Boston butt question

[dabuddha]

I have a couple of questions for some Boston butts I'm going to be smoking.


I purchased the butts last Friday and I dry rubbed them Saturday @ noon.

They're going to be served at our company christmas party on Thursday.

My plan was to start smoking them Sunday morning @ 11:00PM so they'd be done by midnight. But after reading online, I've been finding folks are recommending keeping smoked pulled pork for 2-3 days in the fridge at most. If I smoke it today, it won't be served until Thursday @ 11:00AM.


So onto my questions

1) Will it keep that long in the fridge?

2) If not, will the raw rubbed boston butt keep in my fridge till about Wednesday morning? Or will the dry rub I used toughen up the meat in some way? I was thinking I can throw it on the smoker before I leave for work Wednesday morning and my wife can keep an eye on it throughout the day.

TIA!

 

[Sluggo]

Was there salt in the dry rub?

 

[the DRIZZLE]

You have a problem. You can't keep meat for a week without freezing it. That includes the total time pre and post cooking. If you bought them Friday you need to cook them today no matter what, and they will not keep until Thursday without freezing.

At this point I think you're best bet would be to cook them meet today, then freeze it until Thursday. It's not ideal for the taste and texture but it's better than serving rotten food.

 

[xSauronx]

id leave them bitches in the fridge all week and throw them on the smoker overnight wednesday.

 

[NetWareHead]

You bought these butts WAY too early for a Thursday cookout.

Nobody smokes pork on the weekend and serves it Thursday. Don't bring what amounts to leftovers on your company Christmas party

Boston butts are so cheap that you can buy more of them before Thursday and prepare them within the proper timeframe.

Alternately, you can till experiment by freezing one of the butts that are dry-rubbed and then thawing it when ready to smoke. I don't know how it would come out but the frozen butt you can smoke it for your own consumption and see how it comes out.

 

[ElFenix]

smoke it, pull it, freeze it, reheat in oven on thursday morning.

 

[Rumpltzer]

pics of dry-rubbed butt?

 

[Sinsear]

Yeah, you started way too early. Smoke/freeze for your own.

Buy new and prep/smoke for the holiday party.

 

[dabuddha]

What if I smoke tomorrow early morning before I leave for work? Still freeze it?

 

[NetWareHead]

What if I smoke tomorrow early morning before I leave for work? Still freeze it?

Dont even bother then. Frozen pulled pork? I don't know if it is just me being a snob but good BBQ is served hot off the smoker. Frozen degrades the taste of the food and then you gotta reheat it. I can usually tell when fish or meat has been frozen and go out of my way to buy fresh food. Personally it is not something I would consider. I think anybody who knows how to smoke meat or has a taste for good BBQ is going to see something is fishy with your pork.

You could always start the smoking on Thursday morning early and give it the 8-12 hours needed to soften the meat and make quality pulled pork.

If doing a proper boston butt is such a pain, I think you are better off catering it from a BBQ place.

 

[dabuddha]

No money in our budget. I agree with fresh is better but the logistics of an office party at the office makes it extremely difficult

 

[Zukatah_]

I'd rather freeze it than go to waste but the taste and especially texture won't be the same. At least you won't be poisoning anyone by doing that.

 

[NetWareHead]

I think that if you are going to go through the work of dry rubbing boston butts and then monitoring the smoker for 8-12 hours, it would be a disservice to the food and the taste your guests anticipate to freeze/later reheat the meat. Its like buying quality sushi grade tuna and serving it to cats.

I'd start smoking the meat late at night on Wednesday and time it to be ready for 11:00 AM Thursday. Good luck.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

I think that if you are going to go through the work of dry rubbing boston butts and then monitoring the smoker for 8-12 hours, it would be a disservice to the food and the taste your guests anticipate to freeze/later reheat the meat. Its like buying quality sushi grade tuna and serving it to cats.

I'd start smoking the meat late at night on Wednesday and time it to be ready for 11:00 AM Thursday. Good luck.

Would you cook 6 day old meat? I wouldn't.

 

[NetWareHead]

Would you cook 6 day old meat? I wouldn't.

I dont mean cook these butts which are old. They are already too old to serve for thursday. I suggested that OP should get new butts, cheap enough price per pound.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

No money in our budget. I agree with fresh is better but the logistics of an office party at the office makes it extremely difficult

Boston butt is dirt cheap. $30 will fill most smokers.

I agree with redoing it, but your only other option is to cook it now, freeze it, thaw it in crock pot with some vinegar based sweet sauce.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Also, cook times vary wildy, in my experience.. Enough to where I set aside 16 hours even for small butts.

 

[dabuddha]

Boston butt is dirt cheap. $30 will fill most smokers.

I agree with redoing it, but your only other option is to cook it now, freeze it, thaw it in crock pot with some vinegar based sweet sauce.

Oh no doubt. The no money comment was about the catering . Last year we catered about 13 lbs of pulled pork and chicken and we paid about 150. These 2 butts (13 lbs) cost me about 23 bucks

 

[spidey07]

smoke it, pull it, freeze it, reheat in oven on thursday morning.

Yep, it keeps and reheats amazingly well.

But honestly, most folks are WAY to paranoid about meat. You could keep it in the fridge, smoke it on tuesday, put back in fridge cooked and serve on thursday. When you smoke a pork butt, you're cooking to 190 degrees killing anything and everything 3 times over.

When I smoke pork shoulder, I eat off of it all week.

 

[sjwaste]

Yep, it keeps and reheats amazingly well.

But honestly, most folks are WAY to paranoid about meat. You could keep it in the fridge, smoke it on tuesday, put back in fridge cooked and serve on thursday. When you smoke a pork butt, you're cooking to 190 degrees killing anything and everything 3 times over.

When I smoke pork shoulder, I eat off of it all week.

Yup. If I'm THAT worried, I'll vac up some of the leftovers like I did with our turkey. Half went into regular containers, the other half is in vac bags, and it's still good a week and change later.

Hell, I made a chuck roast 3 days past its "sell by" a few days ago and I'm still eating off of it.

Food safety is important, but things don't go bad nearly as quickly as we think they do. Smell it.

 

[spidey07]

Remember. The reason smoking meat came about was to preserve it and make it last longer. Folks would shudder at pork hips and legs hanging in a warm barn for months.

We call that a country ham.

Smell it. Nothing wrong with keeping meat in the fridge for a week before cooking. Except poultry of course. That's the only thing in paranoid about.

 

[insanity2]

smoke it, pull it, freeze it, reheat in oven on thursday morning.

Bingo....when you reheat, you can always add more rub/sauce to bring the flavor back up if you think you need it. I've frozen pulled pork in the past for fundraising, even going on almost a month from the day I smoked it and it tasted fine with some added rub and sauce. Wouldn't go 5 days in the frig though. The flavor will probably fall off too much. It can also depend on your rub. If the pork is heavily seasoned/injected, it'll give you some leeway also.

 

[zinfamous]

Yep, it keeps and reheats amazingly well.

But honestly, most folks are WAY to paranoid about meat. You could keep it in the fridge, smoke it on tuesday, put back in fridge cooked and serve on thursday. When you smoke a pork butt, you're cooking to 190 degrees killing anything and everything 3 times over.

When I smoke pork shoulder, I eat off of it all week.

that.

it will be totally fine for a week...assuming properly salted (brine and rub) and you finish it the only way it should ever be finished: vinegar base. "BBQ" sauce = instant fail.

OP: did you brine it before the rub? if not, fail already.

best bet is to smoke the day before (brine the night before that), then toss it in the fridge. or just smoke O/N before the event, and it will be ready in the morning.

 

[uclaLabrat]

that.

it will be totally fine for a week...assuming properly salted (brine and rub) and you finish it the only way it should ever be finished: vinegar base. "BBQ" sauce = instant fail.

OP: did you brine it before the rub? if not, fail already.

best bet is to smoke the day before (brine the night before that), then toss it in the fridge. or just smoke O/N before the event, and it will be ready in the morning.

Pulled pork with no sauce is sacrilege! Maurice's FTW!




Screw north carolina style!












:sneaky:

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Yep, it keeps and reheats amazingly well.

But honestly, most folks are WAY to paranoid about meat. You could keep it in the fridge, smoke it on tuesday, put back in fridge cooked and serve on thursday. When you smoke a pork butt, you're cooking to 190 degrees killing anything and everything 3 times over.

When I smoke pork shoulder, I eat off of it all week.

I don't know. I'm from the "rub some dirt on it" school of hygiene, but when I've left a raw steak or ground beef in the fridge for 4 days it has definitely started to look and smell off.