Leftover Full Pork Butt, Advise For Freezing Wanted

dbCooper

Short back story... Friday evening I provided two butts for a Celebration Of Life gathering.  One was pulled and served, the second was FTC'd and ended up not needed.  It was to have been given away but still sits in my fridge, it needs to get in the freezer.

Ideally I'd like to split it into 3 or 4 portions.  Unsure if it should all be pulled first or if I'll be ok cutting into 3 or 4 chunks?  Any thoughts?

*This is about a 8 pounder and boneless.  First time ever doing boneless and won't do that again.

caliking

If you have a vac sealer, shouldn't make that much of a difference freezing it pulled vs chunks. I prefer to freeze it pulled, because it flattens out well , and is easier to keep organized. 

nolaegghead

caliking said:

If you have a vac sealer, shouldn't make that much of a difference freezing it pulled vs chunks. I prefer to freeze it pulled, because it flattens out well , and is easier to keep organized. 

I agree with this, however if it's already refrigerated it will be a lot harder to pull without heating up.  I guess you could chop it up cold.

Carolina Q

You could vac seal it in chunks. Freeze or refrigerate depending on how long it'll be before you'll be eating it. When ready, defrost as many chunks as needed. Then, use a KitchenAid mixer to pull. Makes short work of turning cold chunks into pulled pork. Pay attention, it's easy to over-pull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEX5coddlUs

YukonRon

dbCooper said:

Short back story... Friday evening I provided two butts for a Celebration Of Life gathering.  One was pulled and served, the second was FTC'd and ended up not needed.  It was to have been given away but still sits in my fridge, it needs to get in the freezer.

Ideally I'd like to split it into 3 or 4 portions.  Unsure if it should all be pulled first or if I'll be ok cutting into 3 or 4 chunks?  Any thoughts?

*This is about a 8 pounder and boneless.  First time ever doing boneless and won't do that again.

I portion out pulled pork into 1 pound packages. I do this by taking the pulled pork, place in a 1 gallon or so plastic bag, rolling it tightly into a log, then removing from the bag, and using the food saver to package and seal. It works out well, for portions.

Often I will make red beans and rice, then add Pulled Pork, then package in a food saver for freezing, to use later when I backpack. That meal has been a staple of my camping for several years now.

I also use frozen pulled pork chopped finely in lasagna, and other variations while back packing as well. It works out great.

I have found, the peach glazed pork butt I make holds up to long term freezing rather well, and I believe that is the result of brining prior to cooking. I may be wrong, which would not be shocking.

Pulled pork is extremely versatile, even after freezing for longer time periods in my experience. 

Hope this helps

dbCooper

@YukonRon

Thank you, that info will be useful in the future.

In this particular case I had a whole butt that had been in the fridge for two days.  I quickly determined "pulling" was not feasible.  Ended up chopping it up, then splitting into approximate 2 lb. portions and vac sealing.