Smoking: Part 1 and Part 2 question?

[trece]

OK, so I have learned that if your not a morning person then your in for a long day. So my question is this........can you smoke meat for say 5 hours one day, refrigerate it and finish it the next day?
Thx,
Trece

 

[kueh]

In theory, it should work. In 5 hours or so, the meat should have come up to at least 165°, which is considered cooked. I'm guessing you're thinking pulled pork or beef. You can finish the cooking process in an oven, though the end product will be a little different.

 

[trece]

I would want to smoke the whole time. So a few hours the first day and finish smoking the next day.
Do you think this could be done without destroying the meat? Yea, it would probably be a pork shoulder or brisket.
Thx,
Trece

 

[billclarkson]

If you wanted to do your smoke in two parts, it should work as long as you can get the first temp up around 160 and then instead of say putting it fridge, double foil it up,wrap in couple of towels and put in a cooler. I think i have heard that people do as you are asking if they are smoking butts or briskets for large cook outs like churches, ball teams and their folks. And like i said just my thoughts

Bill
USMC Retired

 

[deejaydebi]

Tanya -

I wouldn't do that. You should finish it all at once. You do take the chance of inducing or allowing breeding bacteria in the meat by warming it and stopping.

Do you have a timer on your oven? If you do you could smoke it until your ready to wrap it in foil and when you ready for bed through it in the oven to finish cooking. I do that often when I'm bring meat in to work the next day. It doesn't get smoke through the foil anyway so I set my oven for 200°F and 3 hours and go to bed and it's still hot enough to burn my fingers when I wake up. It also makes Sooooo much juice you need to put a deep pan under it or you'll have a mess in the oven.