If you can't bring the WSM to the cottage then bring...


 
R

Robert M.

TVWBB Member
...the food to the cottage

There's a family reunion coming up for me at a cottage in a few weeks. I'd like to bring the WSM to cook a meal but it doesn't fit in the car. My only other idea is cooking something at home and then transporting it to the cottage with it timed so that I arrive at dinner time.

Now it's about a two and a half hour trip to the cottage so I figure it'd be three hours after leaving the grill that the food would be eaten.

Question is: What things could I cook that would work with a three hour hold time? First thing that comes to mind is pork butt. I'd like to do ribs but can they hold that long? Also what about safety issues?
 
Pork butt and brisket should definitely hold that long. You should get four hours if you foil, wrap in towels, and put it in a decent cooler. Maybe more if you put the towels in the clothes dryer first and/or use a better cooler.

I'm not sure about ribs, though.
 
Six hours hot is easy for a few pork butts or briskets in a decent preheated cooler, and I've done it many a time.

I like Sean's idea of heating towels in the dryer to fill in the space in the cooler.
 
Is there a grill there? You can pre-smoke the ribs to just shy of done. Cool and wrap, then refigerate. Transport in a cold cooler, then cook them on the grill when you get there.
 
preheating the cooler with hot water in milk jugs or just put hot water in the cooler if it will hold water (my BBQ cooler's drain plug dry rotted, and now it won't hold more than 1" of water). You can fill in the gaps with wadded up newspaper, which does a great job of keeping food hot. I cooked two butts for our monthly office food day/birthday celebration back in February, and held them over 150° for over 4 hours in the cooler with just towels. You should be fine for 2 1/2 hours.
 
Robert,

I did two butts for a family reunion a couple weeks ago. Wrapped them in foil separately, and then wrapped both together with a single towel, and placed in a cooler. 3 hours later, it was still so hot, it was burning our hands as we pulled it.
 
I find preheating the cooler by letting it sit for awhile after pouring a big pot of boiling water in it extends the hold time very well. Towels, newspaper, etc aren't necessary to fill the space - air is actually a decent insulator. Wrapping the meat in foil helps minimize evaporation and will also help extend the temps at a high level. Probably the most important thing you can do is keep the lid tightly shut and avoid the temptation to check the temperature. No matter what you do, holding meat for a long period unfortunately will soften bark or skin.
 
And here's what happened:

- I calculated I needed 18 pounds of meat, I knew I couldn't get anything that big off the shelf so I ordered two nine pounders from WhiteHouse Meats at the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto
- when I opened them up to cut off the fat, there was none except the fat cap which I removed, so even after that I still had pretty much what I started with weightwise.
- my estimate for a cook at 250 degrees was 20 hours so I started this at 5pm on Saturday to leave for the cottage at 1pm Sunday.
- starting internal temp was 42 degrees. At midnight I did a first baste, flipped the butts, and checked internal temps. Temp was 161.
- 'Oh, great' I thought, these are going to be ready in about four hours and then what do I do?
- got up at 7am and checked internal temp again, temp was 161 again. 'Oh, great' I thought, these things are not going to be ready by 1pm and then what do I do?
- soon after the temp started rising and by 12:30 they were at 195.
- I combined everyone's tips on storing: preheated the cooler with hot water, foiled the butts, emptied the water, dried the cooler, put in the butts on top of one another, and filled the air spaces with newspaper.
- someone suggested putting in bottles of hot water and I did this one better by substituting the hot water with the Carolina Red I made (bringing it to a near boil).
- then I put the cooler in the trunk of the car where I figured it would be the hottest
- then I did the three hour car trip thinking about how I was going to kill everyone with tainted meat that had gone below 140 degrees.
- I got to the cottage and took the temp and it was at 178!
- Checked it at 6:00 pm and it was still above 170 after five and a half hours
- then tore it up with bear-claws in a fraction of the time I usually spend using forks
- then everyone ate and it was great!

Thanks everyone for your tips! What I learned:
- bear claws are an excellent investment for the time they save and the thorough shredding they do
- a cooler can really hold the meat at temp for a very long time if you do it right
- I no longer have to worry about trying to have the butts reach temp close to eating time because they can be held at temp for hours and hours in a cooler.
- secondary learning: call your butcher to order a butt, you get something way nicer than off the shelf!
 
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