Poor man's sous vide

[RonB]

We were invited to a friend's house for a cookout last night, so I took the last hunk of smoked butt out of the freezer a few days ago so that it would defrost. Yesterday, around noon, I took it out of the fridge and put in in a pot of water on the stove and set the burner on the lowest setting. As the temp settled, I gradually upped the temp until the pot settled at 170* and let it sit until 5 PM. I then removed the butt from the pot, took it out of the vacuum bag, and shredded it. It was much more tender than when I pulled it off the grill originally. Of course, the bark had softened, but I think it softens anyway when I pull it unless I serve it right away, so I was very happy with the results. This worked well enough that I will do it again if I have time.

I know it didn't really happen 'cause I didn't take pics, but I was supposed to be at the cookout at 5, so no time.

[HouseHomey]

RonB don't tell anyone but long, long ago before I had an idea what real BBQ was like I did the same with racks of back ribs. I was a lousy BBQ'er then (but thought otherwise about myself) and would make racks of ribs when they were on sale. I would vac seal them when they cooled and freeze them in 1/2 rack packs. As a single father (at the time) I did that with a lot of food. I would drop them in simmering water and they were far better then the original cook. They were delicious. (Of course at the time I did not know what SV was.) I was an instant rock star with the neighborhood kids. Please don't tell anyone I did that.

[RonB]

[snowandsmoke]

Would dunking it while still frozen have detrimental effects? I would think that it would thaw pretty quick and not be much different.

[RonB]

That would have probably been better, but I didn't think to do that.