Need advice on frozen whole picnic shoulder

walrusegger

I've got a whole picnic shoulder about 10 lbs that I caught on sale a couple weeks ago and froze. I'm thinking of cooking it for the Skins tailgate tomorrow. Is there time to thaw it and cook it by, say 1:00 tomorrow (26 hours from now)? How long is that sucker going to take to thaw out? Is there anyway to speed up that process? I should be able to speed up the cooking process by cooking it a little higher than normal, say 275-300 if I have to???

Any and all opinions, comments,etc...welcome.

boston_stoker

You can speed up the thaw by putting it in a cooler or sink full of warm tap water. Not too warm though. Also, you will likely have to replace the water every hour. Likely will take 6 hours I would guess, and that is the fast way.

It takes one to two hours per pound at 250. You could cheat and bump that dome temp up a little. May need to foil it at some point if you do.

Read this if you are inexperienced. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/elder.htm

walrusegger

Thanks. I just put it in a trash bag lined 5 gallon bucket (it's still in it's cryovac packaging) with warm tap as you suggested and will change every hour or so. If you're right, I should be able to get it on the egg by 6:00 or slightly thereafter, giving me roughly 18-19 hours to smoke which should be just fine. I'll try to remember to update my progress.

Happy New Year eggers! Here's to a nice smoke ring on your meat in 2011!

CBBQ

You don't need to thaw it. Just put it on about an hour sooner than you normally would. Fat softens much faster than meat and the high fat content in a butt allows them thaw out quicker. Your dome thermometer may stay a little low for a while longer because of the frozen meat. Just leave your vent settings alone and you'll be fine. I do it all of the time. On my big cookers I put thawed and frozen butts on together all of the time and they usually finish the same.

stevesails

wow! thank you for the insight. I saw butts on sale the other day. i was hesitant to freeze. but this has changed my mind.

CBBQ

When I get butts from suppliers like SYSCO or US Foods a lot of the time the ones in the middle of the case are still frozen. They go on with the rest of them. They are usually cryovac'd 2-to-pak. Even if they are frozen together they go on like that. As soon as the butts start cooking they drip fat and start shrinking and pulling away from each other.

NC-CDN

I agree with the BS. I mean Boston Smoker. I always buy them when they are on sale and throw them in the freezer if I'm not using them right away. Same as my ribs, chicken and whatever. If I need to thaw quickly I use the sink. As BS said, just replace the water and you are good to go. I don't like using too warm of water either, but since it's frozen it cools the water pretty fast anyway.

Have fun with your cook.

walrusegger

Followed your thawing instructions, worked great. Perfectly defrosted and now on the egg for an all night smoke!

Hoss

I would save it for a later date.I know I'm late responding ,but picnic CAN be the best cook you ever did,but NOT rushed.