To Freeze or Frig Pork Butts

CaptainJimmy

I'm doing my daughter's baptism in July. The party is on Sunday at noonish, but there will be people here all weekend, and I'm not sure I have time to babysit an overnight cook for butts so they are fresh. I planned on doing 6-7 racks of st louis ribs in the V rack the morning of the party.

I could PROBABLY cook it on saturday and rest, pull and then refrig it, but then that leaves me with having to tend the egg all day, as I figure it will take me about 12+ hours to finish 2 boston butts. And then I STILL need to frig the whole thing.

1) I have some time during the week to do a butt and either frig it or freeze it. I'm looking for a WOW factor for my que- like I get when it's fresh - but does butt freeze or frig as good as when it's fresh and hot?

2) for extra long cooks, I've hear people full the lump up to the top of the fire ring. Is this correct? I've never done any cooks longer than 5 hours yet in the egg - i've done longer cooks in my gas smoker but i'm new to the egg still. I'm using royal oak paraguayan.

I guess I could always re-heat in the egg with a little extra smoke. Any help is appreciated.

bubba tim

You need another Egg and a BBQ GURU. That is the ultimate remedy. I don't freeze Que, so I can't help you there. Reheat tends to dry ribs out when you reheat them. Experiment and see what works for you affair.
Good Luck

CaptainJimmy

bubba tim wrote:

You need another Egg and a BBQ GURU. That is the ultimate remedy. I don't freeze Que, so I can't help you there. Reheat tends to dry ribs out when you reheat them. Experiment and see what works for you affair.
Good Luck

ribs will be served fresh. its the butts i want to reheat

Misippi Egger

Cap'n,

I had a similar dilemma last week. I cook a 9# butt all day Thursday (15 hours), then pulled it, placed in frig covered with plastic wrap. Saturday I added about 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup apple juice to the meat, sealed it in aluminum foil and place in low oven for about an hour +. The guests couldn't tell it wasn't cooked fresh.

Note: Some on here advocate adding 1 can of Coke Classic for every 2-3 # of pulled meat when re-warming. Apparently the coke flavor is lost in the pork flavor. I have an aversion to adding an extra 240 calories of sugar per can to an already calorie-rich meal, but that's just me.

Good luck with it and let us know what you do and how it turns out!

Gator Bait

Hi Jimmy,

Welcome to the forum, a little late.

My last low n slow I had lump piled so high my plate setter was sitting a little crooked, I had it a hair higher then the top of the fire ring and it was fine. When it burned down the plate setter leveled out.

I freeze leftovers all the time. What I have noticed is that on some cooks the smoke flavor is stronger on the leftovers. If I was going to freeze BBQ I would hold back on the extra smoke.

Good Luck!

Gator

crabby

Did pork butt Saturday, pulled and refriged. Sunday, I put in a crock pot set to warm. Added the saved defatted pan juices. Was as good as fresh.

AZRP

I put pulled pork in foodsaver bags, vacuum seal them, and freeze. I reheat them in boiling water for about 20 minutes and they taste as if they just came off the Egg. -RP

Unknown

If you have, or can get a hold of a foodsaver then I'd do exactly what AZRP said to do. I do it all of the time.
I had two large functions earlier this month where I cooked 20 butts. I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put in cooler with ice to get the temp down faster. Then I froze them. I thawed them a couple of days beforehand, broke apart the main chunks and reheated them in covered pans at 350. About an hour later I pulled them. They were very moist.

CaptainJimmy

thanks a bunch guys. I have a foodsaver but rarely use it ...its kind of a pain to get a good seal on mine.

I'll definately pull it and refrig or freeze in foodsavers.

emilluca

If your food savor model has a slow or fast setting use the fast setting. Slow setting on mine does take what seems forever to seal. Fast does much better. It also has a wet dry setting.
E