I want to have some barbecue for the SoCar - UF tailgate on Nov 12. However, I'm going to be doing a nice long smoke this weekend (doing my first packer), and figured why not go ahead and do the butts for the football cue? I've frozen leftover cue many times, but I figured maybe I should do this differently since I'm not just freezing leftovers, I'm freezing the whole batch to keep it fresh for a couple weeks. For reference, I pull and chop my butts, and use a relatively thin vinegar-pepper sauce (Pee Dee / Lowcountry South Carolina). Standard operating procedure, once the meat is chopped and pulled the way I want, I start spooning the sauce over the meet and mixing it in with my hands, and let the sauce cook into the meat a little bit until I get the consistency and flavor I want. Now, usually when I freeze, after thawing it out, I'll put it in the oven or on the smoker with some more sauce on it to heat up. But sometimes this leaves the cue kind of soggy and sitting in grease. Would I do better to smoke these this weekend, pull and chop them, then freeze them without sauce. Then when I'm ready for them, thaw em out and sauce em on the smoker?
One more thing...would it be better to vacuum seal the meat before freezing? I don't own a vacuum sealer currently but I've been wanting to get one. Or would it not matter, could I just use standard freezer bags? Thanks, y'all.
-T
One more thing...would it be better to vacuum seal the meat before freezing? I don't own a vacuum sealer currently but I've been wanting to get one. Or would it not matter, could I just use standard freezer bags? Thanks, y'all.
-T
