What is the longest time you have held a pork butt in a Cambro / cooler?

[JeffJ]

Overnight.

[Jerod Broussard]

Yeah, if you can hold for more than 5 seconds, she's definitely in heat.

[Le Grill]

smokenoob yes boiling water. Before adding towels and wrapped meat, fill empty cooler with boiling water and close the lid for 30 minutes. (Then I dump the water and add meat wrapped in towels)

[Le Grill]

UPDATE: It was a success!! I held for 6 hours and it was still at 160.
It was actually one of the better pork shoulders I cooked in a while, super tender!!

[smokenoob]

I like the hot water bottle in the faux cambro idea, fill with boiling water?

[58limited]

I held one for 10-12 hours this past Saturday/ Sunday. I cooked a 10 lb butt and it came off the pit at 198* at 10pm (already foil wrapped at the stall) and I wrapped it in a beach towel and put it into the cooler. Woke up and shredded it the next morning and it was still warm, juicy, and tender.

Butts were on sale this week so I cooked another Sunday (they take up less space in the freezer when cooked, shredded, and vacuum sealed flat.) I pulled it off the pit at 1:30am Monday - same method as the previous night with the towel and cooler. At 7:30am it was still too hot to hand shred so I put it back into the cooler and shredded it during my lunch hour at noon.

[Huskee]

Overnight until a late lunch the next day. But I cheated and warmed them up to 180 for an hour in the oven the next morning then re-cambroed.

[jfmorris]

I've held a brisket 6 hours and it was still 150F when I pulled it out of the cooler! The trick is to wrap in several layers of foil, as quick as it comes off the smoker, then in several towels, and then into the smallest good cooler you have that will hold the butt. We are looking to not heat air space in the cooler here. I think you will be fine, assuming it is an 8-10 pound butt, and you get it wrapped and into the cooler while it is still over 200F.

The concern is the time UNDER 140F, and for food safety, your are supposed to consume or refrigerate if it is under 140F for more than 2 hours. I think you will be fine.

The other option if you just don't think you can hold it, is to do it sooner, go ahead and pull the pork, bag it up, and reheat on site. Pulled pork reheats pretty well, and if you include a BBQ sauce, most folk won't know the difference. That way you can carry it in the cooler on ice, and not worry about timing at all.

[Dadof3Illinois]

Wrap it good and keep it in a cooler and it will be fine.

[FireMan]

I was wonderin just how long & then read the rest of the sentence where it says " in a Cambro / cooler". Changed my whole train of thought, yessir!

[LA Pork Butt]

12 hours in a cooler sitting in the sun all day.

[Spinaker]

You will be just fine. Pack the pork, wrap it in towels and fill the cooler with more towels to eliminate open space in the cooler. Heating the hard side cooler with hot water is also a great way to go, I do that with my YETI all the time and it will hold hot food for hours and hours.

[lostclusters]

+1 on what rickgregory said. When I cook it not uncommon for it to sit on my counter all day to be snacked on. I know that is going to drive the food safety folks bananas. After sitting on the counter all day it could sit in the fridge for two weeks and still be fine. I have never had any ill effects from this process.

But I would still preheat the cooler and consider adding hot bricks, bricks heated to about 170 degrees and insulated with towels so you do not have a melted cooler.

[rickgregory]

I just wouldn't bother. I mean, a) you're packing and getting ready for a trip... and smoking up to the last minute, b) what if it's not ready to pack up when you're all ready to go and c) why take the (slight) risk of it dropping too quickly and being a danger? Look, I highly doubt you'd get food poisoning from freshly cooking pork but if it was 130 for an hour. On the other hand... what's the upside for taking that risk? Mostly I just would not want the last minute hassle.

[Le Grill]

For sure I would use a probe. When I've done the cooler method previously I've just closed the lid on the probe wire and left the base unit outside the cooler.