Put your favorite rub on the night before, cover in the fridge. Take it out about 1.5-2hrs before you start the smoker. Get the smoker to 225°-250° & let her rip. At about the 3-4 hour mark you’ll hit a temperature stall(the temp of the meat will stop rising at 155° to 170°). At this stage you can wrap it in foil or butchers paper & increase the temp of your smoker to 300°. That gets it out of the stall temp a little faster but not so fast that it’ll make the meat tough. You’re looking for an internal temperature of 199°-203°. When you hit that zone, remove it from heat & let it rest for at least 30 min. An hour is better, but, if you’re anything like me, you’re starving. All in all it should take at least 6 hrs of cooking time. Definitely a long day, but more time to tend to the smoker & enjoy several bowls of your favorite tobacco.
For anyone looking to get into smoking in a different way, check out Pit Barrel Cookers. Not large capacity, but easy to use and not expensive. It’s charcoal based but I don’t have room for a large, wood or pellet fueled unit. Love making pulled pork - it’s so easy and almost impossible to get wrong if you mind the temps and follow the recipes set out by the guy who invented the PBC.
I put the rub on them at least several hours ahead of starting, sometimes overnight. I use Cookshack brand Rib Rub, don't think there's anything special about it other than I can get it in 1-gallon containers. I cook at 225* to an internal temperature of ~195* it takes 10-15 hours. I normally start the smoker at 8 pm, that way they should be done first thing the next day, I don't change the cooking temperature at the stall. The nice thing about an electric smoker is that it requires little to no babysitting, IOW it happily cooks away while I'm sleeping. Remote reading thermometers will alert me if something goes off track. We let the finished butts rest for at least an hour before shredding and vacuum packing.
