For my catering business, this is how the majority of my smoked pork is sold. Most folks are just wanting the product, rather than the product and somebody to serve it, so it works well for me.
I usually smoke my butts (cut in half to generated more bark) over a pan of beans, so the beans can benefit from the pork love. If I don't smoke them over a pan of beans I still catch the drippings in a pan to use in any beans that I smoke at a later date when I'm not smoking butts. I simply pour the drippings into a ziplock and freeze till needed. I wrap the butts after removing from the smoker and put in a faux cambro for at least two hours. After the cambro, I pull the pork and put in vacuum sealed bags, add a 1/2 stick of butter and about a 1/4 cup of apple juice. I have a chamber vacuum sealer now, so the juice doesn't cause any problems when sealing. By the time I have it pulled, it's usually already cooled quite a bit, but as noted, if you want to be really safe, you should cool it in an ice bath. When I just had my Foodsaver vacuum sealer, I'd stuff the pork into a ziplock instead of a vacuum bag, and store in fridge overnight to let things solidify. The next day I'd stuff it into vacuum bags and vacuum seal. When I sell it, I tell folks to just bring a pan of water to a simmer and drop the bags of pork &/or beans in about 30 minutes before they are ready to eat.
When I'm catering an event I bring the bagged meat to the event in a cooler that has been had a sous vide stick running in it at 145 for several hours prior to serving time. I dump the bags of meat into a warming tray or electric roaster, depending on amount being served, as it's needed. This helps avoid the meat drying out.
I usually smoke my butts (cut in half to generated more bark) over a pan of beans, so the beans can benefit from the pork love. If I don't smoke them over a pan of beans I still catch the drippings in a pan to use in any beans that I smoke at a later date when I'm not smoking butts. I simply pour the drippings into a ziplock and freeze till needed. I wrap the butts after removing from the smoker and put in a faux cambro for at least two hours. After the cambro, I pull the pork and put in vacuum sealed bags, add a 1/2 stick of butter and about a 1/4 cup of apple juice. I have a chamber vacuum sealer now, so the juice doesn't cause any problems when sealing. By the time I have it pulled, it's usually already cooled quite a bit, but as noted, if you want to be really safe, you should cool it in an ice bath. When I just had my Foodsaver vacuum sealer, I'd stuff the pork into a ziplock instead of a vacuum bag, and store in fridge overnight to let things solidify. The next day I'd stuff it into vacuum bags and vacuum seal. When I sell it, I tell folks to just bring a pan of water to a simmer and drop the bags of pork &/or beans in about 30 minutes before they are ready to eat.
When I'm catering an event I bring the bagged meat to the event in a cooler that has been had a sous vide stick running in it at 145 for several hours prior to serving time. I dump the bags of meat into a warming tray or electric roaster, depending on amount being served, as it's needed. This helps avoid the meat drying out.
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