Meat Smoking Calculator: When to Start for Dinner on Time

Sets the published pit range and pull temperature.
Raw weight before trimming.
Only the temperatures published for this cut.
The moment you slice.

Pick a cut and a dinner time to see when the fire has to be lit.

Data updated September 2026.

Work backward from dinner, not forward from the fire. Take the published cook time for your cut, add a stall buffer for anything collagen-heavy, add rest, add 30 minutes of cushion, and count back from the hour you plan to slice. A 12-pound brisket at 225 degrees F sliced at 6:00 PM Saturday has to go on the pit at 8:00 PM Friday.

Barbecue grill with sausages and beef patties cooking; a red digital meat thermometer rests on the side, reading temperatures.
TempPro makes wireless thermometers that let you track meat, grill, and indoor-outdoor temperatures from a distance using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or RF probes, plus phone alerts so you can cook without hovering over the heat.

Smoke time, wrap point, pull temperature and rest

This is the whole planner in one table. Times and temperatures are from our own smoking times and temperatures chart. The stall buffer and the rest window are our planning allowances, and they are marked as such.

Cut Pit Cook time Wrap at Pull at Stall buffer Rest
Brisket, whole packer 225 to 250 F 1 to 1.5 hr per lb 150 F internal 200 to 205 F 2 hr 1.5 hr
Pork butt or shoulder 225 to 250 F About 1.5 hr per lb 160 F internal 195 to 205 F 2 hr 1.5 hr
Chuck roast, pulled beef 225 to 250 F 8 to 10 hr 160 F internal 195 to 205 F 2 hr 1 hr
Beef short ribs 225 to 250 F 6 to 8 hr Optional 190 to 200 F 1 hr 30 min
Spare ribs 225 to 250 F 5 to 7 hr About 3 hr in 180 to 195 F None 15 min
Baby back ribs 225 to 250 F About 5 hr About 2.5 hr in 180 to 195 F None 15 min
Whole turkey 225 to 275 F 25 to 30 min per lb Do not wrap 165 F breast, 170 to 175 F thigh None 20 min
Whole chicken 250 to 325 F 2 to 4 hr Do not wrap 165 F breast, 170 to 175 F thigh None 15 min
Pork loin 225 to 250 F About 4 hr Do not wrap 145 to 150 F None 10 min
Prime rib 225 to 250 F About 15 min per lb Do not wrap 130 to 135 F None 20 min
Tri-tip 225 to 250 F 2 to 3 hr Do not wrap 130 to 140 F None 10 min
Salmon fillet 200 to 220 F About 1 hr Do not wrap 135 to 145 F None None

Pull temperature is not the same thing as the safe temperature. USDA sets 145 degrees F plus a 3-minute rest for whole cuts of beef, pork and lamb, 160 degrees F for ground meat, and 165 degrees F for all poultry. Brisket and pork butt go far past the safe minimum on purpose, because that is where the connective tissue gives up.

How the planner does the math

Starting at the hour you slice and counting backward:

  1. Rest. Big cuts rest an hour or more, ribs about 15 minutes. Hold anything resting at 140 degrees F or above. Below that you are inside the danger zone, and the clock starts.
  2. Cook. The published time for your cut at your pit temperature. Where a cut has one published range across several pit temperatures, such as a whole turkey at 25 to 30 minutes per pound, the planner reads across that range: the slow end at the lowest pit temperature, the fast end at the highest. It never goes outside the published range.
  3. Stall buffer. Two hours for brisket, pork butt and chuck roast, one hour for beef short ribs, nothing for cuts that do not stall. This is our allowance, not a published figure.
  4. Cushion. Another 30 minutes, because pits run cold and lids get opened.
  5. Fire. Light 30 minutes before the meat goes on so the pit is settled and the smoke is clean.

Finishing early is a solved problem: wrapped, in a dry cooler, above 140 degrees F, a brisket holds for hours and gets better. Finishing late is not a solved problem.

A worked example, done by hand

A 12-pound packer brisket at 225 degrees F, sliced at 6:00 PM on Saturday, September 19.

  • Cook time at 1.5 hours per pound: 12 times 1.5 is 18 hours.
  • Rest 1 hour 30 minutes, so it comes off the pit at 4:30 PM Saturday.
  • Add the stall buffer and the cushion: 18 plus 2 plus 0.5 is 20 hours 30 minutes.
  • Counting back 20 hours 30 minutes from 4:30 PM Saturday: the meat goes on at 8:00 PM Friday, and the pit is lit at 7:30 PM Friday.
  • Wrap marker at 55 percent of the cook, about 5:54 AM Saturday. Wrap by temperature, not by that clock.
  • Start probing when the 18-hour estimate runs out, about 2:00 PM Saturday.
Pellet smoker with a brisket inside, holding at the stall during a long cook
The stall. The temperature stops climbing and the clock keeps running, which is exactly what the buffer above is for.

Questions people actually ask

What is the brisket stall?

Somewhere around 150 to 170 degrees F the internal temperature stops climbing, sometimes for hours. Moisture evaporating off the surface cools the meat as fast as the pit heats it. Nothing is wrong. You either wait it out or wrap to stop the evaporation.

When should I wrap?

By temperature: about 150 degrees F for brisket, about 160 degrees F for pork butt. The planner gives you a clock time for that, but treat it as a marker. The thermometer decides.

How long should a brisket rest?

An hour at the very least, and two to four is better if you can hold it above 140 degrees F. A wrapped brisket in a dry cooler will sit there most of an afternoon.

What if the cook runs long?

That is what the stall buffer and the 30-minute cushion are for. If you are past both, wrap it and raise the pit. Serving late is worse than a slightly tighter bark.

Can I smoke a brisket overnight?

That is exactly what the 8:00 PM start in the worked example is. Long cooks are overnight cooks. The planner will tell you when you have booked yourself one.

Does per-pound math work for ribs?

No. Ribs, poultry pieces and small roasts do not scale by weight in any useful way. The planner uses the published time window for those cuts and leaves the weight box alone.

More planning tools on Popular BBQ

Sources

Data updated September 2026. Every time here is an estimate. Temperature and probe feel decide when meat is done, never the clock.