Drying out in cooler?

[DavidD]

When a butt is done early and you store it in a cooler for several hours, will this reduce the moisture and partially dry the meat at it continues to cook for hours? I pulled mine at 4pm at 195 degrees and wrapped it. 2.5 hrs later, it was still at 165 degrees. It wasn't dried out, but I wondered if it would have been more juicy if it hadn't sat for 2.5 hrs.

 

[Larry Wolfe]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Davidd:
When a butt is done early and you store it in a cooler for several hours, will this reduce the moisture and partially dry the meat at it continues to cook for hours? I pulled mine at 4pm at 195 degrees and wrapped it. 2.5 hrs later, it was still at 165 degrees. It wasn't dried out, but I wondered if it would have been more juicy if it hadn't sat for 2.5 hrs. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

NOT at all. As long as the butt is properly wrapped in foil, it will not cause it to dry out. Typically the main thing that causes meat to dry out is overcooking. What temperature did you cook the butt? If the temps were too low and you cooked for longer than necessary that 'could' possibly cause a less moist butt. Or you may have just had a leaner than normal butt.

 

[Jon Merka]

continous addition of heat after done is reached makes meat dry out. tahts why you often find dry chicken and turkey. cooking instructions on packaging for turkey and the pop up therms on them are way too high for cooked to safely done so people tend to end up with dry turkey same with chicken.

when i cook chicken and turkey its just as juicy pulling it from the fridge the next day as it was right off the grill.

same is true for beef and pork.