Grabbed a few of the $0.97/lb pork butts from HEB around thanksgiving cause I couldn't pass it up, and I smoke them somewhat regularly throughout the year. Probably have done 15-20 over the last 5 years or so. All have been great, but had a weird experience with this one.

Thawed it out and had it on the counter yesterday for a few hours. Coated it with mustard and seasoning like always and put it in my small Pit Boss, Thermapro said internal temp was 55F. This was at 3:30pm.

I wasn't worried about how long it was going to take as I planned to get up in the middle of the night to pull it off and let it rest in the cooler. This was a 10lb pork butt, and instead of the usual ~1/lb, this thing took 15 hours to get to 200F.

Question is, does that seem odd? Was it cause I started at 55F? Have done that before and it didn't take near this long. Not too worried about it, looks amazing and the temp probe went in like hot butter.

Any chance the center was still frozen when you put it on?

Yeah I'd think the same thing, may not have actually been thawed all the way.

I picked up one of those sale pork butts a couple weeks ago that's in the freezer, and wondered how long it would need to thaw.

Definitely wasn't frozen as I had thawed it the day before and left it in the freezer overnight.

Probe was in all the way when it said 55F.

It took a long time to thaw, will definitely let it thaw for a day or two in the fridge next time.

I'd think like the earlier posts that the center and near the bone were still partially frozen. Even leaving on a counter for 2-4 hours, a 10 pound butt isn't going to be thawed all the way.

It also may have just been a fluke, every piece of meat is different and maybe it just cooked slower. Your pit temp might have been a bit lower than you thought. Tons of small variables can add up like that.

On the thawing, you are much better off thawing slowly in the fridge vs quickly on the counter. It takes some planning but pull it out 3-4 days in advance and let it thaw in the fridge. The quote from Dr Savell in A&M's meat science dept I always remember is: "freeze fast, and thaw slow", it'll help the meat structure at the cell/molecular level.

Outdoor temp?

Gonna take a little longer than a summer cook.