Freezing and thawing pork butt

[Michael_in_TX]

Hey all,

I picked up a 10 lb pork butt two days ago. I was hoping to try smoking it this weekend, but Saturday has 80% chance of rain (front coming through) and Sunday will be distinctly breezy and ridiculously cold (high of 46....what? That's cold for down here!), so I am uncertain if I'll be able to get to it.

I have no experience in freezing meats well. The pork butt is encased in relatively thick plastic. To freeze this, should I just put it in the freezer as is? Or do I need to take it out of its packaging and package it differently? If so, in what? (My freezer is set to 0 degrees F.)

A related question....when it comes time for me to thaw it (when it is warmer and the days are longer), how long should I expect a 10 lb port butt to thaw in a refrigerator set to 35 degrees?

--Michael

[Red Man]

The butt’s in a cryovac bag? That’s a thick plastic vacuum sealed bag. If so, freeze it in the bag. I’d put it in the fridge three days before I wanna cook it. Not a big deal if it isn’t completely thawed when you throw it on the smoker. Is your freezer a deep freezer? Most fridge freezer combos don’t get down to zero in the freezer. If you wanna keep it more than a couple months, it really should stay below zero.

[jfmorris]

Yes, freeze the butt in the cryovac it comes in. I routinely buy butts any time they are on sale, and have had as many as a dozen in the deep freeze before. I've had them in there for a year or more too.

Just take it out a day or two ahead of time, let it thaw in the fridge. You may find it still frozen in the center but it's fine. Cold meat attracts more smoke, and develops better bark, just might add an hour to the cook is all. I've got the low alarm on the meat probe of my Smoke set to 25F, as I very often have started smoking butts that are 27-28F.

[Murdy]

I was hoping to try smoking it this weekend, but Saturday has 80% chance of rain (front coming through) and Sunday will be distinctly breezy and ridiculously cold (high of 46....what? That's cold for down here!).

hmmm, our forecast high for Sunday is 12 (which I'm happy about, like to build some fishable ice around here)

I freeze them straight from the store in the cryovac all the time, and they do fine. I usually forget to take them out until the day before, and that also has not been a problem, though, if I'm thinking about it, I'd pull them 2 days prior, and 3 certainly wouldn't hurt it.

[Michael_in_TX]

Great, thanks all....into the freezer it goes!

--Michael

[DeusDingo]

i'm going to go against some people here about the second question

when i thaw my butts i do it around a week before i cook it. my schedule is usually salt it on thursday or friday, rub it on saturday, smoke it sunday morning. if i don't give it enough time to thaw then when i dry it and salt it i get a lot of water coming out of the butt still as the salt goes to town on the frozen inner parts. i believe (note, never tested) a significant enough portion of salt is coming out with that moisture so that the end product isn't as good. plus it makes a mess when i go to put the rub on and it's still thawing in the middle and is dripping everywhere. then my rub gets a little too wet on the bottom before i put it in. overall it works out better for me to start thawing it the sunday before.

[Steve R.]

Just throwing this out there, DeusDingo , but I get around this issue by prepping the meat just like I would if I was going to cook it (salt, rub, etc.), but vacuum seal and freeze it instead. Then there is no thawing and guesswork required before cooking.

[DeusDingo]

well except that when it thaws it releases all the liquid from the broken cell walls and takes some of the salt with it. plus putting it in a bag and removing it from a bag with all the rub on it is about the same pain in the @$$ as prepping it when soggy (for me).