Removed my pork when fuel ran out, now what?

[JordanRichardson]

I have two whole pork shoulders that only hit 186 IT now sitting in my fridge wrapped in foil. How I got here is below but I'm wondering if I should pre-cook them both (wrapped) in the oven until IT gets near 200 to pull apart and freeze shredded pork packets or keep them whole and finish cooking them on the day of serving. I like the idea of smaller bags of frozen pulled pork with a short time to table but I also like the idea of "freshly" cooked and pulled pork with a relativly predictable timeline since I'm through the stall.

I slapped together two shoulders with rub and fired them on the WSM 18 at 2 in the afternoon (oops). I loaded about 3/4 of the charcoal basket (oops x2) as daytime temps were warm and the sun was bright. Set the controller to 245 and away I go.

Nighttime temps dropped into the 40s and come 3 am my fuel ran out and the low pit temp alarm woke me (<190). My decision was to remove them from the pit at 186 IT and 13 hrs on the grill. I wrapped the shoulders whole in foil, refrigerated and went back to bed (oops x3).

The crust that stuck to the grill was a great midnight snack but they didn't "feel" ready to pull. I'm sure they would pull, but not like butter.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

The better move would have probably been to put them in the oven and finish them. They'll probably shred if they won't pull, but 183 is pretty low. I'm kind of thinking you just reheat them to 165 and then shred them. You might want to keep them wrapped, though.

 

[Len Dennis]

Yup, get your oven working and put them in. You already have all the smoke you need. Now it's just the heat that is needed.

 

[JayHeyl]

I would be inclined toward Dustin's suggestion. Just go with what you have. Put them in the oven to reheat but otherwise just stick with the level of "done" you already have. They'll still be plenty tasty. I think if you start to cook them all over again they're going to really dry out.

Should this happen again, go right to the oven to finish the cooking.

 

[Bill Elwell]

I would add 1/4 C of apple juice to each one and cook it until the IT hits 200F then let it rest for 2 hours before pulling it.

 

[timothy]

Yea, I wouldn't heat them whole, rather break them down and separate in major muscles, or parts, then foil add whatever liquids you like and foil and bake.
I did that a few times with less than tender butts and it worked well.

Tim

 

[JordanRichardson]

Quick update. I went from the fridge to the oven with one of the wrapped butts. 250 for about 4 hours brought it up to 200. I used my pit controller to monitor the IT as well as the oven temp just for kicks. Found out my oven swings +/- 25 degrees when "holding" a temperature. My charcoal temps are way more stable

Pork pulled nice and easy with great results. Bone pulled right out and long jucy bits of meat. Obviously, the bark softened due to steaming within the wrap but that's fine for pulled pork in my mind. Didn't need any additional juice or stock.

I bagged the second one (whole) and froze it. I'll update here again when I cook it. Since the results were better than I expected I'll probably just do the same again from frozen for the second one. It'll take a bit of time for sure from frozen but I could delay start and monitor from the web in teh oven.