Reheating Pulled Pork


 
L

Les Stubby

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Am at the beach with extended family and want to reheat 2 pork butts which I pulled last week. How long can I reheat the pork and how can I make it more moist or help it hold its moisture. Have about 6 hours before dinner.

les stubby
 
One key is the juice from the butts. I'll foil my butts either late in the cook or when I take them off. I let them rest in the foil for 2 hours or more. When I go to pull them I carefully unwrap them and pour off the liquid into a bowl. After refrigeration the liquid solidifies into a layer of fat over a base of pork jello. The fat layer comes off fairly easily, and the jello can be crumbled and cut back into the pulled pork. When its reheated it has a great mouthfeel and tastes unbelievably moist.

If you didn't save your pork jello then your best bet is to reheated with a nice dose of sauce or sauce cut with apple juice.

I don't like to fire the oven in the summer, but vacation-wise I'll usually toss the pork into a foil pan covered with foil and put it in the oven 300ish for 40 min. comes out nice with no clean up.
 
If you keep it out of the danger zone ( 40-140) temp wise, you could prolong the time before spoilage. If its frozen till used, then it will likely last for up to a month or more, tightly wrapped in foil and plastic wrap.

I would reheat it gently, tightly wrapped in foil, with some water thinned bbq sauce, or apple juice.
 
If it don't have it vac packed, which is more typical I will use a covered foil pan. If I don't have the juices I'll either use some North Carolina style red or white sauce or just some apple juice and mix that in until it all looks like it has good moisture. I preheat in the oven at 175 to 200 since I don't want to dry it out or "cook it again" just bring it up to serving temp. Mix it up again to distribute the juices and serve. I actually use a spray bottle when I add the sauce, juice or other liquid. If I have the juice from cooking I just dump it on and work it in. Either way works just fine.

I figure I spent all that time to keep it tender, don't want to overheat or dry out the leftovers.
 
What ever you put in for moisture is up to you, but don't make the pork go swimming in the liquid.
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I prefer to use chicken stock. I don't care for AJ in the pork at all. The key is to keep it sealed up tight while reheating. If not it will dry out very fast on you. Vac sealed is the best way, IMO. Foil/pan and the oven work well also. Crock pot works, but you can over do it if you let it in there too long. HTH
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I preheat in the oven at 175 to 200 since I don't want to dry it out or "cook it again" just bring it up to serving temp. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

call me impatient but low and slow once is enough for me. If I got the meat done (fully broken down), the second time around it doesnt matter how fast it gets there, I just dont want to over shoot my reheat temp. Like Bryan states: keep it sealed so it cant dry out.

I find pp is fairly resilient when reheating as long as you follow the rules (juice/sauce, cover, don't over cook). In fact my mom was just commenting on some leftover pp that she had for lunch. They were reheated and chilled 4 times(smoker, fridge, oven, freezer, micro, fridge, micro) and she swears it was as good as the first time.
 
When I reheat the vacuumed sealed left overs I start with a large skillet (you can just use a pot of water as well) and bring the water slowly up to about 160 degrees until the meat is thawed and at the same temp. Then dump into a pan add any other additional liquid if needed (usually packed with the natural juices) before serving.

If you don't care about pushing them past the original cook temp you can simply boil in the pack until everything is thawed and hot.

This is the method I use 95% of the time. I typically have thing vac sealed. Time they are not is when I am prepping in advance for a large party and the trays of pork are made up the night before, etc.

During the reheat in the water they are left sealed.
 
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