Butts: Nighttime cook, extended rest - hold?

[jjdbike]

Hello everyone,

I'm cooking this weekend for my wife's retirement gathering with her university colleagues.

I'm considering cooking the Friday evening before. I'm smoking on my KBQ for 3 - 4 hours, till beyond 165ish and most importantly, the bark is well established. Then I'll pan and foil and finish in the oven. My oven has a "Keep Warm" feature that claims to hold at 170, I'm guessing it's more like 175.

don't plan on keeping it warm till guests arrive Sat night (i.e. will reheat).

I wonder if there is some safe way that I can pull off smoker and finish in oven overnight without having to babysit it, i.e. keep waking up to check temp and probe for doneness, worry about drying it out or having it dip into danger zone temperature -wise, and still having it be juicy (fat rendered) and tender so I can finish it in the morning.

I also want to glaze it with sauce and caramelize the sauce under the broiler. Then pull and portion out. Some will go into freezer, some fridge for reheating at dinner latter that evening.

Is this possible?
Am I risking disaster?

Do I need to take the hit and just stay up all night with it? if I do that, the problem is the rest. If it's probe tender in the oven at midnight, I'd still want to rest it for 2 - 4 hours before I glaze and pull it. I don't want to sleep from midnight till 4am, get up and glaze, caramelize, pull and portion out, then go back to bed at 6:00 am. That would suck.

Is there some combination of steps or technique that I can smoke night before, hold while I get 8 hours in, and finish in the morning?

Thanks in advance!
JD

[pkadare]

If you're going to reheat anyway, why not just cook it completely on Friday during the day and pull, then reheat on Saturday?

[jjdbike]

Yes I would if I could. I work Friday until 4:00 The earliest I can get the butts on the cooker would prolly be 4:30 - 5:00 pm.
Thanks,
JD

[Stuey1515]

I have done many pork butts on the smoker to 150-160 and refrigerated or frozen them, then finish them off to probe tender wrapped in the oven with great success. I assume this is what you are asking

[jjdbike]

So par cook them... I know that's actually considered fully cooked and in the safe to eat zone even thought they'll be shoe leather at 160. I've never heard of or considered that. Interesting.
Thanks,
JD

[texastweeter]

I'd set temp alarm to 205-208° (where I take my injected shoulders to when pulling). When it goes off drop in the smallest cooler you have that it fits in, and cover with towels and lid up. It will hold there for many hours. Then get up in time to caramelize. Are you glazing it for asthmatics? It will all look the same on a bun.

[Bbqmikeg]

Glazing helps you breathe?🙂

[jjdbike]

I'm guessing he meant aesthetics.

[LA Pork Butt]

I don’t know when you plan to eat, but I routinely do overnight cooks on my BGE to eat for noon. They routinely take 12-14 hours unwrapped at 225. I plan for an hour to stabilize my cooker, a 12-14 hour cook to 200 internal, wrap and hold in and ice chest filled with old towels for 2-4 hours depending on cook time. The meat is still hot enough that I need cotton garden gloves covered with nitrile gloves for pulling. If you heat up the ice chest with hot water first I think holding for 6 hours is possible. With the ice chest in the sun in the summer I’ve held for 8 hours. Good luck.

[realdocBBQ]

This.

[jjdbike]

I'd set temp alarm to 205-208° (where I take my injected shoulders to when pulling). When it goes off drop in the smallest cooler you have that it fits in, and cover with towels and lid up. It will hold there for many hours. Then get up in time to caramelize. Are you glazing it for asthmatics? It will all look the same on a bun.

I'm glazing to add another layer of flavor to the bark, that I also want to firm back up after being foiled for a couple hours.
Make sense?
JD

[texastweeter]

Yes. I'd just use the glaze as a sauce on the bun myself.