
Simply wrap the meat in foil, place it on a tray and hook up an internal thermometer to it so you can monitor the heat value. Being outside and exposed to air, it’s going to cool down faster, but it will still cook and rest for a while. The meat can rest on a tray wrapped in foil. Leaving a pork shoulder to rest on the counter follows the same rules, watching out for 140 degrees and lower. If noticed, temperature is the real barometer to worry about.

Again, watch if the temperature doesn’t drop below 140 degrees inside the meat. The ambient heat and the meat will last longer than 2 hours, maybe 3 to 4 hours on the outside. If, on the other hand, you want to go longer, then preheat the oven to 150 degrees and, when ready, turn it off and place the meat inside. This will likely produce about 2 hours of wait time. The oven should be unheated, and the tray with the meat laid in the middle. Again, the meat should be wrapped in foil as a minimal insulation layer. This assumes one is keeping the oven door closed and not creating a draft. The meat can rest for as long as necessary until it drops below 140 degrees. Generally, the same limitation applies in the oven as it does in the ice cooler. However, this fake Cambro method can work up to 5 hours and it’s easy to prepare at home. Once the meat gets below 140 degrees, it hits the danger zone and should be eaten right away or refrigerated (you’re safer at 155 degrees). Then close the lid and wait the requisite time and keep it closed (don’t keep flapping the lid). The towels help break down the space inside the cooler when the pork is placed and nothing else is in there.ĭone without, and the meat will cool faster due to the empty space drawing out the heat. Towels are either inserted in first as a nest, or they are wrapped around the foil-wrapped pork, i.e. With the meat prepared, then the cooler is placed and made ready to accept storage. Some disagree, but the point is to use a foil insulation layer as the first wrap to keep the heat in the meat in place, and two layers of foil wrap makes sense if going longer than 2 hours’ wait time. There’s no need to wrap it twice though, if that’s how you started while cooking in the first place. With the pork fresh off the cooking grille, wrap it in tin foil if not already wrapped.
#PORK REST TIME PROFESSIONAL#
Using a typical ice cooler big enough for your dish, you can create what otherwise would be the approach used by a professional catering outfit. The Cooler Method of Resting a Pork Shoulder For beginnings, assuming 1 to 2 hours is probably a good safe zone, which helps destress planning the entire dinner rollout for the first time. What works for you and taste is what matters most, not what your neighbor tells you to do because that’s how he likes to eat his pork. The key thing to remember here is your experience.

Very few folks are in the 4 to 5 hour range, but there are plenty of unique cooking styles out there where that approach makes sense. The great majority of folks land in the 1 to 2 hour range, which for many lets the meat cool down and the juices distribute again throughout the meat versus where the heat pushed them to the center.

The Range of Time Possible at a Maximumīelieve it or not, the range of time for resting a pork shoulder can be anywhere from as little as 15 minutes to as much as 5 hours. The common thinking is that meat continues to cook when pulled off the grill or smoker, and a certain amount of rest time lets that cooking finish.įor most, the rest time seems to be at the 1-hour mark but, as with anything in the U.S., there’s a lot of variation and opinions on the matter. Everyone has a particular style developed over years of experience, and resting a pork shoulder falls into that category.
#PORK REST TIME HOW TO#
Ask any meat cook or connoisseur about an exact time of how to treat pork or any other meat when cooking, and the honest answer will be, it depends.
