Two bone-in pork butts · 19.8 lb / 9.0 kg (2 x 4.5 kg) · Insulated cabinet
Two pork butts, nine kilos, for forty servings
Two 4.5 kg bone-in butts cooked together in a cabinet at 120°C for fifteen hours, wrapped at 76°C and held four hours. The numbers here are for a crowd: yields, hold times, and how much meat to buy per head.
- Cook date19 Sep 2026
- Published23 Sep 2026
- Raw weight19.8 lb / 9.0 kg (2 x 4.5 kg)
- WoodApple
- CookerInsulated cabinet
Cook timeline
- 18:00 Both butts on, upper and lower grate, probes in both Two probes, two readouts, one log — a single probe on a two-butt cook tells you almost nothing Pit120°C Internal8°C +0m
- 20:00 Swapped the two butts between grates The lower grate runs 8°C hotter in this cabinet Pit120°C Internal41°C +2h
- 22:30 Nothing done Both within 2°C of each other after the swap Pit121°C Internal61°C +4h30
- 01:00 Stall on both, no action Four hours of stall between them; this is where a two-butt cook feels twice as long Pit120°C Internal70°C +7h
- 02:00 Both wrapped in foil, returned to the same grates Wrapped at 76°C to leave a wider bark window Pit122°C Internal76°C +8h
- 05:20 Upper butt probed; not ready Bone still resisted a quarter turn Pit122°C Internal91°C +13h20
- 06:15 Upper butt pulled, into the cooler Twenty minutes ahead of the lower one Pit122°C Internal96°C +14h15
- 07:00 Lower butt pulled and joined it Both held four hours before serving Pit122°C Internal96°C +15h
How much pork to buy
The working number is 250 g of raw, bone-in pork butt per person for a main course with two sides, and 350 g per person if pork is the only meat. That is 57% yield on a bone-in butt, so 250 g raw becomes about 143 g of pulled pork on the plate.
For forty people with sides, that is 10 kg raw. Here 9 kg raw went in and produced 5.1 kg pulled, which was enough with coleslaw, pickles and cornbread and would have been thin without them.
| Guests | Raw bone-in | Pulled yield | Per head |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 2.5 kg | 1.4 kg | 140 g |
| 20 | 5.0 kg | 2.9 kg | 143 g |
| 40 (this cook) | 9.0 kg | 5.1 kg | 128 g |
| 60 | 14.0 kg | 8.0 kg | 133 g |
Two butts cook slower than one
Nine kilos of cold meat in a cabinet absorbs a lot of heat, and the two pieces block the airflow across each other. This cook ran fifteen hours, against eleven and a half for a single 4.1 kg butt in the same class of cooker. Budget the extra time rather than discovering it at hour fourteen.
The grate position matters more than most people expect: the lower grate in this cabinet runs about 8°C hotter, and without a swap at hour two the lower butt would have finished half an hour earlier and dried out waiting.
- Two probes, one per butt, both logged
- Swap grate positions at hour two
- Chamber 120°C, no adjustment once stable
- One fuel top-up at hour seven for a cabinet this size
Holding for four hours without losing the meat
Pulled pork holds better than brisket because the fat content is higher and the target texture is shreddable rather than sliceable. Four hours in a dry cooler wrapped in foil and towels took the internal temperature from 96°C to 63°C at serving, which is still hot food.
The rule is: whole, wrapped, in a cooler. Once shredded, the clock is much shorter — shredded pork in a tray with a lid dries at the edges within 45 minutes and the only fix is more of the defatted stock stirred through.
| State | Maximum hold | Serving temperature | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole, wrapped, cooler | 5 h | 63°C | Unchanged |
| Whole, wrapped, 65°C oven | 8 h | 65°C | Slightly softer bark |
| Shredded, covered tray | 1 h 30 m | 55°C | Edges dry first |
| Shredded, uncovered | 30 m | — | Not worth doing |
Serving forty people without a queue
The practical sequence is to pull both butts at once, add back half the defatted stock, and hold the shredded pork in a 65°C oven in two trays with foil lids, not one. Two trays means the second one is still sealed when the first is half gone.
Sauce on the side in a jug. Buns, slaw and pickles on a separate table from the pork, so the line moves at the speed of the slowest item rather than the fastest.
- Pull both butts at once and combine before holding — separate trays of pork behave differently
- 150 ml of defatted stock per kilo of pulled pork, stirred in
- Two holding trays, foil lids, 65°C oven
- Sauce in a jug on the side; never pre-dress the tray
Cross-section notes
Two butts in a cabinet cooked slightly slower than one, because the second one blocks airflow across the first. The upper butt finished 35 minutes ahead of the lower. Both shredded with the same feel and both had a 8-9 mm ring.
- Stall
- 72°C
- Wrap method
- Heavy foil
- Wrapped at
- 8h 00m
- Pulled at
- 96°C
- Rest
- 4h 00m
- Score
- 4.5/5
Verdict: Cooking for forty people is a logistics problem wearing a barbecue costume. Two 4.5 kg butts give 5.1 kg of pulled pork, which is 128 g per person at forty servings — enough for a plate with sides, tight if pork is the whole meal.
Adjacent entries
6 Sep 2026
Skin-on pork picnic shoulder
Hickory
Ugly drum smoker
10.1 lb / 4.6 kg
Skin turned to leather; meat underneath was excellent4.2/5
9 Sep 2026
Bone-in turkey breast
Apple
Insulated cabinet
6.0 lb / 2.7 kg
Moist to the last slice, and it needed every degree of the brine4.6/5
