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


 
J

Jeff Davidson

TVWBB Super Fan
Hi,

I'm cooking two 10-11 pound pork shoulders for a fundraising event. I have to be ready to serve the pulled pork at 8pm. I'm thinking about throwing the pork shoulders on at around 11pm tonight, cooking at 250F with a projected end time of around 4pm. But then I'd need to hold the pork for 4 hours, which is seems a long time. And by that time, the temp will have fallen to a point that will make it hard to pull.

an alternative would be to start the pork at 9am with a high heat method.

thoughts?

thanks,
 
Double wrap in foil, then a big towel, pop it in a cooler and crack a beer to wait for pulling time! I love the dbl. foil,wrap method! It works like a champ! Don't worry, you have built enough time in so you can adjust time as the butts require. There is no watch on a porkbutt, it does not know what time it is only, when it's done. It will be fine.
 
thanks timothy...if I hold the pork for four hours, I'd guess the temp will fall below 190, no? my experience is that's less than optimum for pulling...or do you think the double wrap will keep temp > 190?

hey, I see you're from kalamazoo! I visited the school with my son but he ended up elsewhere, seems like a cool town. I encouraged my D to look at their pre-med program (93% placement), she'd have received a lot of merit $, but opted for a more well-known brand.

thanks again for your help!

best,
 
Yea I held 4- 10# butts in a cambro for 4 hrs doubled foiled and they pulled like a dream.
It depends on the insulation of whatever you're holding it in, and the added residual heat ( of whatever you're cooking) to keep it above 190 for that amount of time.

Tim
 
jeff davidson said:
thanks len, you'd cut the pork shoulders in half? why? and how? there's a pretty big bone down the middle of the shoulder.
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My bad. You're doing a shoulder not butt. Forget cutting it.

Timothy F. Lewis said:
Double wrap in foil, then a big towel, pop it in a cooler and crack a beer to wait for pulling time! I love the dbl. foil,wrap method! It works like a champ! Don't worry, you have built enough time in so you can adjust time as the butts require. There is no watch on a porkbutt, it does not know what time it is only, when it's done. It will be fine.
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timothy said:
Yea I held 4- 10# butts in a cambro for 4 hrs doubled foiled and they pulled like a dream.
It depends on the insulation of whatever you're holding it in, and the added residual heat ( of whatever you're cooking) to keep it above 190 for that amount of time.

Tim
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Both Tims missed that too.
 
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Clarification needed here.
Whole shoulder, Boston butt and picnic shoulder, or just the Boston butt portion?

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A whole pork shoulder weighs much more than 10# so I reckoned Jeff was doing two pork shoulder roasts ( common name for butts round here).
Picnic half or shoulder didnt cross my mind cause I never pulled one, only slice em and only take them to 180 max.
I score the skin with a sharp knife and make a paste of evo, garlic, oregano S&P and red wine vin, rub that all over and saran wrap it for 24hrs in the fridge. ( I got the recipe from JOY, Latin picnic shoulder )

Tim
 
timothy said:
A whole pork shoulder weighs much more than 10# so I reckoned Jeff was doing two pork shoulder roasts ( common name for butts round here).
Tim
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Yep, I missed that he gave the weights.
I've never pulled a picnic either, not that it can't be done.
 
thanks guys, I think I'm looking good, meat went on at midnight, it's noon and meat is at 170F. I'll double wrap, cover with towels, into cooler and should be good to go.
 
Let us know how it turns out, you've got about 25 degrees to go which can feel like it's taking forever but, it will be done when it gets there. It will be fine! Raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock here today, glad I planned on somethI got for the oven for dinner today,the extra warmth will be good!
 
Do NOT pull the butt off the smoker, immediately wrap in foil, and then put in the cooler for hours. It will still be more than hot enough to continue converting collagen to gelatin. If you leave it like that long enough, when you go to pull it the whole thing will just fall apart. You'll end up with nothing but strands of muscle fiber. This is the voice of unfortunate experience. The situation is even worse if you have more than one butt as the thermal mass will quickly heat the cooler up and keep the temperature high for a long time.

Let the butts stand at room temperature until they've cooled to 160F or below. THEN wrap and place in the cooler to hold. If you have a decent cooler they will still be plenty hot enough hours later.
 
I do it the same as Timothy. Off the smoker, double foil, wrap in towels and into cooler. I've held them up to 4 hours in the coolerr and never had a problem.
 
I've dedicated an "Omaha Steak" cooler for this purpose along with a couple of towels, so far I've not had any problem with overly "strandy" product. I see the possibility but, have never experienced it.
Too blooming wet here for smoking today! Rain, wind and misery all around, fire in the fireplace, nice big casserole waiting for the oven sometimes you need a break, even though I'd eat three and a half pounds of brisket if I'd put one on last night!
 
JayHeyl said:
Do NOT pull the butt off the smoker, immediately wrap in foil, and then put in the cooler for hours. It will still be more than hot enough to continue converting collagen to gelatin. If you leave it like that long enough, when you go to pull it the whole thing will just fall apart. You'll end up with nothing but strands of muscle fiber. This is the voice of unfortunate experience. The situation is even worse if you have more than one butt as the thermal mass will quickly heat the cooler up and keep the temperature high for a long time.

Let the butts stand at room temperature until they've cooled to 160F or below. THEN wrap and place in the cooler to hold. If you have a decent cooler they will still be plenty hot enough hours later.
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You've piqued my interest here, Jay.

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

I wrap my butts (single layer wrap - straight off the smoker) and place them in a 170° pre-heated oven. They stay there all night (6 to 8 hours) with the oven off, and my wife pulls the meat the next morning. She says the butts are plenty warm when she pulls the meat apart.

Are we doing it wrong? Are the fibers supposed to be a little firmer?

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Good luck with your smoke, Jeff!
 
thanks guys, Timothy's method of double wrapping/cooler worked perfectly. The meat moved from 170 to 200 pretty quickly (a couple of hours), I took it off the wsm at 3pm, double wrapped and into the cooler (somehow I lost a sandwich size amount of meat and bark in the process), out of the cooler at 7:15, pulled easily using my fingers. It was a little frantic as I was grillling 140 wings at the same time but everything came out well.

served with slaw and pickles on ptotato slider buns, went through the majority of the pork at the fundraiser but enough leftovers for nachos over the next couple of days.

here's a tip I've been using for a number of years, I cut back the skin to form a flap and expose the meat underneath. this effectivley doubles the amount of smoke/bark. I add rub to the folded back skin and chop the skin portion when it's finished, finally combining the chopped skin with the pulled pork. Nice crunchy bits of (unhealthy) skin mixed into the pork draws raves.

thanks again to everyone for the help!

best,
 
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