Vacuum Packed Pulled Pork Experience


 
B

Brad H.

TVWBB Fan
I just pulled out a frozen, vacuum packed portion of pulled pork I put away months ago...reheated it...and it was absolutely amazing...it had all kinds of hickory smoked flavor....just outstanding...

I mention this because this was the first time I used hickory for a butt smoke (I typically use another wood) and I was disappointed...as was my son...at the time it just wasn't that flavorful at all...until now...what a change...

Has anyone else experienced this change with vacuum packed pork butt?
 
Yup, sure have. And not just with hickory.

Sometimes I chalk it up to being around the cooker during smoking then, not all that long later, doing the pulling and eating. When you're around a lot of smoke in a given period sometimes things don't taste quiet as good, quiet as smoke-flavored as you might like, because you've been smelling smoke for much of the day and have gotten used to it--smoke overload.

Other times it seems more like the flavors just needed time to meld--like one finds with cooking pot roast or a pot of chili one day, but serving it the next (but doing plenty of tasting during cooking). It quite frequently tastes better the second day after the flavors have had a chance to interact and blend.

Chilling for a time, also, can take the edge off of some sharp flavors allowing the overall flavor profile to seem fuller.

I don't really have an answer. Just a couple thoughts.
 
I agree with Kevin. I see it this way. As a cigarette smoker, you don't notice the smell of smoke from the cigarette. As a non-smoker (I quit March 2006), I can smell the smoke a mile away! Catch my drift?
Steve
 
Perhaps these are the same reasons a cook tends to be his/her own worst critic. Others eating the same food are just arriving or doing some other thing around the house not close to the food all day.

Pete
 
I had been wondering the same things about a brisket I cooked a couple of weeks ago. I was disappointed with the initial cook, but the week following was full of tasty leftovers.
 
Being able to vacuum pack foods that I have cooked is something that I thought would be very cool to be able to do when the original "Cookin Bags" were introduced. I find that the foods stored in them are more flavorful than the day that I originally prepared them, probably because my senses of smell and taste, have not been desensitized from being around the food or Q while preparing it.
 
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