Thawing pork butt


 
Lynn Dollar

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
I'm planning a pork butt cook Saturday. I got the butts out the freezer yesterday and put them in the fridge. I can't tell they've thawed any , at all. How can I ensure they're thawed by Saturday ?
 
You have more experience than me but two thoughts come to mind: 1) if you have a vac sealer that will accommodate the butt you could do a cold water bath early Saturday morning or 2) a couple years ago I purposely experimented by smoking a pork shoulder from its frozen state. According to my log, the taste and texture was no different but it looks like I slathered some mustard to hold the rub (I reached a point where I stopped doing that, normally). It was a 7.5 lb shoulder and took 15.5 hours at 250-260*f.

Or if you have a Sous Vide could you start there?
 
I should've added, I plan on prepping the pork butts Friday evening, then getting up early Saturday morning to get them on the smoker.
 
Plus one for the cold water bath. if you keep the bowl in the sink and keep a tiny (1/8”) stream of water flowing into the bowl, it will thaw a lot faster than in the fridge. That being said, it’s a pretty thick piece of meat. Maybe start it Friday and refrigerate it as needed. Just my .02
 
If hard frozen, they can take a few days. May not seem to be thawing, but it could still be ready on time. Last minute water thaw if necessary.
 
I'd do the water bath. There is an old episode of Good Eats where Alton sets up something line an aquarium pump to keep the water moving when he's thawing a frozen turkey. Keeping the water moving is important if you can do it because it speeds up the thawing. I've been meaning to get the pump set up so I'm not wasting water by letting a faucet drip when I thaw out frozen meats but somehow can't get around to it.... maybe because of time spent on long winded replies to other posts on this forum?? ;)
 
Yea, four day thaw should be fine, but like was mentioned upthread, I've done fully or partially frozen butts before and the only time difference is it takes longer for the WSM to come up to temps.
 
Well, Mrs Dollar has found that our new fridge was put on its lowest setting. She's adjusted the temp.

Can I put the pork butt back in the fridge after the water bath ?
 
Lynn, I do that frequently. Just make sure you use it within a reasonable time.

Say you froze a butt the day you bought it, when you thaw it you have a while to use it. However, if you let that butt sit around for a couple of weeks before freezing it, you’d better use it very soon.
 
If you have the fridge space (you might since one butt is much smaller than a turkey), the easiest thing by far is to do the water bath with a pot/bucket in the fridge. No need to change or monitor the water temp as you do when using the sink. The fridge assures the water will stay 32-40F indefinitely.

If you lack fridge space, then a cooler is a great thaw chamber. For a slow thaw over several days, you put ice in there (frozen milk jugs is my go to at Thanksgiving time) and use your BBQ probe thermometer as the monitor. Very easy to maintain the 32-40F refrigerator temp zone for days on end.

You also can use the cooler for the quick water bath thaw. The insulation of the cooler mostly/entirely avoids the need to keep changing the water as you have to do in the sink. Again, your BBQ probe thermometer monitors for you.

All explained below.

blog.thermoworks.com

How Long to Thaw a Frozen Turkey

Proper thawing is important to the success of your turkey. There are different ways to thaw a turkey but only one way to verify it's completely thawed.
blog.thermoworks.com blog.thermoworks.com
 
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If they are still frozen and you have an aversion to a cold water thaw do you have the option of buying fresh butts today and placing the others back in the freezer?
 
I never realized there was so much to thawing. And I don't know how I've never had this problem before. Maybe its the new fridge.
 
I’m going to go out on a limb and admit to counter thawing. I do it for a few hours at a time. Not overnight or for long stretches but it helps to get the process started before throwing it in the fridge. This is mainly for beef but I’ve done it with shoulders before too.
 
I too plead guilty to counter thawing like Richard does.

I'll usually do that for a few hours right when the meat comes out of the deep freeze to get the process going. Then into the fridge for the balance of the time.

Also -- remember you are cooking pork shoulder. I'm no food scientist and YMMV. But you'd think that cooking a pork shoulder for like 14 hours and all the way up to 203F (for tenderness) would negate any venial sins committed during the thaw. Since the USDA spec for pork is three minutes at 145F.

Using a cooler and your BBQ probe thermometer for thawing is SUPER helpful around the holidays. Since you usually don't have large unused fridge space at that time.
 
I used to be lax about thawing food on the counter, until I learned it's not the bugs that are dangerous. No matter how many bugs grow on your thawing food, the bugs will die in the cooking process. However, the excrement left behind by the bugs is not affected by cooking and it can make you very sick.
 
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