should i refrig or freeze the butts
 

i'm cooking 5 butts for a party saturday. i'm cooking the today , tonight or tommorrow. should i refrige or freeze till saturday afternoon. i know i've kept cooked butts in the fridge for a week but thats about max for me. i want the meat to be as good as it can be. what you guys think. thanks, wheels.

If I was doing it, I would pull the meat, vacu-suck it and keep it in the fridge. Of course, that would be for my personal use.
If I was cooking for a group I might freeze it.

I would and have frozen right after i cut it up. than thaw and reheat the day you will be eating it. If it was only a day or two i would fridge it but any more than that put it in the freezer.

has anyone ever tried freezing a cooked butt whole, then thaw, rewarm and pull at a later date? I've always wondered how that might work.

i should have been a little clearer. i would like to leave them whole till the party. i have put cooked whole butts in the fridge and reheated them and they seem to be as good or better than the day they were cooked. i'm just not sure if 4 days is a little too long for the fridge.

I agree! I don't like to take any chances when it comes to feeding others.

I wouldn't, I think it's going to take a real long time to bring it back up to temp. I usually pull it when it's done and then cryo-suck and freeze it even if it's just for a couple of days. Get a turkey frier and just fill it with water to re-heat... Makes like real simple!

This is the easiest way to do them.:-D Less time and work later to get everything ready.:-D

Yep - that is usually what I do - freez the whole thing. Works out just fine, but it does take longer to reheat but I haven't noticed any loss of goodness.

Thanks. I'll cook two the next time and freeze one. How do you cool them prior to freezing? I was thinking let it air cool to where you can comfortably touch it and then into the frig for a while, then to the freezer, then vac-bag it and into the deep freeze. How are you doing it?

I love pulled pork, but I have never liked the pulled pork reheated. To me it seems to loose some of it's original goodness. It's soooo good fresh off the pit. That's when I thought of freezing it whole.

Once I pull them I will cooler them for a while and then into the fridge - if I am really motivated I will vacume seal as soon as they are cool and right into the freezer. We reheat the whole thing in the oven @ 225 then pull and serve.

Thanks!

I generally don't like to 'air-cool' any meats for a couple of reasons...

First and foremost you are leaving the meat in a bacteria friendly temp zone... Again, I always worry about others that may eat my food...

Second, I would think that this would give the meat a chance to dry-out more than if it was cooled quicker...

I normally take the meat out of the cooler, put it on a pan and put it into the freezer for about half an hour to get it chilled as quickly as I can. I then do the cryo-suck thing and it goes back into the freezer for storage.

I agree that there is no better pulled pork than right off of the pit. If you haven't tried the cryo-suck, freeze, boiling water to re-heat, do so. You would be amazed how the flavors have blended. I really try to avoid the microwave for re-heating meat, especially pulled pork. IMHO it just turns it into smoked pork mush...