Okay gang, please give me some advice. I am very familiar with smoking pork butts. I usually smoke them all day and serve them at evening gatherings. However, this sunday, my siblings and I are throwing a barbeque/kitchen show for my niece at my brother's lake house in Ms. The party is for 11 am. I am arriving at the house midday on saturday and will spend the night. SO, my question is, when should i cook the pork? Normally, I would stay up all night and have it done for the party on time, but i recently changed careers to teaching 4th and 5th graders and my energy and stamina has been drained. I don't think I can stay up and then host a party, even with three cases of Abita Amber ready for the picking. I could possibly cook them throughout Friday evening and take cat naps throughout the night. DH is gigging and by the time he gets home he can take over the fire watch. He comes home on a performance high anyway I would then pull it and wrap the pork in foil pans. Which leads to a reheating problem, I certainly don't want to dry it out. Or, is it possible to smoke them halfway, wrap them up and then finish the smoke once in MS? Will this mess up the internal temperature reading? Somebody please offer some advice! My mind is swirling with work dilemmas, post graduate papers i'm writing, kids homework and now party planning. Someone offer me some clarity! (And sorry about the typos - i am exhausted and don't feel up to correcting them now).
Cook them fully. Pork butt is the most forgiving of all BBQ meats in terms of cooker temp, reheating, etc. Cook as you would normally, pull the meat, and refigerate. The pulled meat will cool more quickly (and safely) than an intact roast. The keyword in the reheating is "gently". There are a variety of methods which will prevent drying. In the oven, low heat (like 250°) and the meat spread out in a shallow, tightly foil-covered pan will suffice. In the microwave, a pound or so at a time, nuked on low (30% power) for a minute at a time until sufficiently warm will also work. There is also the crock pot-as-warmer solution. To absolutely insure you retain moisture, you can 1) reserve all the liquid lost while pulling the meat in a fat separator, and return all the good juice to the pulled meat, and/or 2) upon reheating, add a tablespoon of liquid per serving (about 4 ounces) to the meat while reheating. The liquid can be broth, apple juice, or even just water.
If, by some odd chance, your cook finishes just prior to your departure to MS, you can wrap the cooked roast(s) in HD foil, place them wrapped in towels in a dry ice chest, and head to your destination. Butts so held will remain hot for a couple of hours, and you can wow the crowd when you unwrap them and do the pulling on site, assuming you intend to serve shortly upon arrival.
In any case, food safety should take precedence over showmanship.
"I find the pastrami to be the most sensual of all the salted cured meats. Hungry?"
I am not anywhere near the expert that Low & Slow is at smoking - so I'd follow his advice, however, I am the rewarming queen.
I heat an oven hot - 450 - with a pizza stone in the oven for about 20 - 25 min.
Lay out your pork on a platter and then turn off the oven & put the platter of pork in there for 5 min. NO more!
The residual heat will be enough & there will be no drying out.
Do a couple of batches if you don't want to do it all at once.
NO point in overserving only to have it get cold.
I have an old timey warming tray that I use too, keeps things warm, but doesn't dry it out.
Thanks to you both for the replies. I smoked them Friday and pulled them immediately. Heated them gently with a bit of reserved juices. It was delicious and was a huge hit. I'm home now and exhausted. Great party though!
"Smoker" and "smoking", in this context, are both somewhat misnomers. What's actually being done, by strict definition, is barbecuing, which is cooking typically tough cuts of meat to tenderness at relatively low temperatures, indirectly over a wood coal-fired heat source. The addition of "smokewoods" for flavoring is where the term "smoking" sneaks in. Actual smoking, as in hams, bacon and other cured meats, in smokehouses is more properly termed "cold smoking". Cooking burgers, steaks, etc, at high heat, directly over a heat source is properly called grilling. So, in essence, when you go to "a barbecue", most of the time there is often no real barbecuing going on.
A pork butt roast (the half of the pork shoulder nearest the shoulder blade, usually weiging 7-9 lbs.) typically takes 12 hours or more at barbecuing temps of 225-250°.
"I find the pastrami to be the most sensual of all the salted cured meats. Hungry?"
Vent dampers on the units allow you to control oxygen flow to the coals, and, thereby, the cooking temperature. So-regulated, the coals don't flame, they just glow. The vertical cylinder types you have seen also incorporate a water-filled pan to act as a heatsink and shield to maintain the indirectness of the heat.
"I find the pastrami to be the most sensual of all the salted cured meats. Hungry?"
Wow! 23 pages. It's probably just me, but my head hurt after about page nine, and I could stand no more. But I do know these things:
1. You've seen one picture of a raw/cooked/pulled pork butt roast, you've seen them all. Except for those by Marlene on page 11.
2. Unchecked, BBQ forum posters will pile one "my butt" double entendre on top of the other, ad nauseum.
I would like to, however, take a moment to dispel a bit of BBQ dogma perpetuated in that thread, and elsewhere regularly online:
Meat does not stop absorbing smoke after it reaches 140°F. Meat does not absorb smoke. It is merely deposited on the surface of the meat. As long as you produce smoke, it will accumulate on the meat. You can indeed oversmoke meat while BBQing it. The result will be bitter and unpalatable.
It is the chemical reaction that produces what's called a "smokering"-- the band of red coloration just under the surface of BBQed meats-- that stops at around 140°. Competition barbecue teams, in order to create a more pronounced smokering, will place meat on the cooker as cold as possible, in order to prolong the time before the meat reaches 140. It's strictly cosmetic. Home BBQers can save themselves time by setting large cuts of meat out off refrigeration for 1-2 hours before starting to cook. They can also save themselves effort by adding all the smokewood they intend to use at the start of the cook.
"I find the pastrami to be the most sensual of all the salted cured meats. Hungry?"
I would then pull it and wrap the pork in foil pans. Which leads to a reheating problem, I certainly don't want to dry it out. Or, is it possible to smoke them halfway, wrap them up and then finish the smoke once in MS? Will this mess up the internal temperature reading? Somebody please offer some advice! My mind is swirling with work dilemmas, post graduate papers i'm writing, kids homework and now party planning. Someone offer me some clarity! (And sorry about the typos - i am exhausted and don't feel up to correcting them now).
