The culinary calling card of pulled pork is its uncanny ability to melt in your mouth. Slow cooking the meat on low heat for hours on end renders the fats and connective tissues down into a sumptuous texture that entire regional identities are built around (any low-country boy worth his salt will tell you ). However, there's no amount of Carolina Gold sauce that will rescue irresponsibly reheated pulled pork leftovers from drying out.
Like all slow cooking traditions, the best results take a little bit of effort. To keep that hard-won moisture locked inside your pulled pork, make sure you store the leftovers in a . Of course, this assumes that your meat was refrigerated; you'll want to double the time for frozen leftovers.
The reason this works is thanks to physics. Microwaving, baking, or pan frying pulled pork leftovers excites the moisture in the meat, causing it to evaporate into the aether. The vacuum sealed bag in boiling water, on the other hand, traps all that moisture in and allows for a more thorough reheating.
How to make sure the meat reaches a safe temperature The USDA considers 165 degrees Fahrenheit the minimum safe internal temperature for leftovers. However, checking the internal temperature of your vacuum sealed pulled pork requires opening the bag, which sort of defeats the purpose of sealing it in the first place. That said, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
chefs have made an art of safely preparing deliciously tender meat through immersion cooking. R.