- Joined
- Sep 5, 2013
- Location
- Auckland, NZ
Hi there
I did a search for hot holding information. There was lots of useful stuff. I thought this might be useful for someone in an emergency, probably using the search as I did.
Had a small pork shoulder (about 15 lbs) finish much earlier than expected in an overnight cook, so decided to do a long hot hold (didn’t have sufficient ice for cooling). It was 5:30am and serving was 6:00pm. Having no insulated cooler with me, I could only wrap. Decided that if I could keep it at/above 160 for 10 hours, then that would be sufficient, because I understand you have 4 hours (total) in the 40-140 range (I was using the 140-160 as a safety buffer).
I would prefer to have taken the meat off at a slightly lower temp and let the hold do a bit more cooking, but then was conflicted because I didn’t want the meat to start its long hot-hold journey at too low a temp. Anyway, off at 205 (probed like butter). Wrapped in 3 layers of foil. Then in 4 towels (each going around twice, making sure sides were tucked in on each wrap). Then in a blanket, which had two layers and was taped to hold tight. Then into a snug cardboard box which I taped shut and then wrapped all in a thin duvet sans the cover (its summer here). Left inside in about 74F, out of any drafts. I had put an ordinary Maverick pit temp gauge between the foil and the first towel wrap. It started by reading 160. The reasoning in the temps went: The temp gauge won’t be showing the meat temp exactly, but the net change shown by the gauge will pretty well exactly match the meat because the meat is the only source of heat.
Temperature drops I recorded:
05:45 160
06:20 158 35 mins, 2 degrees loss
09:05 145 3h 20m, 15 degrees loss
10:35 138 4h 50m, 22 degrees loss
11:40 135 5h 55m, 25 degrees loss
13:45 129 8h 00m, 31 degrees loss
15:30 124 9h 45m, 36 degrees loss
At this point I had to pack up and be off to my son’s birthday bash. I kept wrapped until 17:45, when I unwrapped, pulled the pork and served. Meat was excellent and not mushy surprisingly, considering it didn’t stand/vent for more than 5 mins initially. Bad news, I forgot to take the Thermapen to the party, so wasn’t able to get an internal on the meat at the end of 12 hours this way.
The main purpose here though, is to show the rate of temperature loss when wrapped in this manner. I would believe the meat was about 200 when wrapped, so dropped (say) 40 degrees to about 160 in 10 hours. Estimate at 150-155 by the time it was opened, giving it another 4 hours to be served and just sit around waiting for people to have seconds.
Anyway, that was my experience – YMMV.
PS: One downside - explaining to my wife the reasoning behind my selection of towels, grabbed at random in the dark! At least I missed the white towels this time.
I did a search for hot holding information. There was lots of useful stuff. I thought this might be useful for someone in an emergency, probably using the search as I did.
Had a small pork shoulder (about 15 lbs) finish much earlier than expected in an overnight cook, so decided to do a long hot hold (didn’t have sufficient ice for cooling). It was 5:30am and serving was 6:00pm. Having no insulated cooler with me, I could only wrap. Decided that if I could keep it at/above 160 for 10 hours, then that would be sufficient, because I understand you have 4 hours (total) in the 40-140 range (I was using the 140-160 as a safety buffer).
I would prefer to have taken the meat off at a slightly lower temp and let the hold do a bit more cooking, but then was conflicted because I didn’t want the meat to start its long hot-hold journey at too low a temp. Anyway, off at 205 (probed like butter). Wrapped in 3 layers of foil. Then in 4 towels (each going around twice, making sure sides were tucked in on each wrap). Then in a blanket, which had two layers and was taped to hold tight. Then into a snug cardboard box which I taped shut and then wrapped all in a thin duvet sans the cover (its summer here). Left inside in about 74F, out of any drafts. I had put an ordinary Maverick pit temp gauge between the foil and the first towel wrap. It started by reading 160. The reasoning in the temps went: The temp gauge won’t be showing the meat temp exactly, but the net change shown by the gauge will pretty well exactly match the meat because the meat is the only source of heat.
Temperature drops I recorded:
05:45 160
06:20 158 35 mins, 2 degrees loss
09:05 145 3h 20m, 15 degrees loss
10:35 138 4h 50m, 22 degrees loss
11:40 135 5h 55m, 25 degrees loss
13:45 129 8h 00m, 31 degrees loss
15:30 124 9h 45m, 36 degrees loss
At this point I had to pack up and be off to my son’s birthday bash. I kept wrapped until 17:45, when I unwrapped, pulled the pork and served. Meat was excellent and not mushy surprisingly, considering it didn’t stand/vent for more than 5 mins initially. Bad news, I forgot to take the Thermapen to the party, so wasn’t able to get an internal on the meat at the end of 12 hours this way.
The main purpose here though, is to show the rate of temperature loss when wrapped in this manner. I would believe the meat was about 200 when wrapped, so dropped (say) 40 degrees to about 160 in 10 hours. Estimate at 150-155 by the time it was opened, giving it another 4 hours to be served and just sit around waiting for people to have seconds.
Anyway, that was my experience – YMMV.
PS: One downside - explaining to my wife the reasoning behind my selection of towels, grabbed at random in the dark! At least I missed the white towels this time.
