Pork butt cook time calculator
Pork butt is the most forgiving thing you can put in a smoker and still the easiest to mistime, because it takes longer per pound than brisket does. Enter the weight and your pit temperature for a cook range, the stall, a wrap point, and the time to light.
Local conditions
Off by default. Turning it on asks your browser where you are, or you can type a town instead. Nothing is requested until you do. Altitude then adjusts the cook time using the USDA figure; weather is described but never changes a number.
These are estimates. Cook to internal temperature, not to the clock — two cuts of identical weight can finish hours apart. USDA safe minimum for whole-muscle pork is 145F with a 3-minute rest. Pulled pork needs 200F+ to shred.
Cooking something else? The full smoking calculator covers every cut, including chicken, turkey, chuck roast, pork loin, beef short ribs and salmon.
How it works
Pulled pork runs about 90 to 120 minutes per pound at 225F, which is longer per pound than brisket. People get caught out by this constantly. An 8 lb butt is a 12 to 16 hour cook before you have rested it.
Two small butts do not cook faster than one big one in any useful way. Heat travels in from the outside, so what governs is the thickness of each piece, not the total weight in the pit. Enter the weight of one butt, not the pair.
Pork butt stalls in the same 150 to 170F band as brisket, and wrapping cuts roughly twenty percent off. Because the finished product gets shredded, foil costs you far less here than it does on a brisket where the bark is the point.
The rest is shorter than brisket wants, thirty to sixty minutes, but pulling it straight off the pit is still a mistake. Give it long enough that the juices settle and you can handle it without gloves fusing to it.
What it assumes
- Bone-in, going on cold from the fridge. A boneless butt tied into a roast cooks slightly faster and yields differently at the portion stage.
- You are pulling it, not slicing it. That is what the 200 to 205F target is for. A butt taken to 145F is perfectly safe by USDA FSIS and completely impossible to shred.
- The pit holds temperature overnight. If yours drifts down while you sleep, plan against the long end of the range.
- Sea level unless you say otherwise. Pork butt stalls harder than almost anything, so altitude tells here: turn on local conditions and the estimate picks up the USDA adjustment, which on an already twelve-hour cook is not a rounding error.
Questions
Around 12 to 16 hours, plus rest. Wrapping at the stall pulls it toward the short end. This is the cook people start at 6am for a 6pm dinner and still finish late.
Related guides
How to Smoke a Pork Butt for Pulled Pork
The most forgiving big cut in barbecue. Hard to ruin, easy to serve, and the one to learn on before you touch a brisket.
How Much Meat Per Person for a BBQ? A Buying Guide
The number that catches people out is not the portion size, it is the yield. A packer brisket comes off the pit at roughly half what you paid for.