How many butts can you smoke on a recteq rt700?

[Whodat]

Hi from south Louisiana. Was wondering how many butts you can smoke on a rt700. I have 9 to cook was wondering if I need to do 2 cooks. I do have the second shelf. I can raise it up by adding something to the bottom of the folding legs to give me the extra height. Any pointers I just got my bull a few weeks ago

 

[Waterboy]

I saw a picture on another forum that showed 8 on the main rack and 4 on the shelf. Don’t know how they cooked but they were in there! I wouldn’t pack that many in but from the looks of it 6 on the main rack and 3 on the shelf should be OK.

 

[SmokeZilla]

I’ll start with the obvious, how big are your butts? Now for the details. I have room for 6-6lb bone in butts without any touching or overcrowding. I dont purchase the water impregnated butts so they are pretty true to weight. I also have 2 small shelves and if I had to guess, there would be room for an additional four butts, at least. The one problem you may have is pulling them all off at the same time. One additional challenge is keeping the top shelf renderings from saturating the butts on the bottom shelf when you go to wrap them, you may not want to use peach butcher paper. Instead you may want to use aluminum foil. If using foil, I would pull them about 10-15 degrees lower since their temperature will continue to climb for quite a while after they are pulled and wrapped. One final tip is to make sure you can monitor the temps for each butt individually. I use the 2 RT700 built in probes and I have 2-4 channel Inkbird units. You would think the butts are similar enough to hit their stall temp around the same time but my limited experience revealed a range from 7 hours into the cook all the way up to 9 hours until some pushed through the stall. Once you find out how many you can fit can you let us know?

 

[Uncle Bob]

And speaking of renderings.................make sure you don't try to get so many in to have them hanging over the edges of the drip pan, which means you lose the outer inch+ all the way around. Second, monitor your drip bucket (assuming you have the drip pan in correctly) during the cook so it won't overflow. It will depend on how fatty your butts are, but these things can put off a lot of rendered fat. If you let too much fat go past the edges of the drip pan you'll have a fine mess to clean up in the bottom of the body.

 

[Whodat]

They butts are around 9lbs a piece. I’m probably going to do 2 cooks

 

[lowcountrygamecock]

I emailed support for rec teq and they sent me this chart to help me decide which grill to buy.

 

[cookingjnj]

About four years ago I had a very large cook. I do not recall how many butts it actually was, but I do remember the total weight was 70# of butt. I was using the full bottom shelf and the second shelf on my 680. Crazy thing, I also remember I could have put another 2 butts on the pit for an additional 18-20#. The cook did not take any longer than any of my "normal" butt cooks, and the PP came out fantastic. It was for a grad party and there was not a strand of pork left, so I guess folks liked it.
Now you have me thinking I might go back to see if I have any pics of that cook to share.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I emailed support for rec teq and they sent me this chart to help me decide which grill to buy.

View attachment 7062

Okay, we're, mostly all, fans of Recteq here for understandable reasons. That being said, some of the company's marketing techniques are of a dubious nature. For instance, you may have noticed on their website and FB pages they don't allow criticism of their products and edit out any feedbacks less than four stars (they used to only allow 5 stars).

I look at that chart and just have to laugh at the obvious attempt to oversell the 700. Some may not have given any thought to the numbering of various models, but to state the obvious, the number refers to the advertised square inch area of the cooking grate on each. So, for this thread we're comparing the 590 (just shy of 600 sq. in.) and the 700. Does anybody who invests just a few moments of thought think that 100 square inches of grate space will double the cooking capacity of one model versus the other as indicated in the first few examples on that list?

 

[Whodat]

Are you sure they talking about cooking grate are maybe that the 700 offers a shelt an the 590 doesn’t. I don’t know the answer just assuming

 

[Uncle Bob]

Are you sure they talking about cooking grate are maybe that the 700 offers a shelt an the 590 doesn’t. I don’t know the answer just assuming

You can get add on shelves for both. That chart doesn't reference those so you'd think they didn't intend that a reader would assume.

 

[Whodat]

I’ve seen a picture of a 700 with 6 butts on the cooking grate. Since I’ve posted this. With extra room to possibly fit on are 2 more. But not pushing it. I think I can raise the extra shelf an fit 3 there

 

[Greg Jones]

I agree with @Uncle Bob , that comparison chart is nuts! Some of their advertising is more realistic, for example if you go to their grill selector and click off the 340, 590, and 700 for comparison of all features, you get this with respect to capacity for ribs. It doesn’t say what type of ribs, but I suspect these numbers are accurate. Doesn’t help determine how many butts will fit though.

 

[SmokeZilla]

I have to say I think all sides are correct here. I’ve done some decent sized cooks on the RT700 and the wing count they show must be for sparrow or cornish hen wings. I have also seen a picture of the Bull with 14 racks of St. Louis style ribs on a custom made vertical rib rack. One value I see with any of the smokers is they can allow for a lot of flexibility if you are creative and customize your configuration. I have personally elected (sorry) to use 2 small racks turned sideways because the cook I was doing allowed for increased capacity beyond the single large rack’s capacity (I needed to have 4 butts on one side of the smoker.) One suggestion I have is for everyone to upload their setups so we can all learn together. Perhaps our first cook should include any paper that talks to the capacity of the grill as if it were an accurate or finite number.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[STPLE]

I did a large cook for a graduation party. Thought this may help some. I got 8 Costco boneless pork shoulders weighing 60.2 pounds total (precooked). I tied them up for more even cooking. They fit. It was tight. It was like a puzzle to get them not touching the walls and not touching each other (one or two mag have).
The cook went great. Guest arrived at 4pm. I put them on at 2:30pm the day before. 4 got done by 6:30am and the other 4 got done one after the other about an hour apart. The last one got done at noon. Perfect timing.
I put the shoulders in a cooler for as long as they would stay above 155. Once they got around that temp (a couple hours or more) I put them in the oven (set at 170) to hold them. Pulled them all at around 2:30pm (took an hour and half) and put them in crockpots.
They were perfect. I’m not scared of resting and holding - I’d rather rest and hold then hurry up and finish!!
Bottom line - the Bull cooked all 8 without a shelf no problem.

 

[BretM]

I don't have a picture, But I can fit nine 8 pounders...six on the bottom and 3 on the pull out upper rack I bought from Chad Peterson on here. I don't have a picture with butts, but here's the rack for reference.