freezing pulled shoulder with jerk pork paste added

I did a recipie this week for jerk pork rubbed pulled shoulder that called for adding some of the jerk paste to the meat after cooking to add flavor.

I did this to some of the pork and it added a different dimension to the flavor. The paste was made up of quite a group of things including uncooked habeneros.

I needed to freeze some of this pork and was nervous about adding an uncooked vegetable paste prior to freezing. No I frequently add rubs to pork shoulder I'm going to freeze but was wondering does anyone else have any experience with doing something like this?

Thanks

What are your concerns?

The potential problem, to me, is in how paste-y your paste is. Normally, my issue with something like this is the moisture content of the addition. Lots of moisture, especially if held by large-ish (relatively speaking) pieces of spice (garlic, ginger) or vegetable (habanero) could lead to a mushy consistency after thawing. I am less concerned if there are enough dry ingredients in the paste and/or if it is fine enough and not to heavily applied.

Now that I've said all that--with pulled pork I don't worry to much. I re-heat, covered, and then check the texture, uncovering for a few minutes if necessary to dry it out somewhat.

The only other issue might be that the paste flavors would mute somewhat in the freezing process. Though likely, it shouldn't be noticeable as the flavors in jerk are fairly potent. You could cut back on the amount you add before freezing, reheat, and then add fresh paste for the last few minutes of re-heating or just prior to serving.

Thats a great observation about the moisture content. In fact I did add some to a couple bags I was trying to foodsaver and one would not seal because the moisture content kept coming up in the channel.

I was first concerned that the flavor owuldnt preserve well frozen and not cooked.

Second I was wondering if there is any porential food safety concern with the raw vegetables mixed with cooked meat beibng thawed out after having being frozen?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tom Raveret:
Thats a great observation about the moisture content. In fact I did add some to a couple bags I was trying to foodsaver and one would not seal because the moisture content kept coming up in the channel <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Turn the seal time up from 3 to 5 that should seal the bag. I had the same problem when trying to seal up some roasted Hatch Chiles. Worked fine after the ajustment. Bryan

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tom Raveret:
Second I was wondering if there is any porential food safety concern with the raw vegetables mixed with cooked meat beibng thawed out after having being frozen? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you cool your meat first, then add some (or all) of your paste then freeze you'll be fine so long as you re-heat well after thawing.