Pitwright

FREE BBQ GUIDES AND COOK-DAY TOOLS

Plan your next backyard BBQ cook

Need the target temperature for a cut, or a timing range you can plan around? The guides and free cook-day tools are here when you need them. No account required.

Plan your cookoutRead the guides

Times help you plan. Check temperature and tenderness before pulling the meat, and use a thermometer during a hold.

TRY THE PLANNER

What time is dinner?

12 lb brisket and 8 lb pork butt. Change the time and the plan moves.

  1. Meat on: Brisket
  2. Meat on: Pork Butt
  3. Pull: Brisket
  4. Pull: Pork Butt
  5. Serve both
Brisket on 1:00 AMPull 4:00 PM
Illustrative curve. Pull when it probes tender, not at a number.
Build your own schedule
Smoked brisket with a dark bark being sliced on a wooden cutting board

Plan a cook in three steps

Look up the target, build the schedule, and print the plan.

  1. Find the number

    Each guide gives the doneness target for a cut and the tenderness cue that overrides it.

  2. Plan the cook

    The Cookout Planner works backward from serving time for every cut on the pit.

  3. Print your timeline

    Print the schedule and keep it next to the pit. It's free.

Plan the long cooks

How long brisket and ribs take, plus a first smoke from start to finish.

A sliced smoked brisket on a wooden board with a visible smoke ring, beside a small pot of sauce and pickled peppers

How Long to Smoke a Brisket: Per-Pound Times That Add Up

Plan about 75 minutes per pound at 225 to 250°F: a 12 lb packer runs about 15 hours. Per-pound times, why small flats break the rule, and when to start.

Read the guideTwo racks of glazed smoked ribs on a smoker grate

How Long to Smoke Ribs (Baby Back, St. Louis, and Spare)

Baby back ribs smoke in about 4 to 5 hours, spare or St. Louis in 6 to 7, at 225 to 250°F. The timing by cut, the 3-2-1 method, and how to test for done.

Read the guideBrisket pieces with dark bark on the grate of an offset smoker, smoke rising under the open lid

How to Use a Smoker for the First Time

Learn how to run your first smoke: choose a forgiving cut, hold 225–250°F at grate level, expect the stall, check doneness, and rest before serving.

Read the guide

Want one complete printable cook-day plan?

Each Command Pack covers one cut from shopping list to slicing: prep, timing, target temperatures, and what to do when the cook goes off-script. 7 packs in the series.

Whole Turkey Command Pack cover: BBQ Command Pack No. 05, a whole turkey at 12 to 16 pounds, indirect grill at 300 degrees, a 7 hour worked plan, dinner at 6:00 PM

NO. 05 · POULTRY

Whole Turkey Command Pack

Plan turkey dinner around a cold brine, a 300°F indirect grill, and breast, thigh, and wing temperature checks.

  • Shopping and equipment, two days out: the bird and the brine
  • The brine and the prep: 24-hour brine, 24-hour dry, plus a shorter refrigerated brine option
  • Indirect-grill timeline keyed to a 6:00 PM dinner at 300°F
  • Milestones: 165°F breast, thigh, and wing minimum; about 175°F thigh for texture
$9.9916 pages · printable PDF
See the packBrowse all packs

Dinner's at six. When does the meat go on?

Plan your cookout