Cambro & holding Pulled Pork - HELP!!!

We pull and place in restaurant pans, add in au jus (saved from the cook), wrap tightly with clear plastic wrap and load in Cambros. The plastic wrap aids in moisture retention and keeps the juices from spilling inside the Cambros. We have found that foil doesn't really help much since the Cambros are so well insulated. If reheating on site we take foil along and switch out the clear wrap for reheat process.

As to length of time to hold in Cambro that depends on temp of product when placed in the unit and how many times you open the unit. Cambro has specs on how much temp loss you should experience per hour.

EDIT: Your model specs out at ~11 deg drop in 4 hours (assuming left closed for that length of time).

Try to keep the pork in bigger chunks if possible, then break it up when you serve it. This helps quite a bit in keeping it moist. And definitely add some jus from the cook, or apple juice to each pan.

pull as normal, add sauce / juice and put back in cooker, as you lost lots of heat pulling. Get temp back up to 160 / 170 and I leave the plastic wrap on for re-heat, I have two 400 and put meat in cambro at noon and serve at 6..still 150 plus...just fluff it up!

BigBellyBBQ said:

pull as normal, add sauce / juice and put back in cooker, as you lost lots of heat pulling. Get temp back up to 160 / 170 and I leave the plastic wrap on for re-heat, I have two 400 and put meat in cambro at noon and serve at 6..still 150 plus...just fluff it up!

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BB, The plastic wrap doesn't melt?? We have never tried that. That sure would save some time and foil for us. I guess I never checked on the temp limits of plastic wrap.

I usually heat it, add some juice to the pans and put it in disposable foil pans with crimped lids. I preheat the cambro by pouring in a boiling put of water into a full size pan and slide it into the bottom and close it up tight. I keep the pans in the oven on warm until ready to go, open the cambros and put the disposable half pans 2 each into a full size stainless pan, slide them in and close up tight. I've had them be still to hot to touch 7 hours later easily.

My boxes are Carlile but comparable to a UPC400 and I leave butts whole in the warmer and I can fit 12 butts in one hot box. If I don't open it they are good in there for 8-10 hours easy.

I'm with HBMTN, keep them whole as long as possible. This does to things, conserves heat and keeps moisture in the butts. Once exposed to air both are lost.

the plastic wrap works good, depends on mood I am in...but I use foil first then roll the plastic around the whole tin. When you go to events or do a hot drop off this works real good. Get all your work out of the way, as I pull and clean the pork of the "smagma" If the butts are whole you just dont have the time later....get them pulled, juiced or even add sauce and wrap up. This also works real good if you have to freeze for a few weeks...The pork will NEVER be dry...Here a little tip I do... if I am doing 20 butts, all the butts are always injected however I will put 2 or 3 in a tin to catch the juice, then seperate the juice from the fat and add a couple laddels into each tray.
When you pull prepared tray out of the cooker, just poke you temp probe thru the foil, place directly into cambro..and before serving fluff it up...You will be very happy you got all this work out of the way..
I have two big parties to do this weekend and all my butts will be cooked, pulled and wraped on friday...The mess cleaned up, dished washed and just have to head out..If I am doing a small party, say 5 or 6 butts, then I will do it on site..

When i did high volume catering as a chef we would wrap the hotel pans in plastic wrap them wrap in foil. You can reheat if needed with the plastic wrap and foil on the pans. A cambro will hold temp for a long long time, just make sure the meat stays above 145. You may want to invest in hotel pan size electric food warmers for service time.