Tips for make-ahead smoked pulled pork

Annual cookout at work on Wednesday at noon and I'm making smoked pork fajitas. I've only smoked pork shoulders once and they came out awesome, but I'm nervous I'll need more time on the smoker when there's no time left.

I've got three bone-in shoulders, each 6-7lbs each. Planning to inject and rub, then smoke @ 225F-250F in the Big Green Egg.

I've had good results reheating pulled pork in a skillet with a little apple juice, which I suppose I could do at the cookout.

So what do you all say? I'm guessing ~12 hours total time to smoke to 195F-ish but it's not something that can be rushed. Cook and reheat? Or put in the smoker around 6pm Tuesday night, hoping they'll be done by 6am-8am, wrap in foil and keep warm in a faux cambro cooler rig?

Cook ahead and reheat. No question.
From an ex-caterer, trust me you'll be the only one that can tell the difference.
Cook ahead and reheat can usually be done(with lots of things) well if executed properly. It will save you a ton of stress.

What do you recommend as reheat method? And when it hits desired temp on the smoker, do you chill quickly or cool slightly then refridgerate?

What Chris said. lus1: :goodpost:

Bring it down to a safe temp quickly, maybe bag it in a big ziplock(with the top open) and put in an ice water bath. Depending on the size and capability of your fridge, it may suffice. However, I'm always careful not to pack my fridge with too much hot stuff as it can be bad for the other foods in the fridge and can wear out your compressor.
Once you get to 41-38 degrees F, you're golden.
As for the reheat-some type of liquid in the bottom of the pan is key.

All is good above, cook, cool, reheat for event.

If you have SV you can heat a bath to 160F, bag and warm the pork then put it in a hot cooler. If no SV I would put it in some disposable aluminum pans, with a mopping type liquid, reheat in oven then cover pans and into a cooler(s). I picked up a nugget from Mucho (I think) that the magic temp for reheat is 160F

Biggest danger is drying out the pork during the reheat. Some liquid is your friend.

Great advice! I feel better. I put the butts in to smoke at about 4 pm. Can someone call and wake me up around 2am to check on them?

Success! Smoked at 225F for 12 hours but then didn't want to deal with having to keep checking on temps outside at the a$$crack of dawn, so I put in the oven til they finished (took another 4 hours).

Still debating on reheat method, but thinking of shredding and when the event begins, heating in batches in a hot skillet with a little apple juice and rub. Make small batches of fajitas so they stay warm.

Brian - That would work but it puts you in the kitchen for the event or at least the duration of the pork.

Thanks, Dave. Stupid me, I should have mentioned it's an outdoor cookout, charcoal grills only, and I'm always at the grills anyhow. A pan on a grill might make for some flair, too.

Ahh, Make sure the beer is close...

A microbrewery opened up a few months ago on our lot. They're bringing a keg and growlers. Company morale is at an all-time high. There. will. be. beer.

tequila and chicken stock in an aluminum pan, covered in foil, just stick it in the grill til it gets hot.

Did a dry run with apple juice and rub in a hot skillet. It was really moist. Topped with a mint serrano and cilantro chimichurri. It was a little too sweet, so the chicken stock idea might work. Don't think I can do tequila for this crowd. Pickled red onions are pushing it along with spicy sauce. Not sure I can resist some shredded red cabbage for texture. A few will love it, most will want pork + tortilla with nothing else.

I have been cooking pork butts and briskets on my Kamado for many years and regularly cook for a range of events. I always do a full load, which is 5x pork butts at 9-10lb each and 3x briskets at around 13-17lbs each. This quantity of meat can present some cooling and storage challenges. Pork butts come off the grill at 180-182F internal, briskets at 192-195F by Thermapen.

After they come off the grill, I wrap them in 18" wide commercial plastic wrap (AEP SEALWRAP) which i get at Restaurant Depot. The guy who taught me this had a great line, "Use the wrap like someone else is paying for it.". 4-5 lengths maybe 4 feet long each. Wrap each layer snug to eliminate any air. You end up with maybe 8-15 layers of wrap around the pork butt, which seems excessive, but will be needed upon reheat. After the plastic wrap, wrap in a 4-5 foot length of HD Foil (18"). Since the juice has nowhere to go, it remains in and around the meat.

Now for the cooling. When you have almost 50 pounds of meat at 180F, the proper tool is a blast chiller. Since I don't have the $10K for one, I came up with this procedure . First, you need to bring the temp down to around 140F or so slowly. I usually put the meat into the oven (off and cold) on aluminum half sheet pans. The aluminum helps to conduct the heat out of the meat into the oven. I periodically open the oven to let the accumulating heat out. This continues for 4-6 hours. The heat was pushed into the meat slowly, so the cooling process is the same. Use a Thermometer place in between two butts to determine the temperature. When the meat is around 140F external, you have 4 hours to bring it down to below 40F. A regular fridge cannot do this because of insufficient heat transport and heat removal capability (2 years of thermodynamics talking). To remove heat fast, you need high velocity air flow. I put the meat on the half sheet pans in front of a high velocity fan (type for drying carpets). This works best outdoors in low temps (Fall or Winter), but will also work in A/C space indoors. I use a thick aluminum plates as spacers/heat sinks. I periodically rotate and flip the meat to even out the cooling. make sure air is moving under the pans as well as over the meat. In about 2 hours, the external temp will be down almost to ambient. I generally split the meat across two fridges, using both the freezer and fridge compartments. I put one brisket in each freezer and the remainder of the meat split between the fridges, still on the aluminum half pans (as heat sinks/radiators).

To reheat, thaw in fridge for 2 days. Still wrapped in plastic and foil, reheat at 210-220F actual (convection if you have it) for 6-7 hours on half sheet pans. You have to reheat at a low temp because you are pushing the heat through all the layers of plastic. It is good to about 250F, but since ovens cycle, you need some elbow room with the temp to prevent it from melting.

Since the reheat cycle will do some additional cooking, this is the reason I remove the butts from the grill at 180F. I have held this meat in a 5 day cooler with 350F heated firebricks in the bottom, well-wrapped with beach towels for up to 24 hours. The bark loses its texture in this process, but this is a small price to pay for the flexibility of the process.

I am not a professional cook, but I have found this works for me. -Doug