Block Party Planning

[craigalancarr]

So here is the question. My wife and I are looking to host a block party later this summer. I have a Traeger Ironwood 850 and am planning ribs, pulled pork, brisket. Probably not going to smoke all at once so my question is. If I smoke everything over a couple weekends what is the best way to, I assume freeze and re-heat, day of party?

I know I will get a lot of responses. I expect a few along the lines of "what kind of idiot are you". Can we try to keep the sarcasm to a minimum.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

Nothing idiotic about it. You could do the butts then pull, vac seal, and into the freezer. Same with brisket slices. I like to re-heat the bags in a pot of simmering water. Tastes like it just came out of the smoker. Also I hear the stuff reheats well if you have a sous vide. Save any juices you can and pour back over the meat once its warmed back up. Could look at a finishing sauce for the pulled pork and maybe a little low sodium beef broth for the brisket. I would do the ribs the day of just for the easiness factor. Good luck!

 

[boykjo]

I agree.... If you say a couple of weekends I wouldn't even worry about freezing as long as you vacuum seal and keep refrigerated. A good idea is to pan your finished meats and juices and refrigerate. The juices will coagulate then you can vacuum seal the juices and meat.

Boykjo

 

[phatbac]

I have done some church events where i needed to cook and reheat in batches, feeding 125-130 people. What i did was I smoked the ribs wrapped for a little while and then let cool and vac seal. then freeze. after i thaw the ribs in the vac bags in boiling water i remove the ribs and coat in sauce, put in the oven at 275 for 30 minutes and then slice warm. keep in oven at that temp until serving. the smokey-ness will be twice as strong from a freeze and reheat.

For PP i smoke until 205-210 IT on the pork butts and let cool form there then freeze in big chucks or whole. then reheat same way vac seal bags in boiling water until thawed and a little warm. shred the pork and put a little apple juice/water/ ac vinegar mix into the foil pan (2-3 TBS) and cover and let sit in a 275-300 degree oven (or hotter) for 30 minutes at least and then serve. sauce to taste.

I didn't do brisket but it could be done very similar but instead of juice/vinegar i would use beef broth.

Another thing to consider is kids. some grilled chicken, hot dogs are crowd pleasers for the little ones who may not like the ribs and PP.

Make sure to take pics and share what you do with us here and tell us how it goes!

Happy Smoking,
phatbac (Aaron)

 

[smokerjim]

i've frozen smoked ribs before, I smoked them, let them cool overnight, wrapped them in tin foil, thawed them the night before I was going to eat, heated in oven around 275 for 45-60 minutes.

 

[windlaker]

I've done brisket many times weeks ahead of a big party.

Smoke as usual.
Put in foil pan with about 1/2" of beef broth & collected juices in bottom.
Saran Wrap , then foil over that to seal pan.
Freeze or refrigerate, depending on how much time between smoking & party.

350˚ oven, one hour to reheat.

 

[pops6927]

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