Freezing a pork butt

[John H.]

Anyone have any idea how to freeze a pork butt? I'm about to pull a 6# butt off the smoker, and would like to freeze it to take on a trip on Friday. Should I freeze it whole, or shredded? Ideas?

 

[Shawn W]

Hey there Cowboy, I'd shred then freeze. It pulls best while still hot. Popular opinion suggests a vacuum food saver, I've done it with lung power and freezer baggies.

Might want to portion it up. I served a crowd of around 20 some precooked, thawed and held in electric crock pots; pork with a little BBQ sauce mixed in, beef with a little beef stock (Bovril Beef bouillon & water).

 

[Chris Allingham]

Regarding pork butt, you can freeze, reheat and pull the meat with ease. Wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil, freeze, then defrost at your destination (will take a day or two in the fridge), then put foil-wrapped butt into a 300-350*F oven for about two hours. Meat will pull easily.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Shawn W]

I can't speak to what Chris is saying (haven't tried that, but I'm going to now, thanks Chris!). In my experience a butt pulls best hot off WSM (<= 1hr resting time in cooler), so if you only want a portion instead of the whole thing it might be best to pull hot, split it up then freeze and take that portion with you.

My slant on it is I'm REALLY picky when I shred. It takes me about 45 minutes to do one butt cuz I try to scrape out everything except for meat .... maybe I'm just slow at it.

Chris, are butts even EASIER to pull after freezing when one is really picky as I am?

 

[Bryan S]

Shawn, I'm with you on the slow pulling thing. I get real anal about getting all the veins and nasties out of there.

I know whats in there and it's gotta go

Bryan

 

[Greg Rempe]

I've never seen anything bad in the butts when I pull. Takes me about 10min to pull it. Should I be more careful?!!??!?!!

 

[Bill Hays]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Greg Rempe:
I've never seen anything bad in the butts when I pull. Takes me about 10min to pull it. Should I be more careful?!!??!?!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Same here ~ Only have found a stray piece of bone once...

 

[Greg Rempe]

PHEEEW, glad I'm not the only one, Bill!!

 

[Bryan S]

Do you ever get the felling somebody is following you

It's the veins and sinue that i find that i just don't want sliding down my throat.

Especially in the chuck roll.

Oh thats right you never did one yet

Gotta do one you don't know what your missing. See i don't disapoint

Let the chuck roll bashing begin

Bryan

 

[Bill Hays]

Pork Rules, Bryan

 

[Shawn W]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Greg Rempe:
I've never seen anything bad in the butts when I pull. Takes me about 10min to pull it. Should I be more careful?!!??!?!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> it hasn't killed you yet Greg

. <just kidding, you like what you make and that's what matters>

Yep, Chuck Rolls have lots of nasty looking veins. From the butts, I try to remove any membranes between the muscles, ALL fat and even some of the meat if it's it's got that green/grey look and it's really squishy (find this where rub has accumulated in deep folds where bark doesn't form.

When I prep a butt I remove all outside fat. With these longer slower butt cooks of mine (the no foil ones) I end up with maybe 1/8" - 1/32" of spicy pork jerky all over the butt and it's my favourite part.

 

[Greg Rempe]

Never ceases to amaze me how anal I am with some things and not with others. Maybe my butts are of better quality? The fat in my butts render almost completely so no problem there when pulling. Who knows, unfortunately, I will be looking a lot harder at the next butt I do...THANKS SHAWN!!