Glad it went well. Congrats!
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
What Smoker to buy?
Collapse
X
-
Club Member
- Nov 2017
- 7089
- Huntsville, Alabama
-
Jim Morris
Cookers- Slow 'N Sear Deluxe Kamado (2021)
- Camp Chef FTG900 Flat Top Grill (2020)
- Weber Genesis II E-410 w/ GrillGrates (2019)
- Weber Performer Deluxe 22.5" w/ GrillGrates & Slow 'N Sear & Drip N Griddle & Vortex & Party Q & Rotisserie (2007)
- Custom Built Offset Smoker (304SS, 22"x34" grate, circa 1985)
- King Kooker 94/90TKD 105K/60K dual burner patio stove
- Lodge L8D03 5 quart dutch oven
- Lodge L10SK3 12" skillet
- Anova
- Thermoworks Smoke w/ Wifi Gateway
- Thermoworks Dot
- Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
- Thermoworks RT600C
- Weber Connect
- Whatever I brewed and have on tap!
HandsomeDave It took me a while to find this thread again, as I was trying to recall what you did. I have 298 days until my daughter’s wedding, and have been told she wants me to make pulled pork and pulled chicken for about 200 folks.
I think following your approach is the only way I can do it, as my limit without spending wedding money on a big cabinet smoker is 8 butts at a time - 6 in my small antique offset, and 2 on the kettle. If I do it in the weeks leading up to the wedding, and pull, vacuum seal and freeze it, I am wondering if a couple of Anova units in large coolers (I would cut holes in the lid for the Anova) could be used to reheat the pork and chicken to serving temps. Then the servers can just dump the bags into the steam table trays I already have.
iI the sous vide to reheat from frozen is not viable, due to wattage and thermal mass of all that frozen meat, I can use my 15 gallon brewing pots (keggles) with my propane burners onsite, but I would rather keep things in the kitchen....
When you reheated, was it boiling water, or just hot water? How many pounds of pork did you cram into each vacuum bag?
Thanks for any advice!Last edited by jfmorris; July 23, 2019, 11:17 PM.
Comment
-
jfmorris The water was just shy of boiling, about 190 degrees. I thawed the bags out the night before by floating them in a bathtub full of cold water for a couple of hours. I smoked 6 shoulders at a time, around 45 pounds and would end up with 12 bags that were about 2.25 pounds each after shrinkage. It took a good 20-30 minutes to reheat, but I was cramming around 10 bags at once into the pots.
-
jfmorris I will post some pictures for you. One piece of advice, bag it but let it cool before you vacuum seal. If you seal when hot it tends to pull the juices out of the bag. Not a deal breaker but kind of messy.
-
HandsomeDave so pull the pork while it is hot, but let it cool in a pan or something before vacuum sealing? I can do that. I routinely vacuum seal left over pulled pork, from the pan I shredded it in, usually a day or two after the initial meal.
-
Founding Member
- Jul 2014
- 9698
- Smiths Grove, Ky
-
Hi, my name is Darrell. I'm an OTR truck driver for over 25 years. During my off time I love doing backyard cooks. I have a 48" Lang Deluxe smoker, Rec-Tec pellet smoker,1 Weber Genesis 330, 1 Weber Performer (blue), 2 Weber kettles (1 black and 1 Copper), 1 26" Weber kettle, a WSM, 8 Maverick Redi Chek thermometers, a PartyQ, 2 SnS, Grill Grates, Cast Iron grates, 1 ThermoPop (orange) and 2 ThermoPens (pink and orange) and planning on adding more cooking accessories. Now I have an Anova sous vide, the Dragon blower and 2 Chef alarms from Thermoworks.
-
Comment
-
jfmorris Wow 200 people that's a lot! One other thing I did was buy a pork puller that goes in a drill motor. It really saved a lot of time. Unless you have some help, pulling 8 butts is going to take some time.
- 1 like
-
HandsomeDave I smoked 9 butts for my oldest daughter’s engagement party, and was up by myself pulling pork until 2am. I’ll enlist help this time for sure!
Nothing is as bad as the time I smoked 84 butts by myself. It was a rough 18 hours running 3 smokers, wrapping butts and packing in coolers. I didn’t pull them though!Last edited by jfmorris; August 1, 2019, 08:12 PM.
- 2 likes
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Comment