Anyone with experience holding pulled pork in a heated cambro

[indygreg]

i went and bought myself a cambro upch400 heated carrier. we will use it for a number of things but saturday i get to break it in doing pulled pork for my son and 80 of his friends. i will have to cook the pp in two batches so i am wondering if people have experience with the heated cambros. my van has 110VAC so i can keep the meat at 140-150 indefinitely. NOTE - we are doing pulled pork fajitas so it is less forgiving since there is no finishing sauce. i usually pan at foil then at the end i drain the au jus, separate and pour it over the pork after it is pulled.

i read this article https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/holding-pulled-pork-for-later.163993/ which got me thinking i might have a few options:

• Smoke it all ahead pull it and put it in the fridge. i have done this and it is usually not bad but not like it is when it is fresh. the article above tried three methods and i think this came in last.
• smoke it all ahead and fridge it without pouring the au jus over it then put that on when i reheat it.
• smoke one batch and hold it in the cambros while the second smokes. not sure how long i can hold it once it is pulled.
• hold the first batch like above but drain the au jus then foil the butts without pulling them and put them in the cambro while the second smokes. when those are done, do the same thing and then pull the butts on site just before serving and pour the au jus over them

so how long can i hold pulled pork in a heated cambro? i would think a long time if it has not been pulled yet. am i wrong?

 

[drunkenmeatfist]

I'm no expert, but have a question that might get you some better answers. What temp are you cooking them at? If you are cooking them hot and fast then I think it would be possible take them off and put them in the cambro. Then when the second batch is ready you could pull and mix both batches together and pour the juices over the whole thing.

However, if you are cooking at 225 then that would change things a bit.

 

[weedeater]

If it was me doing it I would tend to do all the smoking ahead of time. Go ahead and pull it all saving the juice to pour over when I reheated. If you have ever had that one or two butts that refused to finish on time and you had hungry folks breathing down your neck you would not want to repeat that. In short give yourself plenty of time and plan for what could go wrong. Cambro is a great tool that will hold your meat but doesn’t solve the real problem of having to do the cook in two batches.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Post bunches of pics and have fun.

Weedeater

 

[indygreg]

I'm no expert, but have a question that might get you some better answers. What temp are you cooking them at? If you are cooking them hot and fast then I think it would be possible take them off and put them in the cambro. Then when the second batch is ready you could pull and mix both batches together and pour the juices over the whole thing.

However, if you are cooking at 225 then that would change things a bit.

yeah i cook at 225. but the post i linked said he held pp all day in the oven at 180 by not pulling it first so i figured if i had a proper cambro that would not take the meat over 165 i might be able to hold it for some time.

 

[cajun cooker]

Hello I own a custom bbq manufacture and a catering business so I got this. First you can hot hold you pork during the duration of the second cook however you will need to leave the meet hole and wrapped in foil and pull before you serve. It is also best if you can set a small water tray in the cambro to keep moisture levels up. The meet will sit in its own juice and be just fine it will just get tenderer :) As long as you keep the warmer at a min of 145 Degrees bacteria will not form. If under 145 degrees bacteria will start to grow after 4 hours. There is no substitute for fresh off the grill so if you want to make a big impression and wow factor do not reheat. Our cooker we use for our catering was designed to serve hot off the grill we never reheat. We have a smoker with a vertical warmer and we just turn out the batches one is done goes in warmer serve customers from warmer while second batch is cooking. You can adjust time and temp to accommodate larger scale operations we specialize in poultry primarily 2lbs turkey legs and do 350 degrees for 90 min after a 24 hour brine. So we can pump out the volume at large events.

 

[indygreg]

thanks a bunch. i figured there must be some pro's on here that have experience with these things. i am seeing people say they wrap the butts in saran wrap then foil to hold them in the oven. i might try that in the cambro.