How much longer does this take vs doing one? Also, I’ve always been against doing them on a pan like that thinking they wouldn’t get enough smoke, this untrue?
Great question!
Doing 4 butts absolutely took longer. Although I did a single butt on Sunday and I had to rush it (higher heat than I normally run to finish it) to get it done in 12-13 hours, including butcher paper wrap at 160F IT. It still turned out amazing though.
The 4 butts at once picture -- it was a couple years ago so I am going off memory -- I think one of them was done around normal time (~12 hours) but at least two of them took about 16 hours or more, and again I think at the end I was like "THIS IS ENOUGH" and I cranked up the heat to git-r-dun. It was significantly longer than normal. I was smoking for a big event so that's really the reason for that situation.
Normally I try to do two butts at once since smoking just one thing seems like a wasted opportunity -- eat one and put the other in the freezer. And two butts, or one butt plus some chicken or whatever -- that's no extra time at all.
Smoking on the pan -- as you can see I bought pans with grates in them so I can keep airflow going all around the meat still. I spray the grates and pan with non-stick oil and put parchment paper on pan to try to ease clean-up. Cleaning those grates is THE WORST JOB but I figure it's far better than greasing up my pellet grill.
I've never been disappointed with the smoke flavor I get, but with a pellet grill I think you do naturally get slightly less than a true smoker. I did buy a smoke tube but I've never taken the time to try it out. Now I just use Mesquite pellets (with a little Pecan or Cherry or Apple) for everything but chicken to try to naturally get the smoke flavor up.
Here's an image of the pulled pork from that same 4-butt day:
Here are a couple different briskets, one has an awesome smoke ring on the flat, the other a little less:
