logistics for twenty pounds of pork shoulder for a fund raiser?

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Glad it worked out!
Now, I'm getting some of the last pulled pork out for some nachos for later after the Lions game. Errands to run.
Just curious Jeff, what was the fund raiser for?

 

[JayHeyl]

You've piqued my interest here, Jay.

Isn't it the goal to have the meat fall apart?

As I discovered the hard way, there's "fall apart" and then there's "FALL APART". With the dozens of butts I'd done prior to this incident, "fall apart" meant I could easily separate the muscles from each other and could pull the muscle apart along the line of the fibers with my bare hands. Often, getting smaller pieces from the longer fibers required a knife to cut across the fibers, but other use of the knife was usually unnecessary.

With the "FALL APART" butts, the first pull on a muscle group resulted in it completely coming apart, like a house of cards collapsing when you pull on just one of them. The fibers would be easily pulled apart into smaller pieces, as though pulling on rotted thread. The taste of this pork was okay but it felt mushy in the mouth due to there being virtually no connective tissue still remaining to hold it together at least a little bit.

I suspect at least part of the difference is with the cooler used and the mass of meat involved. You said you put them in an oven preheated to 170F, but turned off. That's going to cool down fairly quickly. Most ovens aren't really designed to be thermally impervious. It's expected there will be heat added on a regular basis to maintain the target temp, so bleed off into the environment isn't a huge deal. I put four large butts into a cooler that claimed to keep ice solid for three days. As far as thermal insulation goes, it has it all over the typical oven. The four butts filled the cooler to about 75% capacity. So there was a very significant thermal mass that came close to filling the heavily insulated container it was in. The very center of these butts was in excess of 200F when they went in the cooler. I didn't specifically measure the outer portions but I'm sure they were closer to 225F. In this circumstance the inside of the cooler would quickly come up to 200F and stay there for a long time. When I took the butts out to pull them 3.5-5.5 hours later (they didn't all finished at the same time) they were still so hot I could barely handle them with my bare hands.

Next time you do the oven rest, put a thermometer probe in one of the butts and watch the temperature over time. I'd bet they drop to 160F or lower within a couple hours. At that point the conversion of collagen to gelatin is going to virtually stop.

 

[Jeff Davidson]

Glad it worked out!
Now, I'm getting some of the last pulled pork out for some nachos for later after the Lions game. Errands to run.
Just curious Jeff, what was the fund raiser for?

timothy, it was for a grassroots tennis nonprofit, we promote the growth of tennis in our (small) town as a lifetime sport through programming for adults and kids.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Cool, a buddy of mine does a fundraiser barbecue competition for something local, I'll have to find out who it benefits and maybe join in. Good for you!

 

[Rusty James]

With the "FALL APART" butts, the first pull on a muscle group resulted in it completely coming apart, like a house of cards collapsing when you pull on just one of them. The fibers would be easily pulled apart into smaller pieces, as though pulling on rotted thread. The taste of this pork was okay but it felt mushy in the mouth due to there being virtually no connective tissue still remaining to hold it together at least a little bit.

I don't ever recall seeing what you've described. Sounds like something one would see in a crockpot.

I'll try the thermometer suggestion.