I was asked how many pork butts I could smoke earlier this week. I have a standard size Cabela’s pellet grill and I know I could easily fit 2. I committed to two but said I might be able to fit 3 if needed. They brought them over yesterday, and what they were calling 2 butts were really 2 double packs of boneless butts, each 7 pounds.

My grill is 4 years old and it has some issues. It won’t get up to temperature and I can’t figure out why. I’ve done a couple of briskets lately that have turned out ok, so I figured I’ll at least get them smoked overnight. I checked them this morning and the grill never got above 170, the meat was 135.

I decided they had enough smoke to taste ok after I wrap them and put them in the oven. I have two large foil trays that barely fit in my oven so I put two butts in each and set the oven to 250. This is around 9 this morning. I mow the lawn and come back in to find the oven is smoking. I must have scraped the foil tray and the foil around the meat has leaked. So I pulled them out, put one tray on a cookie sheet, put that on a lower rack, then left the other tray on the upper rack. The meat is still only 170 and I am supposed to have it to 200 and rested by 5 tonight. I cranked the oven to 300, but I don’t know if there’s time.

In the meantime, the small house is filled with smoke, so we have windows opened. We don’t have screens, so we have so many flies in here. I’ve been killing them the last hour, but it’s a losing battle. On top of it all, I developed some nasty cough over the last 24 hours and I’m probably going to get the meat there, then come home.

Sorry brothers and sisters, I tried.