Advance Cooking


 
E

Erik N

TVWBB Member
I have a couple different events coming up this month that I'm struggling with a little bit on timing. The first is my wife's baby shower and she wants pulled pork for it. It is at 1pm on a saturday. With that I think I can prep the butts and have them ready to get the final treatment and thrown on the fire by 6:30 - if my math is right then 16 hours would be me at 10:30 saturday, if I had to cheat an extra hour with foil to finish it would push me to 11:30 - noon - giving me about an hour of rest before pulling ............ tight but possibly doable

the 2nd is going to northern AZ and cooking for the volunteer fire dept bbq - last year I took my WSM up there and burned through an insane amount of fuel and the cooks took forever to do brisket & butt ...... this year I'm not going to have as much time up there and am not going to travel with my WSM

this means I need to prep before hand and reheat once I get up there - I'm driving up on a friday night and serving saturday afternoon

i'd like to do pulled pork as I know it reheats well

just wondering if anyone had any tips/tricks on cooking and storing a butt for later (i'm used to just dealing with leftovers)

also if there are any other suggestions of things that I could prepare for the group - probably 30-40 people
 
I would highly suggest doing both cooks in advance.

It is quite easy to do pork days - even many days or longer - in advance, when you have time. Rest the pork then pull as usual. (I add a finishing sauce at this point, and recommend it.) Toss the pork well and then cool it fairly quickly. (One way to do this is to pre-chill sheet or roasting pans and place the pulled pork in them. Finish cooling in the fridge, uncovered, till well chilled, then pack for storage in the fridge or freezer, depending on how fr in advance you do your cook.

(If you have a vac-and-seal system use it. If not, freeze in Zip-locs, squeezing out the air.)

Brisket can be done in advance as well. Rest on the counter, on a rack, uncovered, to get the cooling process going then transfer to the fridge, still on a rack uncovered, to finish cooling.

Don't wrap anything for storage till it is cool.

Brisket reheats best, imo, if left whole, but (like butt) should not be reheated past serving temp. Overheating can dry meat out, especially something like brisket.

Pulled beef (chuck) is another suggestion, turkey breast, smoked salmon...
 
thanks for the tips

what would be the best way to re-heat large portions of pulled pork? - would a couple crockpots be in order?

also, any other things that could be cooked ahead and reheated for the firefighter one? - i'd like to provide more than just pork for them or does the brisket if kept whole really reheat well (just a little dubious about reheating beef - sometimes it doesn't work out the best)
 
I have reheated brisket numerous times. The trick is - with most meats you reheat, actually - not to over-reheat it. It should be taken just to serving temp (~140; 150 tops).

Pulled beef reheats well, ribs do, smoked turkey, meat loaves of various types - and of course many sides do to.

I am not a fan of CrockPots but those certainly work just fine.

If I have not vac-sealed the meat I thaw (if frozen) and reheat in covered roasting pans at an oven temp of 300-350, the temp depending on what else I might have in the oven. (Disposable foil pans work fine.) After the first half-hour or so I stir, recover, then repeat in 10 min, and 10 thereafter, till the meat is serving-temp hot.

I reheat briskets in a similar way except that I put them on a rack in a pan, usually I drizzle with a little stock or stock-butter, cover, then reheat at ~300 to an internal of 140.

Unless you really need residual cooking to complete the cooking process of the meats you do then, when you cook them in the first place, don't wrap and rest in coolers or whatnot - simply rest on a rack (for better air circulation) on a piece of foil (to capture and/or hold any juices) so that the cooling process begins immediately after cooking.

There is no need to reheat at low temps, as is commonly assumed. The key to keeping the meat moist is not to over-reheat it.
 
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