Pulled pork portions for vac seal

[DaveD]

Hey folks, recently acquired a Meat Your Maker vac sealer, my first one, following the recommendation over in the kitchen gadget section from Santamarina , who steered me right, this is a good unit that hits all my desirements for a very reasonable US$80 (free shipping!).

Planning on a 7lb/3.2kg pork butt this weekend, and with just my lovely bride and me, we'll have plenty of leftover pulled pork. Two questions for you regular vac sealers. 1) How hot is your pulled pork when you start vac sealing portions? Do you wait til it has cooled (basically after dinner is over)? and 2) What do you find handy to choose as a portion size, to balance how many you have to make on the one hand, against not making them so large that it's a challenge to eat it all?

Vac newb hoping not to suck

[RonB]

Check to see if your bags are safe for boiling, (I think most are.). If so, you can bag your meat whenever since it should be less than 212°.

Only you can decide how much per bag. Do you want to bag for one person? One meal for two? Or maybe enough for two meals spaced several days apart.

[rickgregory]

1) Pull all of your pork.
2) Let the stuff you're not eating cool to roughly room temp. You could portion them here but don't seal when hot, leave it open to cool.
3) Portion in quantities that you'll eat once you defrost (I'm assuming you're freezing them). That doesn't have to be single servings but not like 5 servings.
4) Reheat in SV.

Consider adding sauce with the packages. If you don't do that, then mix up the pork when you pull it.

EDIT - the reason I wouldn't seal when hot is that I'd rather not toss a bunch of hot bags in the freezer and I think they'll cool faster if not sealed and one big mass. RonB is right that you can.

[Abom]

I've found that if I package the pork in chunks rather than shredding it, it will retain more moisture after reheating. Then you shred it the rest of the way. Saves time too.

[RickyBobby]

Great question. I do this all the time since my wife and I have 3 kids and she loves that it’s easy for her to pull out a vac bag of pork for dinner. That said, I pull all of it and then bag up left overs after dinner once it’s cooled. I just kind of eye ball it and guess how much we would eat for dinner another night and then add a little more because I like using the extra in omelettes, breakfast scrambles, baked potatoes, and nachos. Wow….. now that I’ve typed all of this out, I think I may smoke 2 butts next time! Lol!

[Michael_in_TX]

I generally vacseal my cooked meats the day after, after they've been in the fridge overnight. I also always do serving-sized portions. This has been working out really well.

[Santamarina]

Glad you’re enjoying it! I always let food cool completely before bagging. Sealing hot makes it too easy for the center to be in the danger zone too long, even if tossing in the freezer.

As for portions I go with what we’d use in a typical meal for our family of 4. If we’re having company, pull two bags.

For reheating just toss however many bags you need in a pot of hot water. Don’t even need a sous vide engine as long as you check temp regularly to make sure it’s not too cool.

[Polarbear777]

I pull and mix it all. Eat dinner than foil wrap the top of the foil pan it is in so liquid won’t evaporate. Let cool for a while. Mix one more time and then into the fridge to cool.

This way the fat solidifies in the bottom so if you pull out hunks vertically for the bags, you get even fat/liquid distribution between all the bags.

I use a paper plate on my scale and measure out 1lb per bag. Folding the plate in half you can shove it in the bag and cleanly get it in there and pull out the plate.

be sure to flatten your bags if the shape of the food isn’t important because the thaw/reheat time is proportional to the thickness.

sealing hot foods can cause problems vacuum sealing since liquids will want to boil and evaporate under vacuum. I always wait until cool to seal in my chamber vac.

[Finster]

I like the plate idea. Gonna use that next time 👍

[DaveD]

I saw another thread here recently where someone used a plastic cup with the bottom cut out, sort of a makeshift, very wide-mouthed funnel. Seemed to work well also to keep the inside surfaces clean for sealing.

[McFlyfi]

I just did this (again) on Saturday.
My method (family of four):
Smoke butt on Saturday. When it stalls, around 160, I put it in a disposable pan on a roasting rack. Add some apple juice to the pan, wrap tightly with foil, start testing for doneness at 195. When probe tender, pull from smoker, wrap in foil, then towels, and into the faux cambro for a couple of hours. Keep the juice/drippings/fat from the pan and set aside. I put the liquid in a squeeze bottle and into the fridge.

I put whatever is left from dinner into a gallon zip lock, and into the fridge over night. The next day, I get out the bag sealer and my scale. I measure out 14 ounces (this is what works for us-between the bun, coleslaw, and Mac n cheese, about 3.5 ounces each is perfect), put it in the vac bag, and squirt in some of the juice/drippings/fat that I saved from the pan to add moisture and flavor. Seal it up and get it in the freezer.
I get between 4 and 5 packages of dinners for the future.

[bbqLuv]

I freeze leftover pulled pork in zip lock bags about 8-10oz each. Works just fine, fine as frog hair.
The leftovers are I use for all American, Tacos. Burritos, Nachos and egg scramble.

[Bkhuna]

After chopping up the leftover pork, I let cool some and then mix with dip to moisten. I usually put about one pound of meat per bag. Double seal. Put in freezer.

[DaveD]

When you say "double seal", do you mean seal one bag, then put that into a second bag and seal that? Or is it two seal lines on each bag instead of one, but just one bag per portion?

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I have done both methods but for something like plain pulled pork, already cooked and just needing to be reheated in the future - 1 bag, dual seal lines on each end.

[Bkhuna]

DaveD - No. One bag, two seals for anything heading into a SV bag.

[DaveD]

Wow!! Thanks very much everyone, this is some really great input. I particularly appreciate the comments about taking steps to ensure there is even distribution of the congealed juices and fat (or add some at sealing). Also the comment about getting the food cooled below the danger zone ASAP before sealing - very important, I had not thought of that.

So from this it looks like the game plan will be to use Polarbear777 's cooling plan: mix up, cool for a while, mix again before it's fully congealed to evenly distribute the juices, then fridge overnight. Then portion up cold the next day, seal in whatever size seems sensible, freeze the bags. It has already been my SOP for some time to use the sous vide in reheating most leftovers from the smoker, and yep the bags are designed for those temps.

Thanks again folks! Very glad I asked this question. I'll come back here and show my portioning/sealing process on Sunday, since I'm planning the cook for Saturday. Stay tuned!

[IowaGirl]

Cooking for two generally.

You can let the meat cool to safe handling temperature or you can work with it hot if you have insulated gloves. I tend to break really large pieces of meat into medium sized pieces using forks or tongs and then let the meat cool down to "really warm but won't burn my fingers" before I process it further.

I coarsely chunk the pork up, leaving it in large bite sized chunks, not fine shreds. That gives me more options when using it in the future. I mix in the pork juices, but never add any sauces or other flavorings, so I have more options later on.

I package the meat in 8 oz (250 g) portions, which is enough meat for one supper for the 2 of us, plus usually a small amount of leftovers. A 6 oz (180 g) package would be about right for 2 servings with no leftovers. Remember 8 oz cooked weight is probably more like a pound (500 grams) of trimmed uncooked meat, so it's plenty.

I arrange the meat in a flat layer in the vac bag, so it freezes and thaws faster and is easier to stack and store in the freezer. After vac sealing, if the food is very warm, chill the vac sealed packages in an ice water bath in the kitchen sink. When chilly to the touch, then move to the freezer.

If I'm doing this when the weather is freezing, an alternative to the ice water bath is to put the bags outside in the snow to chill down and even freeze.

[DaveD]

Thanks for the excellent description

[jfmorris]

I routinely pack up pulled pork in 1 pound or 1/2 pound vacuum bags, and freeze them. I do that once it has cooled after pulling. I always mix up the pork after pulling of course.

Funny thing... we had a pot luck to go to this past Saturday night. I thought about smoking a butt, as I had several in the freezer. As I looked, I realized I had 8 1# bags of pulled pork in the deep freeze as well... you can see where this is going.

I reheated 5 pounds of the frozen pulled pork in the vacuum bags in the SV (Anova) bath at 165F for about 2 hours, from frozen, dumped all the bags into a crock pot on low, stirred in about 1 cup of BBQ sauce, and we headed off to the party. Everyone loved it and gobbled it up. I will NEVER tell anyone at church that I actually smoked that meat in March, haha!

When complimented I just said - oh thanks - not my best effort and the bark is a little soft because I rushed the cook by wrapping in foil. That was a true statement, just not for the day of the party. I had made 5 butts back in March, and did them hot and fast and crutched in foil after the stall, to get them done in like 6-7 hours.

[DaveD]

For the win!

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I really should do up some stuff and freeze it, we've got 6 people coming in a couple of weeks to stay for a couple of weeks. But I don't want to miss out on the chance to cook up fresh stuff, either! I'm torn...

[fzxdoc]

I've got a houseful coming too, and I'll be cooking as much in advance as I can. The stuff on the grill/smoker, though, will have to be done the day of because they're steaks, White BBQ chicken, and fajitas.

Cooking in advance is the only way I get some time to enjoy the company of the kids and grandkids.

Kathryn

[DaveD]

Do both! No reason to have to choose.

[jfmorris]

Cook up some in advance for sure. You don't want to cook EVERY night they are there, especially if its a couple of weeks.

Inlaws?