I'm smoking a few butt's on Friday to serve after a funeral Saturday around noon. What's the best way to hold the meat overnight?
In a roaster at 150-160 or in the refrigerator and reheat the next day?
Should I shred it Friday night or Saturday after reheating .
Depends. How long from finishing to delivery? I shred right after the cook. I also catch the drippings during the cook, separate as much fat as I can and pour the remaining liquid back over the pulled meat.
Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Fireboard Drive, 3 DigiQs, lots of Thermapens, and too much other stuff to mention.
I would shred, refrigerate, and reheat the next day.
Depends on timing and capability, IMO.
What's "a few butts"? 3? 6, 10?
How much hold capacity do you have?
How long will you need to hold them, at most?
Personally, if I can finish them and pull them (wrapped) off the smoker less than 20 hours before time to eat, I'm holding them. I don't think refrigerating is the best bet in this scenario. I've become a big fan of the 'long hold' at 140-150, and would really like to get 4-6 hours at this temp after cooking no matter what. I've held briskets up to 20 hours with no bad effects, pork butt should be even MORE forgiving in that respect, but I would try to keep it less than 24 hours.
If you have the capacity to hold all you're cooking at 150ºF, I would strongly suggest that, I've had great results. Cook Friday morning or midday until late night, place in warmer until noon the next day. My most recent cook like this was 10 butts, I cooked them overnight, tending the fire on the stickburner, wrapping about 3AM, started pulling them at 4:30-5:30AM, based on temp, some had gone over 200ºF which was my target temp. Placed them in my 2 'holding' smokers and left them there until pulling them at 4:30PM for service at 5:30PM at our church. So roughly 12h hold. Got great reports of the meat, and my wife took ONE bite of a sandwich and said, "Oh, babe... that may be the best pulled pork you've ever done!"
I wrap in double layers of foil after the stall, keeping all juices inside, keep them held and wrapped until service. Then I pull them one at a time as the stock needs replenished and just keep all the juices/fat inside the foil with it - mixing it all in, adding some more rub/seasoning while pulling/shredding.
This has become my absolute go-to method, and with my wife's comment, it is officially confirmed I will keep doing it this way. I've been trying many other ways for years, and she has been my quality control on literally hundreds of pork butts.
This is the way.
<edit> I should add, cooling them down is fine, but when reheating, if they're whole, it's going to take several hours at least (3-4?) unless you really push the heat beyond 350, which I wouldn't do. I think that's gonna make it overdone and dry mouth-feel. The key is low temps, and trying to duplicate that 220-250, even 275, you're gonna take several hours to get the center back up to temp. I say just hold 'em, if you can. If it's more than 24 hours before service time... I might consider a 4-6 hour hold, then shred, Ziploc/vacuum seal and reheat with sous vide or a similar method.
If you decide to hold it in the roaster, that will work; but I have had my best results shredding after the hold. One time I shredded and then covered with foil and put it all back in the oven at 150° for about 6 hours. The smoke ring completely disappeared and I was left with a gray, unappealing (to me) pan of shredded meat. That never happens when I keep it intact.
I may be a minority opinion, and I don’t know your cooker. But, I routinely cook them overnight which would be my choice. IMO holding them wrapped for a least an hour improves the cook If you can work it out I would hold them in the roaster until you pull them just before serving. Your final decision might rest on convince, and whichever approach you take I am pretty sure you will have no complaints.
Having done this a few times, I recommend shredding the pork after the cook, before it cools down. To be shredable you would have to reheat all the way back up to 160+, which will take as long as it did the first day!
Personally I wouldn't try to hold hot. Just put in foil pans, tightly covered in foil, and reheat in an oven on low the next day. I've done this for big parties where I smoked 8-10 butts, and we would dump the pans from the oven into a couple of crockpots for serving, refilling as needed. If the meat looks a little dry, mix in some BBQ sauce when you put the meat out. Not a ton, just enough to wet the meat.
Sorry this is a late response, however, perhaps this might be helpful in the future.
The other thing I have done when in this situation and having shredded the butts in advance so that I can keep folks fed is add some butter to the roaster pans along with some apple juice Worcestershire sauce mix and sprinkle some more rub into the pans and toss it together to make sure the meat is still moist as it loses moisture once shredded.
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