Have to smoke 60lbs Pork butt to be served a few days later.

[Natureroad]

I know its blasphemy but no choice. The question is to smoke and pull, refrigerate and reheat, or is it possible to smoke and refrigerate then reheat before pulling?

[Mr. Bones]

All have their own ways...

I have always reheated, an pulled on site, to preserve moisture/juices...

No blasphemy, jus sounds like circumstances, from here, Brother!

However ya decide to do it, I wish ya th Best of Luck, with yer cookout event!

[Jerod Broussard]

I'm smoking 120+ pounds ahead. Going to pull, vacuum seal, refrigerate. I won't be there at serving, but I told them to heat up butter and apple juice and give a little spray.

[Natureroad]

I'm going to smoke Wed. Wrap in foil refrigerate for a while then vacuum seal put back in the fridge and then coolers to transport the 4 hrs on Thur.. Thinking I could heat the butts on Sat am in a few turkey pots of water, then pull (ill have plenty of help on site), and put in electric roaster pans.

I was thinking about a spray bottle or two of mop sauce to keep up the moisture. What butter to apple juice ratio do you use?

[Polarbear777]

Pull and vacuum seal works for me, but I’ve not done nearly as much at once. Could be a lot of work. If not sealing, I would use a double layer of foil and also plastic wrap. Then slice/divide and reheat on site and then pull. (Reheating the whole butts will take forever).

[Natureroad]

I was thinking I would put whole vacuum sealed butts in turkey fryers full of water, how long is forever as far as heating whole butts?

[HouseHomey]

Either way it just depends on how much time, space, equipment and help you have the day of.

if your flying solo then do as much as humanly possible ahead of time and keep the meat moist after pulling and vacuum sealing.

reheat on site.

[LA Pork Butt]

I’ll second that.

[Woodson]

I think whatever you do don’t pull before serving. Like others said, that is key to keeping it juicy. Plus the look on all those faces when you pull the bone and shred it is always priceless.

i freeze cooked butts whole straight off the pit, still in the foil. My day job gets in the way sometimes.

[Cranky1]

This is great! I will be cooking 2 - 11 lb butts next Saturday to serve Sunday and have been wondering what you all think about refrigerating. Thanks. Sunday I'll be PBC'ing 8 slabs of ribs and salmon on the grill for our 25th wedding anniversary. I need to get the my butts out of the way. Any suggestions on re-heating them? My smoking Cousin uses a crock pot which I don't have.

[mountainsmoker]

I agree with the others wrap in foil and heat up on site. Instead of the apple juice, which will just add sweetness to the already sweet pork use a Western Carolina BBQ sauce. It was made for pulled pork in the home of pulled pork North Carolina. I believe Meathead has a recipe for it in the free side. https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...-dip-bbq-sauce I use apple cider vinegar and no apple juice.

[Potkettleblack]

When I do something like this, usually for a work pot luck, I vac seal it directly off the smoker. I shock that cold in a 50-50 ice water (maybe more like 30-70 ice-water... wife doesn't like me using up all her ice) until it is fridge temp.

Putting 60 lbs of pork that's been held at temp for a few hours into a fridge is a sure way to spoil whatever you have in the fridge. That's a lot of meat at a temp that is not conducive to food safety, radiating that heat out into your eggs, your milk, your cold cuts, and anything else... don't do that. Shock that cold to minimize food safety risk.

I reheat with sous vide at work. At most 8 lbs of pork, though. To do 6-8 full butts (at 8-10 lbs raw to a butt), would be a lot of sous vide capacity. Couple coolers worth, given that you want ~50-50 meat - water at the extreme. I've seen it done with more meat than water, but I'd have concerns.

I reheat to 140, but 155 or higher would be fine and work faster. I like 140, because it's not too hot to pull in the bag when it's up to temp... well... it is, but not with a glove.

I don't sauce it, but put two sauces out. I'm in the midwest, so folks here seem to like a sweeter, KC style sauce on their pulled pork. I've lived all over, so like a vinegar mop to cut the richness (my wife likes to make a sandwich with the sweet stuff and the vinegar stuff... one on top one on the bottom.

mountainsmoker There is no one correct way to do anything. There is a traditional way, but even that had variations back in the day when everyone's dad was doing it with their own flair. Just because pulled pork may have originated in your neck of the woods doesn't necessarily mean the folks I work and live with here in Chicago are wrong to put KC style sauces on their PP. I mean, I'm fond of the East Carolina style (https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...and-mop-recipe), which is maybe the original. But come tell some folks in KC they're doing it wrong and let us know how that works out for you. Hell, it's a fist fight waiting to happen on the borders of the various NC styles.

[mountainsmoker]

Potkettleblack Sure people have different tastes in different areas of the country. They can sauce it there way of course.

[Huskee]

I like all sauces on mine, KC, vinegary and mustard, but I prefer no sauce. I guess I'm from the "mutt" area of the country!

[Mr. Bones]

I generally put various sauces out on th side, an always encourage people to "Try jus One Bite, before yall drown it all in sauce..."

[HandsomeDave]

I smoked 18 pork shoulders (135 pounds) for an event back in early June this year. Since I could only smoke 6 at a time I pulled them, vacuum sealed and froze them. Thawed them out in a bathtub of cold water for a couple hours the night before, then stored in coolers with ice. Reheated in turkey pots with the water around 190. Took 20 to 30 minutes to reheat. I had no problems with the moisture. But I vacuum sealed right away. It honestly tasted like it just came off the smoker. Really worked well, I would do it again.

[Dan Deter]

possible stupid question: what's a turkey pot?

[TripleB]

That's what I was thinking. Never heard of a Turkey pot.

[HandsomeDave]

Dan Deter & TripleB. Basically it is one of those large aluminum pots with a propane burner that people use to deep fry a turkey.

[Dan Deter]

Gotcha! Thanks!