keeping your pulled Q warm...


 
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Rick Moore

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Seems like this past weekend was a popular one for all-nighters! I did mine Friday night. Another question I have is how do you keep your pulled q warm? I have read where people here take the meat off, let it sit, and pull it before friends even arrive. I pulled 2 of my 4 butts off, let them sit for a half hour and pulled them - all while friends watched with amazement at how easily the pork pulled and consumed there favorite adult beverages!

The one thing that surprised me was how fast the pork got cold. I put the pork in a pyrex dish as I pulled it and just let people start serving themselves while I pulled - by the time I finished pulling (about 20 minutes for 2 butts), ate a sandwich and came back for seconds, it was getting pretty cold! I was glad that I had left the other 2 butts on the smoker to stay warm...

Also, what is your pulling technique? I put my butts on a large cookie sheet, put on the insulated rubber gloves and just pulled away big chunks of meat. Seems like the meat fell apart of some of the "fat lines" so then I would just rub that fat off and pull the leftover meat apart. Worked very well in my opinion - just wondering how you all do it so I can keep improving my technique!

Thanks for all the helpful info I keep getting on here!
 
I have done several overnight cooks in the WSM.

This past friday night, I took my cooker to my folks house. I started up the cooker and got the 4 butts on. I hooked up my Maverick Smoker Thermometer to only find out it was broken.

So I just used my dial thermometer...

After about 1.5 hours, I had the cooker temps dialed in perfectly.

By then I had to leave to go duck hunting.

Around 8 AM, with 12 ducks in the bag already and only needing 2 more for the both of us to limit out, I called my folks and woke my mother up and asked her what the cooker temp was at and what the meat temp was at...

So she hurried off and a few minutes later she chirped... the cooker is at 240 degrees and the meat is at 187, honey...

I told her to check the meat in 30 minutes and then 60 minutes.

Anyway prior to leaving, I prepped an ice chest with towels and had the sheets of heavy duty...

She wrapped them up when they were done and popped them into the ice chest.

Anway, I got home and was surprised and how warm the butts were after being out of the cooker for 6 hours.

I pulled them using my usual method of a carving fork and a regular serving fork.

Pulled all four butts very quickly and put the meat in PRE-HEATED pyrex baking dishes. When full, I would thoroughly wrap the dishes in thick foil and put them back into the warm ice chest.

About the only thing that I didn't like about the wrapping in foil to hold them, prior to pulling, is the bark softens.

But as far as the temp of the meat... it was a winner. At the party, the last 2 trays of pulled port where put on a gas grill, indirect heat for a few minutes to warm them up a few degrees.

Anyway, needless to say, it turned out great with the usual comments...
 
Hot meat looses heat in 3 ways.

1) Conduction - putting the meat into a cold pan will conduct off some heat via contact. Keeping the meat in tin foil and wrapped in towels provides very little conductive heat loss.

2) Convection - cold air flowing past the meat will cause the meat to loose heat. Again, wrapping in tin foil prevents cold air from drawing off heat.

3) Evaporation - cool dry air around hot water will emit steam. The conversion of water to steam requires allot of energy and the loss of that energy results in cold meat.

The last 3 or 4 butt cooks I've done, I put the foil wrapped butts into bowls. I put a pair of tongs into one bowl and let the guests pull their own pork. For 2 hours we had hot pork.

Of course you have to have the right crowd to do that.
 
I usually unwrap, pull, rewrap as quickly as possible. Then into towels and the ice chest.

The only stuff that stays unwrapped after pulling is either for samplers or serving immediately.
 
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