Do I have to pull my Butts tonight??

[eaglewing]

I have 2 4lbers that didn't 'mature' till late in the party... and I have them in the cooler right now 'resting'.

MY Q is: I thought I saw that some guys will throw theirs in the FRIG overnight and PULL them another day... can this be done and if so, how do you pull a BUTT cold?? Isn't it much hard to do that??

 

[grizandizz]

I tried that once, it didn't pull apart very well cold.
Wish I would have reheated on low wrapped in foil then pulled it.

 

[garyt]

I have done that a couple times. Refrigerate and reheat in foil in the oven the next day. Makes the bark soggy but it works. As much as I hate to do it that way there are days when things come up.

 

[eaglewing]

OK ok, I'll tough it out and pull them tonight...

I didn't think it was a good idea to wait so I'll do my best. Boy I'm wore out, all day smoke, all night drinkin & eatin...
I hope I'm not gettin too old for this...

 

[desertlites]

If your gonna pull them in the morn wrap in foil and cooler them-and they will still be warm in the AM.in fact prolly still hot-some have left in the cooler for 6-8 hrs. and still good and warm.

 

[mballi3011]

If you really pack the cooler really full with towels you can leave it in the cooler for a long time. I really like to get them out before they get below 140. If you can pull it tonight it would be for the best but if not don't it will be there later.

 

[ronp]

You can hold in a 165' oven till the am in a foiled pan with some liquid.

 

[deltadude]

I have started doing Ronp thing, maybe not exactly as he does....

When the pork butt gets to around 180º I put a pan under the butt on the next lower shelf. It has some apple juice, a little water, rough cut onions, you can throw in othe aromatics but right now I'm just using onions. I prefer waiting to place the pan because early on most of the drippings are fat.

Last nights smoke I ended up with about a cup of drippings I added another cup of beef broth I had in the freezer, heated it all up in to thoroughly mix, strained the onions out, and put in fridge a few hours. I then removed the fat that came to the top. Now I have a very smoky meat flavoring juice, I can added to my BBQ sauce, thin it out and use it when re-heating the pork meat, or make an original sauce. The point is this is deep smoke flavored liquid gold. If you have it, then reheating is no big deal because you can easily add flavor back in with the saved liquid.

Note, I usually have in the fridge either beef stock or pork braising liquid, the above with pork braising liquid is SO SO good.

 

[eaglewing]

Now that's a good idea Ron, except, I would have stayed up all night SMELLING them probably...

I mustard up enough strength and pulled them before I went to bed... that alone drove me nuts!!! I wanted to gorge on it again and I was already stuff to the max!!...

Thanks for the tips guys. I will remember these for the future.

 

[bluefrog]

I smoked a butt the other day. It hit 195 degrees at about 10:30pm. I foiled it and put it in the cooler with a bunch of beach towels on top. At 2:00pm the next day I tookit out still very warm and pulled it. I may be mistaken but it seems to me that if the meat is heated to 190f and sealed in foil at that temp. It is not going to have any bakteria to grow because those on or in the meat and on the inside of the foil have been killed at over 140f. Once unfoiled the danger would begin. Am I wrong in thinking this way?

Scott