more meat in smoker means longer cooking times?

[hackneybbq]

Hi guys,

i have 20 people round tomorrow for the wife's birthday.

planning on smoking 3 pork butts, 3 chickens, and around 10kg's of baby backs.

i usually smoke in a 220-235 degree range.

rough times i was working to was 8 ish hours for the pork butts
5 hours for the baby backs - im not going to bother foiling them
3.5 - 4 hours for the beer can chickens

each of those times have worked out ok when cooking smaller quantities in the WSM, but ive never had so much inside it before.

do i need to adjust the cooking times up when cooking more meat? was planning on using rib racks for the ribs - does this change the cooking times?

any suggestions as to smoking strategy? will the pork butts be over smoked if i add more wood chippings each time i put in another type of meat? was planning on using apple chips.

all advice will be greatly received

[Toby]

You will need to up the cooking time considerably. 8 hours is a short time for single pork butt (acepting different weights), you can always hold your pork by pouring some boiling water into a cool box to warm it, wrap the pork, it will hold at a good temp for hours.

i would consider putting the pork on much earlier, try finishing that before you cook the other meats. Also make sure all of your meat is upto room temp before putting it on the smoker. If you load that qty of chilled meat, it will add additonal hours to your cook time.

[RobinC]

If you load the cooker up then yes it will take longer. I've never done a butt in 8 hours at that temp. I'm typically smoking an 8lb butt for 12+ hours.

I do a lot of overnight cooks these days. Tonight I will smoke 2 butts and 2 hams. The meat will go on sometime between 11 and midnight - aiming for an early afternoon lunch.

As Toby says you can hold the butt for hours

[hackneybbq]

thanks guys, will set the butts to go overnight as suggested.

my mrs is going to be over the moon if the alarm on the maverick goes off at 3am!