Cooking Saturday / Eating Wednesday

Jonathan1970

Cooking two butts on Saturday, the only day I have enough time. We are not serving until Wednesday night. My question is should I go ahead and pull the meat and freeze, or refrigerate the whole butt and heat up Wednesday then pull and serve?


Thanks,

Jon

Duganboy

If it were mine I would pull it, add whatever sauce/rub you are going to then just cover with foil and put in the fridge.  Just like a stew or casserole the flavors will marry and it will be better on Wed than it would have been Saturday.

Take it out and heat it up in a 250 or so oven.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Pull when they are done, vac seal (if you can) and refrigerate. If you have a food saver, you can just reheat in the bags in warm/hot water for 30-45 minutes per bag. It will be like it came right off the egg.

If you don't have a food saver, Ziploc and reheat in water under 170 degrees. Ziplocs are officially not safe after 170 so do what you want with that (they don't melt, they can emit chemicals etc after 170). I heat mine at 120 degrees for an hour or so in foodsaver bags. 

Duganboy

I'm sure Cen-Tex method is great, but you will have great results by just covering tightly with foil.

I usually spray with a good cover of apple juice when I reheat in oven.

Jonathan1970

Thanks guys. I live on a street with 5 kids graduating High School next week. Based on my cooking reputation or just being the only one that would do it, I got drafted. I'm used to cooking for small groups , so I normally cook one 6 lb. butt. Saturday I have two butts. One 9 lb. and one 10 lb. I normally cook at 325 for 6 hours to get 190 degrees. I'm planning to cook all day, but have no idea when they will come off at 190. Any thoughts or predictions on cook time?

lousubcap

You obviously are in the "turbo butt" camp (search if you choose) but just take your hrs/# for the 6 # butt and extrapolate for the 9 and 10 # cook. I would sort out when all needs to be ready and back off by 3-4 hours when guesstimating the cook-time and work from there-you can always foil, towel and cooler til ready to pull. Remember-the above is an opinion-just like....

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Yep- the foil pan/oven thing works too. Did it for years. PP is so great because of it's resilliance. Easy to reheat and holds very well for hours under heat. How are you serving this for the party?

Jonathan1970

Pulled pork sandwiches for the party on Wednesday. I was planning to serve BBQ sauce as a condiment, not added to the meat.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

That's perfect. How are you going to keep it warm at the party?

Jonathan1970

Our neighborhood is used to throwing large parties, so I'm sure we have your typical wedding reception type serving trays to keep food warm.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Those work perfect. Make sure you know what size, what kind of pans, and most importantly, that you have plenty of fuel to keep them running. Go Put your hands on them and know what you are working with a few days in advance. Make sure you have all the parts and plenty of fuel. Good rule of thumb.....assume nothing. Your are the cook and it's your show.

Jonathan1970

I really appreciate the advice. This forum is great for EggHeads needing a little help. The plan for now is set my egg for 300/325 dome temp and cook all day Saturday. I'm not really worried about how long it takes because the serving day is Wednesday. I will also use the gap between cooking and serving to get familiar with the pans. Thanks again guys.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Perfect. Let us know if you have any questions.