Quick Question about Starting/Stopping/Resuming

[jarrodrandel]

Have to do a BBQ for the Company where I work. Everyone loves the pulled pork here, which I usually smoke for 12 hours @ 225-250.

Problem is, I dont feel like staying overnight at work to babysit the smoker and I commute an hour on major interstates. Its a pull-behind horizontal made out of 1/2" A36 carbon steel - its a big effer.

Here are my solutions - let me know which is/are viable/best (if any).

solution 1. begin smoking at work (noon-6pm) the day before, pull meat off & wrap in foil, extinguish oak fire, refrigerate overnight, resume smoking at 5am, remove at 11am, pull/chop pork - eat at noon.

Solution 2. begin smoking at home the night before 10pm - 4am, pull meat off & wrap in foil, extinguish oak fire, transport everything via cooler wrapped in foil and blankets to maintain internal temp, resume smoking at 5am, remove at 11am, pull/chop pork - eat at noon.

Solution 3. Start the butts in the oven the night before (10pm -4am) and transport them in foil/blanket/cooler in the morning and resume smoking at 5am. This eliminates dragging the smoker back and forth and starting multiple fires etc... and keeps my eyes from getting red. But I am afraid it will eliminate the intitial smoke penetration into the meat, the handsome smoke ring and the coveted flavor.

Are any of these solutions viable or preferred? solution 2 & 3 obviously have less transition time - and keeps meat at temp, so there is no reheat ramp time and keeps the juices hot and in the meat, but it requires me to stay awake most of the night and I dont have the benefit of being lucid enough to enjoy the food the next day.

Anyone else ever run into this problem? It would be nice if I could just drive down the highway with the smoker running full-bore, cooking the meat, but that pesky wind will surely have the firebox ablaze and running at 500 deg. haha. I think the FL Highway Patrol might frown on that method of cooking too.

[OwenStubbs]

Cut the butts in half, or increase the temp so they cook faster?

[allsmokenofire]

If it were me....

I'd butterfly the butts, season and wrap in plastic wrap the night before. Show up at work about 4:30 a.m. and light the cooker. Put the butts on the cooker at 5:00 a.m. and run the temp at 300ish*. Wrap the butts in hd foil when they hit an internal of 160ish*, continue cooking until tender(first ones will probably come off around 10:30, bigger ones by 11:30). Hold the butts in an empty ice chest until 11:30ish. Start pulling the butts at 11:30, eat at noon.


....then tell the boss you're taking the rest of the day off.


But that's just me.
_________________
Mike
Team Enoserv

[Uncle John]

[jarrodrandel]

Thanks guys... I will take your advice and divide the butts and begin at 4am.

Have a good weekend.