Proofing oven to hold my butt

djmsalem

Last week my first picnic took 13 hours to come to 205 degrees (or maybe less time, now that I think about it -- I did it overnight). Today's, at 9.5 lbs the same weight as last week's, took only 10.

We want to pull it at our party in eight hours.

I'm figuring that's too long for the foil-towel-cooler technique, but my oven has a bread proofing feature that keeps the temperature at about 100 degrees. It also has a warming drawer that will keep the temperature higher, but the butt won't fit in it without cutting. The oven's lowest temperature otherwise is 170, which I think is too high to go that long.

I think I have two options, and I'm asking your advice relative to safety and quality of the finished product, in that order. Final criterion is our interest in not pulling the beast until party time.

Option 1: Stick it in the oven at proof temperature.

Option 2: Wait three or four hours, take out the bone and cut the thing in half, rewrap and put in the warming drawer until it's time to go.

What do you think?

David

2Fategghead

David, You could consider resting your picnic then pulling it and reheat when you decide to eat. Tim

Hopefully others will chime in and possible have other solutions more to your liking.

Celtic Wolf

Personally I'd pull it now refrigerate it and then heat it up later.

Eight hours is way to long to keep it lying around; furthermore, unless your oven also has a moisture feature you risk drying it out.

h20egg

Reheating with a little moisture (Coke works great, not diet) makes it indistinguishable from freshly pulled IMHO. I was surprised how well pulled p kept frozen, reheating with Coke. Which is great if there's only 2-3 in the fam.

djmsalem

Thanks for your advice, which I'm taking. I appreciate everyone's speedy help!

David