First large butt cook...cook and reheat?

HuskerMan

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Wahoo,Ne
Doing what I would classify my first truly large butt cook this weekend. Total of about 20 butts for roughly 178#. The meat is needed Saturday by around Noon.

Best to cook it all fresh and target it to finish early in the Saturday AM...OR...cook to finish the butts Friday evening to reheat Saturday AM?

Was hoping to cook in tinfoil pans but not sure that will be feasible due to space constraints.
 
You're going to get a lot of answers both ways. We actually need more info. What are you smoking the butts with. What sort of reheating or holding capacity do you have? Are you pulling the butts? If so when? Do you have to deliver/travel etc?
 
I agree with Smoking Aussie, especially if the reheating equipment / capacity is unknown.


In the final stages of cooking pork butts, I boat (pan) them rather than foil them. To the pan I add 1 cup of apple cider / juice and 1 teaspoon of rub and then cover the pan.

When the bone just begins to wiggle I remove the pans from the cooker and then place them in the cambro / cooler and allow them to rest about 4 hours.



After the rest, I separate the drippings and refrigerate them for a few minutes. The fat will solidify on the top and some of it can be scraped off. I leave about 30% of the fat to maintain flavor, but not enough to have a grease bath. I pull the pork in the pan removing any undesirable large pieces of fat, cartilage, or membrane tissue. I then toss the meat in the juices of the pan to evenly coat all parts of the meat as well as to evenly distribute the bark. When the pork as started to cool down I then add up to 1/2 more cup of apple juice to the pan, cover it tightly, and refrigerate for several hours.

When chilled the juices will become gelatinous and will bond the pulled pork into a soft flexible block. Turn the pan upside down on your prep table or large cutting board and the meat separates from the pan.

Simply slide the rectangular block of meat into a gallon sized vac-seal bag, and properly vacuum seal the bag. These become flattened rectangular packages of meat weighting 4.5 - 5 pounds each which stack well in the freezer. I keep the weights consistent and even add extra to bring the weight up to the desired level. This helps to keep calculations on target when reheating for a large group. Because they are vacuum packed they will also keep very well for awhile in the freezer.

About 30 hours before the meat is to be served, I move it from the freezer to the refrigerator to slowly thaw. Thirty minutes before serving time, I bring a stock pot filled with water to a rolling boil. I put 2 packages per pot and move the burner to a low setting. After a few minutes I turn and rotate the bags of pork. Usually at the 15 minute mark the pork is thoroughly heated. Cut the bags open in put the pork in half sized foil pans and place in chafing rack with sterno under the water pan. Repeat this process if more bags are to be used.

The pork is very moist when served and tastes like it just came out of the smoker.

Vac-sealing the pork with the de-fatted drippings and/or apple juice then freezing it is by far the best method I have used.

Remember the pork is already fully cooked, so keep in mind that water boils at aprox 212° depending upon your elevation above sea level. Just gently heat the sealed bags of pork in the water, don't cook it. Boiling it in the package will further cook the pork, as will a crockpot. I get my best results by thawing the packages in the refrigerator 2 days before serving. I take a pot of water, bring it to a boil, then turn off the burner. Once the burner is off, drop the vac-sealed package into the pot of hot water and let it sit for 15 minutes before serving.

The pork is already fully cooked, you only need to bring it to a safe serving temperature of 145°, not to further cook it to a higher temperature.

I do this with many large cooks for My American Legion, VFW, and school fund raisers. I also keep 4 or 5 packages in the freezer for last minute gatherings and unexpected guests. For quick last minute thaws immerse the vac-packages in a sink of cool water for 30 minutes to fully thaw, then drop into the pot of hot water. This prevents the outer portion from cooking while the inside is still thawing.

I also find that using large 15 X 18 vac-seal bags and making the pork as flat as possible before sealing will allow even thawing and reheating.
 
You're going to get a lot of answers both ways. We actually need more info. What are you smoking the butts with. What sort of reheating or holding capacity do you have? Are you pulling the butts? If so when? Do you have to deliver/travel etc?

Probably use a combination of my ys640 and assassin 24. As far as holding goes I have two Cambro 400 boxes and multiple coolers if needed. I will be pulling the butts and the exact timing dependent upon when I cook. It will be about a 10 minute drive once I leave to get to the destination.

Right now I’m leaning towards cooking half Friday and the other half overnight Friday into Saturday AM. The butts need to be finished and delivered around 12.
 
IamMadMan has excellent advise above. I don't have access to everything so I tend to not reheat if I can avoid it. I aim for pulling butts 4 to 5 hours before go time (provides some buffer for stubborn ones), double wrap with foil and put in a cooler with towels. This way I'm not stressed about timing and I can pull butts onsite as needed. I realize this approach won't work in all situations, but has worked well for me doing 10 to 12 butts for fundraisers...etc.
 
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