Reheating Pulled Pork with a Sous Vide

Stoogie

My daughter's graduation party is this Saturday!  Every day since Sunday I have put 4 pork butts on my LBGE, pulled them and vacuum-sealed them.  She also wants a brisket done for her party and that will go on Friday evening.  

So the plan is to serve the brisket after a 4-6 hour FTC on Saturday and serve the pulled pork that's been reheated with the sous vide.

What temp does everyone heat their pulled pork to in the sous vide when doing something like this?  I've searched the forum for an answer but nothing has come up.  I thought that at one time someone suggested 145* but figured I'd check before leaping in to this.  Any thoughts?

Toxarch

I add a little apple juice to mine before vac sealing and freezing. I sous vide mine to 165 if eating pretty soon. 

Webass

I always set at 140 to reheat.  Meat's plenty hot. 

FanOfFanboys

sous vide really shines when it comes to reheating and thawing, great idea Stoogie

Carolina Q

I go 160°. Maybe @Webass is right though and 140° is fine. Never tried it. But yeah, SV is the solution to reheating pulled pork. Tried several other ways and it's SV, hands down!

MattBTI

I've reheated pulled pork in hot water, not with SV. Be careful not to get too hot as my experience ended in my vac bag seal coming undone and I had some nasty pulled pork "soup" that ended up getting tossed. 

Carolina Q

MattBTI said:

I've reheated pulled pork in hot water, not with SV. Be careful not to get too hot as my experience ended in my vac bag seal coming undone and I had some nasty pulled pork "soup" that ended up getting tossed. 

Did that, once, with BOILING water and a zip-lock. BAD idea! 160° and a good vac seal bag works fine.

jetman96

I reheat mine at 160 for 20 minutes. Be mindful of the thickness of your package, as a thicker bag will take longer to heat up.

jtcBoynton

I go with 140-145º.

marysvilleksegghead

I read somewhere that KFC uses 180° for keeping their food warm . . .

lkapigian

marysvilleksegghead said:

I read somewhere that KFC uses 180° for keeping their food warm . . .

Much safety factor im sure

cssmd27

My gosh, how many people are you serving?  That's what, 20+ butts plus a brisket?

To the point, we use 165, but the reality is, it doesn't matter much.  165 or below for a relatively short period of time (few hours) won't make any difference.  You're just warming it up and the sous vide allow you to do that without drying it out.  Perfect.

Just got back from St. John, USVI and we packed our SV and several packages of pulled pork for beach sandwiches.  Everyone loved them.

Stoogie

cssmd27 said:

My gosh, how many people are you serving?  That's what, 20+ butts plus a brisket?

To the point, we use 165, but the reality is, it doesn't matter much.  165 or below for a relatively short period of time (few hours) won't make any difference.  You're just warming it up and the sous vide allow you to do that without drying it out.  Perfect.

Just got back from St. John, USVI and we packed our SV and several packages of pulled pork for beach sandwiches.  Everyone loved them.

Yeah, exactly 20 butts.  The last 4 are about to be pulled this morning.  The SRF brisket showed up yesterday and is 16 lbs.  I didn't mention the pork belly burnt ends that are going to be done tomorrow morning after the brisket gets pulled.

When was the last time anyone on this board DIDN'T go big or go home?  We're expecting just short of 200 people.

Speaking of going big or going home, the dude at the liquor store tried talking me out of getting two half-barrels of Spotted Cow for this weekend.  I almost had to take my business elsewhere.  He grossly underestimates the drinking prowess of my family, neighbors and friends.  

I appreciate the responses, this will help quite a bit!

caliking

The SV temp depends on how long you plan to heat the bags. 

If you're planning on throwing them in the bath and holding them for some time, then 140F. If you're planning on reheating bags individually as needed, then 165F for 20 mins or so should be fine (depending on how thick each bag is). The morning of the event, you may want to do a trial run if using the higher temp/lower time method. 

You may also want to consider SV'ing the brisket then throwing it on the egg for a few hrs before the event. But you may not have time for that. 

Lastly, start the brisket a little earlier than planned, and FTC for a little longer in a well packed cooler. You don't want to be fretting over the brisket while the fun and festivities are in swing. 

Congratulations to your daughter. And please post pics of the shenanigans

hvhunter

I hosted a grad party this past Sunday. Tuesday evening, I picked up four shoulders, bone in; 47lb total.  Removed the skin, rubbed down. Wed morning I threw them into a Cookshack that I borrorwed. After 12 hours they were done; 190F.  Let them sit a couple hours, pulled, then into zip lock bags. Thurs morning I put into vacuum sealed bags; 23 lb total of pulled meat. Bagged 3- 5lb bags, 2 - 2.5 lb  bags, and 3 - 1 lb bags, and froze them. Sat around noon I moved them to the fridge. Sunday I put two of the 5lb bags and both 2.5lb bags into the SV at 140, was 1:30pm. We served at 4pm. The five lb bags could have been warmer. Luckily the 2.5lb bags were good to go. I removed the 5lb vacuum sealed bags, and moved the meat into zip locks, so the meat wasn't so densely packed. They heated up pretty quick after that, and it was all successful. Upon further review, I would have had the SV water preheated when I started. I also did five roasting chickens and two 7lb deboned lamb roasts on a spit. It was all good.   

lkapigian

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Love The Spit^^^^^^^^^^^^

hvhunter

The spit is totally bad@ss. Wish it was mine. The owner of is has a legit pit, lined with firebricks on the bottom and sides, and a peaked meat roof  with a vent. Sweet set up.  The transfer box is nice and small; 40 / 1.