Wedding Reception Pulled Pork

[Lew Newby]

My Grandson, Cody, and his fiance, Kat, asked me to make pulled pork for 40 people at their reception. Sonny's BBQ is catering the Chicken and sides so my task was simple. Yesterday I smoked 32 lb. of Pork so the kids have some extra. Used Apple Blend pellets. I pulled it after a long rest in the cooler. Wife gave it a thumbs up so no finishing sauce. I vacuum sealed it and tomorrow, I'll reheat in the Sous Vide. I am extremely happy with the SmokeFire and enjoyed having the extra space of the EX6.

 

[J Grotz]

Looks delicious, Lew! That's a lot pork to sous vide! How big of a container and how many circulators do you have? I was surprised at how small a volume of water the Anova is rated to heat.

 

[Lew Newby]

Looks delicious, Lew! That's a lot pork to sous vide! How big of a container and how many circulators do you have? I was surprised at how small a volume of water the Anova is rated to heat.

Thanks. I converted a 48 qt. cooler to my family gathering Sous Vide cooker. I have one Anova and if the container is insulated there's no limit on water quantity. I read this article before I did it. https://anovaculinary.com/sous-vide-cooler-guide/ I've cooked Brisket, Butts, and 20 ears of corn on the cob in it. Works like a champ.

 

[JeffB]

Lew, I LOVE this Sous Vide idea. So cool! What are you using to seal the bags? I've been them out there but have never invested in one. Thanks!

Do you use the bags and sealer from Anova?

 

[Lew Newby]

Lew, I LOVE this Sous Vide idea. So cool! What are you using to seal the bags? I've been them out there but have never invested in one. Thanks!

Do you use the bags and sealer from Anova?

We have the Foodsaver and I use their rolls and cut to the length I need. I double seal each end of the bag to ensure no leakage.

 

[BFletcher]

Very nicely done and congrats on the family wedding!

 

[Ron De Hoogh]

That is a cool(er) idea!

 

[Lew Newby]

Wedding complete. It was a noon wedding and I took everything to the Church this morning and set it up. Serving was their job. The compliments were a little embarrassing but appreciated. What's important is that the wedding is in the books and everyone's happy.

 

[JeffB]

Lew, a buddy of mine runs a successful BBQ truck in Austin and he tells me he does Sous Vide all the time but that he has to sear everything when it comes out of the cook or else it looks uncooked.

Do you sear your Boston Butt, Briskets, etc. before cooking Sous Vide, after, or at all? I'm curious how the process works. How do you put smoke on the meat cooking Sous Vide? How do you obtain bark? Curious....

Thanks!

 

[Lew Newby]

I don't know if your friend does Butts and Brisket in the Sous Vide but, for me, it works great for smaller cuts of meat like Steak, Chicken, and Pork Chops. Any meat you cook in a Sous Vide will need a searing after coming out of the water bath as it looks bland at that point. Last year I played with it a lot and decided that if I wanted BBQ I would just do straight BBQ. I tried smoking meat for 6 hrs. to get a lot of smoke and bark on it and then finish in the Sous Vide. Took a long time, timing required planning far ahead, the meat was moist, tender and tasty but the bark was soft. I tried Sous Vide first and then smoke. Moist, tender, and tasty but very little smoke flavor and weak bark. I even tried Smoke, Sous Vide, and smoke. Excellent results but way too much work for me. I did Brisket, Pork Butt, St. Louis cut Ribs, and Pork Steaks. Some folks who Sous Vide Butts, and I did, finish them in a 400° oven. I finished in the smoker. The cooler, pictured above, was modified to handle big cuts of meat and large quantities of veggies. I hope that's clear enough.

 

[J Hasselberger]

I even tried Smoke, Sous Vide, and smoke. Excellent results but way too much work for me.

A local chef promotes his "56-hour brisket". My neighbor is pals with the chef and got his "secret" process. We tried it with my neighbor's smallish sous vide rig. I smoked a small packer for something like 6 hours, then we had to cut it into 3 pieces to fit it in the sv bath for like 36 hours. It went back into the smoker for a couple of hours at the end. It was unpleasantly oversmoked. I think the long sous vide after the first smoke just intensified the smoke flavor beyond usefulness. Cutting the par-smoked hunk into three didn't help either.

Gotta admit, I do love the cooler sous vide rig you've got. I think you put it to good use for the occasion. Kudos!

Jeff

 

[Lew Newby]

I looked in my log at a cook I did last year and here's the plan I followed. The 155° Sous Vide gave me the traditional Brisket texture. I smoked on my pellet grill so the smoke flavor was there but mild. 180° is the lowest temp. setting on my Rec Tec controller but gives the most smoke. My log said it was very tasty and passed the pull test. Sometimes I morph into a mad scientist. I had a blast experimenting with hybrid BBQ but, like I said, now I do BBQ only on the smoker.