Question on making food for a later date

[allmann]

I have My daughters 1st/3rd Bday party coming up in mid Sept. What would be the recommended route for my daughters Bday party. Can I do a couple shoulders during the week prior shred them then vacuum seal them, and the day of the party boil the bags and finish with sauce?  Also I was thinking of trying either chicken wings or drum sticks/thighs. Is there a way to do them prior and boil them to get them to heat and finish on the grill to crisp up the skin?  Will doing this dry out the meat?

I am also open to any other suggestions that you guys have for food or preparation for the party.

 

[jcboxlot]

I have a 4 year old.  My 3 1/2 cents says try a meatloaf.


If you want pork, you can do any ahead of time, vac seal and heat up like any leftover.


Pork will freeze stay, not sure about chicken that would not be shreaded like pork.  Never tried that one. 

 

[DivotMaker]

Kevin, advance cooking is great!!  I actually do this a lot, and it's not a big deal.  Sounds like you have a vacuum sealer, so you're set!

Butts can be done a couple of ways.  First, you can smoke the butt until done, then double-wrap in HD foil.  If I know it's a butt for later, I immediately seal the foil-wrapped butt in a FoodSaver bag, and straight in the freezer (after it cools a bit, so I don't unintentionally defrost my freezer!).  The second method is to wrap/rest the butt for an hour, then pull like you were going to serve it right then.  Vacuum pack the pulled pork and freeze.  The advantage to this method, is that you get to sample the pork!   Reheat the bag in boiling water, and serve plain...let your guests add sauce if they want.  The reheated pulled pork is just like when you froze it!

If you are planning on chicken wings, I can't help you.  If you are smoking leg quarters, and want to crisp the skin on the grill, I would recommend smoking to about 150, the vac sealing and freezing.  When they are thawed, you can bring them to room temp, and finish on the grill.  Just check they're at 165 before serving.  OK to under-cook, if you know you have to finish cooking at serving time.

Ribs are just as easy!  Smoke ribs until done, then vac-pack the 1/2 rack cuts immediately.  Thaw in the fridge, the reheat in boiling water (in the bag, of course), or out of the back in a crock pot with a little apple juice.  Put a 1/4" of apple juice in the bottom, set the racks in there on edge, and heat on "low" for a few hours.  Works great!

 

[allmann]

Sounds good. Wife is going way over board again and has 45-55 adults and 15-20 kids. So there will be a lot of cooking that day.

 

[NDKoze]

I do this all the time. I find it easier to just pull portion and seal the packages while they are still warm.

I then slowly simmer them (Don't boil or the bags can bust) until they are done. I am not sure I can quantify this, but I think it is almost better after it is reheated. But, maybe it is just because I am so excited that I can just pull a bag out of the freezer and have such great results.

At a minimum it is as good as when it was fresh out of the smoker.

You can do this with ribs too. Although I usually put them in my crockpot with a little bit of beer, juice, or water and reheat on low.

I smoked 60 pounds of Boston Butt for my son's Confirmation celebration and reheated and it worked awesome. If you are reheating large amounts like I did, you can put them in full or half sheet aluminum pans and reheat in the oven. Add a little juice, beer, or water and reheat.

Good luck!

 

[bigfoot21075]

I do this all the time. I find it easier to just pull portion and seal the packages while they are still warm.

I then slowly simmer them (Don't boil or the bags can bust) until they are done. I am not sure I can quantify this, but I think it is almost better after it is reheated. But, maybe it is just because I am so excited that I can just pull a bag out of the freezer and have such great results.

At a minimum it is as good as when it was fresh out of the smoker.

You can do this with ribs too. Although I usually put them in my crockpot with a little bit of beer, juice, or water and reheat on low.

I smoked 60 pounds of Boston Butt for my son's Confirmation celebration and reheated and it worked awesome. If you are reheating large amounts like I did, you can put them in full or half sheet aluminum pans and reheat in the oven. Add a little juice, beer, or water and reheat.

Good luck!

It sounds odd, but I will go with the it is almost better reheated with the simmer in bag method. You get everything, the moist yummy perfect meat, AND when you open the warmed package you can even smell the smoked food smell.

Maybe it is improved by the fact you did not have to invest a ton of time to enjoy it the second time. I love pulling out a pack on a miserable cold rainy day. Makes everything better!

 

[DivotMaker]

I love pulling out a pack on a miserable cold rainy day. Makes everything better!

+1!!!

 

[swthorpe]

I have used NDKoze's method of slow simmer on frozen/vac-sealed pulled pork and it works perfectly!  Definitely try this method.

For ribs, I really like the crock method.  I have also used the crock pot to heat a large amount of pulled pork (about 7#) for the a birthday party, and this worked as well.

 

[FunkedOut]

The pull/slice,  vacuum warm, freeze, then boil method works great on butts and brisket.  I let it cool just enough for the juices to not get sucked out during packaging.
If I have left over ribs, I like to take the meat off the bones and package that way.  It's the perfect meat for enhancing baked beans or fried rice. 
I'd imagine one of those sweet sticky buns with pork inside would be great too.

 

[swthorpe]

I like the idea of just freezing the rib meat without bones...I will have to give that a try!

 

[NDKoze]

I do this all the time. I find it easier to just pull portion and seal the packages while they are still warm.

I then slowly simmer them (Don't boil or the bags can bust) until they are done. I am not sure I can quantify this, but I think it is almost better after it is reheated. But, maybe it is just because I am so excited that I can just pull a bag out of the freezer and have such great results.

At a minimum it is as good as when it was fresh out of the smoker.

You can do this with ribs too. Although I usually put them in my crockpot with a little bit of beer, juice, or water and reheat on low.

I smoked 60 pounds of Boston Butt for my son's Confirmation celebration and reheated and it worked awesome. If you are reheating large amounts like I did, you can put them in full or half sheet aluminum pans and reheat in the oven. Add a little juice, beer, or water and reheat.

Good luck!

It sounds odd, but I will go with the it is almost better reheated with the simmer in bag method. You get everything, the moist yummy perfect meat, AND when you open the warmed package you can even smell the smoked food smell.

Maybe it is improved by the fact you did not have to invest a ton of time to enjoy it the second time. I love pulling out a pack on a miserable cold rainy day. Makes everything better!

I think you may be right about the fact that you do not have to invest a ton of time to enjoy it the second time as well as being able to pull a pack out on a cold rainy day (or blizzard in my area ).

I like the idea of just freezing the rib meat without bones...I will have to give that a try!

I like this idea too and using with beans is a superb idea.

I have some pulled pork that I am going to try in some pulled pork spaghetti tomorrow. I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds awesome!
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=2732.msg19563#msg19563

 

[DivotMaker]

I like the idea of just freezing the rib meat without bones...I will have to give that a try!

That's a great idea, if you intend on "repurposing" the meat later.  But, if you want ribs later, you need to vac pack with the bones!