"Pre-Smoking" a pork shoulder...

I've done several pulled pork recipes from the board in my WSM, but I have a special situation coming up. I'd like to serve it at a 40 person 2-day golf outing, but we don't have the time to watch the smoke continuously. My idea is to 'Half-Cook" the shoulders for 4-6 hours (x4 butts) at home, then freeze or refrigerate them for the 3 hour trip that would be a few days later.

The morning of my event, I would put them in the oven at 225* to finish them off for an later afternoon eat.

I'm not sure this is even safe, let alone ideal. Hauling the smoker and supplies to do it all on site would be tricky and messy, so I'd like to serve 'real' smoked pulled pork without having to do the smoking on site.

Would a better idea be to fully cook the butts at home then freeze them for 'warm up'? I'm concerned about losing bark/flavor if I finish them off completely at home.

Any ideas you have on getting the best results would be appreciated.

Q

I would recommend fully cooking and pulling ahead of time. It will reheat fine with a bit of apple juice or other liquid in a medium oven. I do this more often than not.

I would worry about bacteria, etc if you held them only half cooked. Also not clear how the finish cooking would go since the outer portions that are fully cooked already would need to cook again in order to get the heat to the interior.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I would recommend fully cooking and pulling ahead of time. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Agreed. It's convenient - and far safer.

I use a finishing sauce, added when the meat is pulled/chopped and cool the meat in shallow pans, for safety - then chill it still in the pans, uncovered. When cold I pack in Ziplocs or vac bags and return to the fridge.

I'd cook, shred, use a finishing sauce if you want, cool, vacuum pack, & then freeze. To reheat you can boil the bags or put it in covered pans in the oven or however you want.

This is why I always cook extra - no degradation of flavor/texture, & there's always (except now!) some in the freezer.

Check case prices if you're buying from Costco - it's usually priced quite a bit cheaper.

I agree. When I am in situations like yours I cook it before hand, pull it, freeze it. When its time for the party, put my oven on 300, add apple juice (covered) and I tossed it around about every half hour. DO that for about 2 and a half hours and it comes out perfect. Then if you want, sauce it from there. (if you sauce it)I think the key here is always tossing the pork and cooking it low and slow when bringing the temp up.

I'm one that feels PP is just as good or better the next day or whenever you decide to re-heat it (frozen or not)
I totally agree with the great advice given up-thread. And Kevin's proper way(s) to handle post cook is something I learned from being on the site and is priceless IMO.

Tim

We pretty regularly travel with a pulled pork butt on vacations. Smoke, pull, liberally douse with Kevin's finishing sauce, then freeze. It keeps everything else in your cooler cold, too. Then just reheat in the oven. As long as you don't overheat it, the quality is easily 90% of freshly pulled.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">As long as you don't overheat it, the quality is easily 90% of freshly pulled. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Which is still 200% better than restaurant food.

I agree with what's said above. Par-cooking meat is usually less effective than just cooking, cooling and re-heating.