getting my butts at Costco from now on. $1.99/lb, no fat to trim and no bones about it. These were without a doubt the best butts I've ever smoked. The fat rendered out almost totally, yet they were still moist and pulled so easily I did it with my heat resistant gloved hands, didn't even have to break out the bear claws. Great quality.
Here's the results. Started out with just over 25 lbs of meat, after cooking and removing any fat that didn't render ended up with 14.5 pounds of my goodness gracious.
Here it is vac packed and ready for the freezer. Most of this will make a trip North to a family reunion. Our grandson loves this stuff.
After seeing this picture I think pork butts must have been the inspiration for the color of our countertops!!
So let's see, 25 lbs of meat minus 1/2 pound of fat when pulling, minus the 14-1/2 pounds of yield equals 10 lbs of waste.
So where did it go??? The roasting size drip pan was almost full of rendered fat plus the rest evaporated as steam. I weighed the drip pan, 4.5 pounds of rendered fat so that means there was around 5.5 pounds of moisture that steamed out.
image hostingWhen I came back in the house from outside it smelled like a good ole' deep south BBQ joint!! Oh yeah, that's what it was today!
