Process check, pork butt


 
D

David Somerville

TVWBB Fan
I am fixing pulled pork for 22 people (some kids included) next Monday at a gathering out of state. My plan is to smoke 17 lbs of butt on Friday night and pull on Saturday morning.

I was going to put the pork in Ziploc bags, and keep on ice on Sunday while we drive. On Monday I plan to put the pork in aluminum pans, add some apple juice and reheat in an oven (covered with foil). Serve on Monday night with Keri's baked beans and some slaw, sauce on the side.

Anyone see any problems with my plan for the transport and reheat of the pork? Transporting my WSM is simply not an option.

Any collective wisdom from the board would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
David, do you have a vaccuum sealer, by any chance? If not, your approach sounds good to me. You might keep quantities small in the bags to help in chilling.

If you will put your ziplock bag in a pot of water in the sink as you fill it, the force of the water on the sides of the bag will help force air out of the ziplock, and you can create almost as much of a vaccuum in that manner as with a Food Saver.

Have a great gathering!

Regards - Keri C
 
I second what Keri said. Small quantities in each bag will help keep the chill. You may want to freeze some apple juice in a ziplock, use as an ice pack, then thaw and use in the pulled pork for the reheat. One less bottle to lug around.
Let us know how the gathering went.
 
how long is your drive? could you time your cook when your ready to leave? you could wrap tight with tin foil then wrap in bath towels and thrown in a dry cooler. i have kept butts hot for up to 6-7 hours in a dry cooler.
 
If you ice the water in the pot chilling will be quicker. Definitely keep the quantities small so that chilling in thorough. Once cold, you can repack into fewer bags if you wish--or not. RD's idea to freeze the juice is a great one.

You can reheat in the oven at 300F. No need to use a lower temp. Stir periodically though.
 
All,

Thank you very much for the ideas. I love the po' man's food saver (I really need to get one someday!!) and will definetly freeze some apple juice.

I'll see if I can figure out the whole picture thingy and get some pictures up here to share.

Thanks again!
 
All,

A pretty interesting trip! I thought I would share some learnings.

I put my butts on the smoker @ 6:30 Friday night running about 250. Minion start with some hickory I gave each one a generous application of Mr Brownand took them off at 6:30 on Saturday morning. They were falling apart as I took them off the WSM.

I then put on two fatties(Jimmy Dean)and let the butts rest.

I made up the base for Keri's Hog-Apple baked beans (everything but the beans, sausage and apple pie filling), placced in a tupperware container and then into the fridge.

When the fatties were done (160) I put on 16 oz of mushrooms for Doug's smokey mushroom dip.

While the mushrooms were smoking I made a modified version of Keri's Corn and Black Bean Salad (no Rotel, no jalepeno..my crowd is not into spicy) and place the salad into another tupperware container and into the fridge.

I finished up the mushrom dip (was a double batch) and the started pulling pork. I tried the poor man's vacumm sealer but didn't have much luck. I wasputting the pulled pork into quart ziploc bags. The simply floated in the ice bath, even when almost full of pork. I filled 6 quart ziplocs with pork and threw them in the freezer for ~1.5 hours to get them cold quickly.

While the pork was cooling I made a batch of Steve's Lexington Vinegar Sauce and stored in an old ketchup bottle.

I used duct tape to seal all of my tuppereare and then placed them into 2.5 gallon ziplocs. I double bagged my fatties and pork in separate 2.5 gallon ziplocs also.

Everything went into a 120 quart 5-day cooler and was covered in ice. This was about 12:00 on Saturday. We hit the road and made it up to the lake in Tn on Sunday. On Monday night I reheated the pork in a large roaster with about 2.5 cups of apple juice. It seemed excessive but the pork just kept soaking it up. I fininshed making the baked beans on the stove and also put together a double batch of Zataran's low sodium jambalya for the non-pork eaters. Also made up some bag cole-slaw with Marie Callendar dressing.

The mushroom dip was served with baby carots and celery sticks.

Everything transported and heated great! Pork was served with buns and a coice of vinegar sauce or Sweet Baby Ray.

Pork = huge hit
Baked beans = huge hit
Corn and black bean salad = Polite response (Very pretty, ooh..what's in here) but plenty of leftovers.
Mushroom dip = hardly touched. Did not help when a 10 year old declared the diced mushrooms to be dead flies in the dip.
Lexington Sauce = used some. More people preferred the sweet sauce.

Learnings:
I fixed way too much food. My 22 people included 10 kids. Folks ended up having plenty of leftovers for the next day.

It's pretty easy to transport dinner for 22 across 4 states if you are prepped right.

Thanks for everybody's help!

David
 
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