What temperature is pulled pork done at?

200 to 205F internal, when the bone pulls clean and a probe meets no resistance. USDA FSIS sets the safe minimum for whole-muscle pork at 145F with a three-minute rest, but pork butt needs to go far past it for the connective tissue to break down.

Should I wrap a pork butt?

It helps more than it hurts. You lose some bark, which matters less on a cut you are about to shred and mix, and you gain a couple of hours and a more predictable finish time.

Can I cook pork butt hot and fast?

Yes. At 275F you are looking at closer to 60 to 80 minutes per pound and most people cannot tell the difference in the finished pork. Set the pit temperature above and the estimate adjusts.

How much pulled pork will it make?

Budget around 55 percent of the raw weight after bone, fat and moisture loss, so an 8 lb butt feeds roughly a dozen people at a third of a pound each. The portion planner does that arithmetic including the guest count.

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.

Cut

Pork butt / shoulder (pulled)

Weight

Pit temperature

°F

Recommended 225–275°FWrapping

Cook time

9h 36m – 12h 48m

At 225°F, wrapped

Rest

30m – 1h

Included in the clock above

Total, fire to table

10h 6m – 13h 48m

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.

Pull temperature200°Fto 205°F

Expect the stall150–170°F, around 5h 2m in

Wrap around6h 10m in

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.