Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Hello all, I'm looking for some advice.

I am having a end of summer party and I'm planning on loading up my brand new 640 to smoke some briskets and pork shoulders.

I have 3 brisket (flats)
6 lbs
5 lbs
8 lbs

And 3 Boston butts
8.5 lbs
9 lbs
11 lbs

In a perfect world I would love to have everything finish by 2-2:30 3 pm tops so I can be ready for the party to start at 4.

I know I should cook more to temp than time but if everyone out there can give me some start times I should put the meat on would be very appreciated.

Thanks so much

Just my opinion but I always feel comfortable leaving my meat to rest wrapped in butcher paper and a blanket in a cooler for upwards of 4 hours. So if I was wanting to eat no later than 4pm, I would target anything between 12-3. In your case, I would probably put things on around 10 or 11 pm the night before as your briskets are the flats and normal size. Maybe then put the shoulders on sometime early A.M.

I look forward to reading others answers as well. Lots of great cooks on this forum. Let us know how it turned out (and what times you went with)

Brisket is 10+ hours usually, go for 13 just in case. Some take longer to get right. Then at least an hour in a cooler to reabsorb the juices.

Butts 9lb+ 10-12 hours. They need 2 hours in the cooler to finish getting perfect.

And both of these meats can stay for 4 hours in the cooler staying warm/hot just fine. So get done early you'll be fine.

So for a 4 PM eat time, I'd fire the smoker up at 9:30 PM and toss the meat on at 10PM. Monitor for 30 min, go to bed. Up at 3:30 to check/rotate meat, maybe even pan the butts or wrap the briskets. Butcher paper is the best thing to wrap briskets in. Buy a roll of un-coated pink butcher paper on Amazon.