Keeping the Integrity of the Meat

Mckeanksu

I am cooking 70+ lbs of pork butt for Saturday and need to split it into 3 cooks on my large egg.

What is the best way to keep the meat moist for 2-3 days before serving?

I know it won't be perfect, but I'm looking for any ideas.

SGH

When are you going to start the cook if I may ask?

Mckeanksu

@SGH‌ I am going to start cooking on Thursday morning, so the first batch will sit for 40 hours or so. I should probably start today. Any idea how many butts can fit on a large egg? I have a second shelf, but I'm not sure it's high enough to clear the first row of butts.

I've done 10+ over the years but never this much at the same time

SPRIGS

You should be fine.  I just made 38 lbs of butt for my son's football team.  I made the butts 3 days before hand.  Pulled the butts and mixed in a little thinned down sauce.  When it cooled, I packed the pulled pork into ziplock freezer bags and got as much air out of the bags as I could.  Stored in the fridge.  The day of the get together, I brought a bunch of water just to boil and poured that in a large cooler.  I then placed the ziplock bags in the cooler of hot water to slowly reheat the meat. Turned the bags over after an hour.  Opened the bags, dumped the hot pulled pork into a large roaster that was on warm and then served.  

Not as good as the day of the cook but still darn tasty!  If you have a Foodsaver that would work better than Ziplock bags but I used what I had.

SmokeyPitt

If you have a foodsaver I would recommend that.  If no foodsaver, I would just use large zip-loc bags and try to get the air out.  One trick is to put meat int he bag and lower it into a container of water up to the seal when sealing it.  You could consider freezing the first batch but I think it should keep in the fridge fine for 5 days if you seal it well and get the air out. 

I have seen people cook 40 lbs of butt on a large on two levels.  If you are using the plate setter it helps if you have the new style fire ring with the notches because this drops the platesetter and grid lower in the egg to give you more room on top.

tulocay

I have a large and cook on two levels. I use the grid extender from the group buy last year. I have put 3 butts on the bottom and 2 on top at the same time. They were all in the 7 lb range. Cooked 250 dome for most of the cook. Triple wrapped in HDAF towards the end. They came off between 21-23 hours. Best pulled pork I ever made.

SGH

@Mckeanksu‌
I just saw your response my friend. I'm in a stupid safety class until 5:00pm. I will be home around 6:30pm. If you need advice or have questions please feel free to call me. I talk much better than I type. My name is Scottie. #228-627-5400.

Mckeanksu

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help! I am starting tomorrow morning and think I can get 3 on at a time. I'm going to take the recommendations of using a bag to get the air out. Disappointed it won't be same day, but 60 people requires different cooking!

SGH

You absolutely can get 3 on the large egg. Just some friendly advice. Line both the forward and aft 4 inches of the cooking grid with HDTF to force the natural convection to rise from the port and starboard sides of the egg. This gives you total control over scorching the outer edges of the pork. By doing this you can get 3 butts in line from forward to aft. Don't get impatient and and try to over load. I assure you if you sit a butt over the area where you have redirected the convection that it will result in scorching. Good luck my friend. I hope that your cook is a overwhelming suc

Mckeanksu

I was able to get my 2nd tier just above the bottom butts. Thanks for the advice!