I've been asked to prepare pulled pork for an upcoming event and I'm required to bring enough for 150 people with each getting a 3 ounce serving. It's a competition and I'm competing against about 20 others who are bringing their specialty dishes. No one else is doing pork butts, and mine generally come out quite tasty. I'm going to slow smoke 6 butts (all injected) and prepare my own bbq sauce. But, I've never cooked for so many people and I'm not sure how to keep the butts from drying out. But here's what I'm planning: I'll have all the meat ready by 5:00 pm for an event that starts at 6 and ends at 8:30. I'll keep the butts wrapped in foil in ice chests and pull them out one at a time for pulling and serving. I'll keep the pulled pork in two chafing dishes and keep them warm with chafing dish candles on the bottom. I'm planning to add apple juice to the pulled pork in the chafing dishes to keep the pork from drying out but I don't know if that's a smart thing to do. Any advice on keeping pulled pork moist for a few hours in a chafing dish? Do I need to go another route? BTW, and not that it matters, but I'm not a newby. I just decided to retire the username eurotrash
OT: Need advice for BBQ
- Thread starter harrybollocks
- Start date
Pre-warm your ice chest with really hot water. Dump the water and wrap the foil wrapped butts in towel or other non toxic insulation barrier. Butts will be too hot to pull with your bare hands for 3-5 hours holding in the cooler. Pull a butt out of the cooler as you need one. Can't help you with holding the meat in a chafing dish but adding apple juice to pulled pork to retain moisture is a pretty common practice.
Could not have said it better. Do exactly what he said with the ice chest. Treat it like a Thermos, put the hot water in the ice chest close the lid and let it sit in there for about ten minutes. Double or triple wrap the pork butts in foil. Dump out the ice chest and place towels in the bottom. Place the pork buts in and fill every bit of empty space in the cooler with towel or crumpled up newspaper. You are trying to prevent any extra space in the cooler.
I also agree that there is no way you are going to be able to pull you pork with your hands unless is rest a minimum of 4 hours. I have done this too many times to count and I actually started cooking it overnight. Wrapping it and placing it in the ice chest until just before dinner time, and then pulling it right before dinner.
I take the pork off of the Egg at an internal temp of 195 and 8 hours later it will be hovering around 175-180. Well above the range that you would need to worry about it going bad.
I am not a fan of the apple juice on any BBQ but that is just a personal preference. I have always cut my BBQ sauce with water, heated it, and poured a little over the pulled pork to keep it moist.
If worried about the heat when pulling, try these out.
http://www.atbbq.com/store/show/bear_paws
Bought my dad a pair and they work pretty well for shredding/pulling. I like being able to pick the butts up with them as well when setting them on the table for foiling.
http://www.atbbq.com/store/show/bear_paws
Bought my dad a pair and they work pretty well for shredding/pulling. I like being able to pick the butts up with them as well when setting them on the table for foiling.
you do know those butts will continue to cook in the ice chests if it comes directly off the grill into the foil/chest ?
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I was wondering about that. I'll have to factor that in. I'll do a trial run on Saturday and see what happens. I have relatives who are Tennessee fans. Hopefully, they'll like the food but go home depressed after losing.
Thanks for all the responses.
Give it some time to cool a little before you wrap it in foil...it will over cook itself if you don`t.
That is why I pull it at an internal temp of 195. Many competition teams don't pull it until it is 200 or 205 if they are going to shred it immediately. I have done the ice chest thing many times. I have tried trial and error a good bit. I left the temp probe in it the first time and the internal temp rose from 195 to 199 and then began to slowly fall over the next few hours.
I know it doesn't make a ton of sense but I swear that wrapping it and letting it sit in the cooler for several hours makes it more moist.
Another trick I have seen for pulling the pork when it is very hot is to place a chunk of it inside a counter top mixer with a paddle wheel on it and turn the mixer on a slow setting. I thought the guy was crazy but it worked perfectly. He had it worked out where he would throw it in the mixer, start the paddle wheel and then sprinkle in a little dry rub. Tasted great.
Those are fine but they too get a little laborious.
Get a 5 gallon bucket, a half inch drive drill, one of these guys http://www.porkpuller.com/ and go at it. Make sure you pull out the bone or it will turn into an RPG. I'll be using mine to pull 10 tomorrow. Good luck and have fun.
I wrap them in foil with apple juice on the smoker for the last two hours of cooking and then transfer into the cooler for a sauna bath. You shouldn't have to pull anything, they will fall apart.
