This coming Labor Day weekend I plan on doing a butt and brisket starting Friday night, throw in a couple of corned beefs to ake pastrami on Saturday. When all those are done I plan on puttin in an 11 lb turkey. (Practicing for Thanksgiving - while my wife loves the results of my smoking so far, she refuses to let me do the Thanksgiving turkey without a dry run (smart woman). Guess she doesn't want to end up giving everyone pizza. So this is a good weekend to practice. The weekend after that will be a practice ham from scratch as a dry run for Christmas.
Anyway I digress -- my question is that I bought the pork butt today. Will it be okay in the fridge until Friday or should I freeze it? If so how, long will it take to defrost in the fridge (it is an 8 lb butt)?
Thanks
Check the "sell by" date on the butt and see what it tells you.
Friday is several days too long, in my opinion. Smoke on Monday/Tuesday at the latest. Then pull and freeze, re-heat in roasting pan at 250F. I do this all the time for church lunches.
Or freeze now. To defrost, put it in a big pot and put it under a cold water tap that is slightly running. It will defrost in about 6 hours (or so).
If you freeze it today, start the defrost late Wednesday or early Thursday so you can get the rub on it on Thursday night.
Rich
Yes, KyNoal.... I didn't think of the sell by date. I always buy my butts at a local Chinese Superstore and they just put them in a plastic bag, heave them on the scale, put the price tag on them and off I go...
And I'm just assuming it has a "sell by" date on it because I can only get meat at a local grocery. It very well may not have the date on it.
I'd probably go with the freezer.
Ditto.
Freeze now, start thawing Wednesday.
Well, this is just my opinion but that's what you get here. ;D
Cook the butt ASAP. FTC for a few hours. Take off the bark and chop it up. Pull the pork. Mix the two together. Put it in either a vac or zip bag into the fridge for a day. It helps to even out the smoke. Freeze it.
You can reheat in a crock pot, slow oven or by putting the bags in 180-190 degree water for a while.
Works for me.
If they are cryovac then I would go with KyNola's suggestion. If not, then I would throw them in the freezer for a couple of days.
it has a sell date of 9/11/10 so I think I will just leave it in the fridge till Friday.
Quote from: GusRobin on August 29, 2010, 08:41:07 AM
it has a sell date of 9/11/10 so I think I will just leave it in the fridge till Friday.
I couldn't sleep at nites knowing I had some Butts in the fridge ready to be Smoked! ;D