I volunteered to supply pulled pork for a group of 40+ people on Sunday and now my schedule has gotten a bit more hectic.  My daughter has a school event Saturday from 8am until 2 or 3 pm, and I have to have the pork delivered by 10am Sunday morning.

I'm wondering if I can smoke the pork butts Friday after work and finish them Saturday afternoon in a roaster?  I've read that meat only takes smoke for so long anyway so it should have good flavor.  I was just worried about it getting tough with the cool down and then reheat?

I assume I'll have to add some apple juice or liquid of some kind to the roaster to keep things nice and juicy?

Yep I have done it several times. Smoke it till the stall then wrap and through in over or what ever cooker you want. Just if in oven make sure it is in a deep pan else you will have a mess.

Awesome.  I'm going to keep them in the smoker tomorrow for as long as I can.  So you're saying that when I pull them off the smoker, to wrap them in foil?  I'll put them in the fridge until Saturday afternoon and then put them in a Nesco roaster as soon as I get home Saturday.  

Any idea on cooking temp in the Nesco?  Would it be in the 200-225 range same as the smoker?

IMHO, I would fully cook, let rest, pull, then refrigerate and rewarm. This is a common method in cooking for large groups and is accepted by many smoking purist for pulled pork. One common method is to smoke large amount of pulled pork well in advance of a large event, pull it, freeze in vac-sealer bags, then rewarm by dropping the bags in a pot of boiling water, cut open and serve.

Previous poster nailed it. The gap of time between cooking and serving, decides refrigeration or freezing.

What about starting them in the roaster and then finishing them in the smoker?  Or does meat stop taking smoke at a certain temp?

Start in the smoker, the meat takes the vast majority of smoke in the first couple hours of smoking... do it backwards and you'll have a smoky tasting bark but no smoke-ring, or smoke flavor in the meat.

You can definitely make it turn out good finishing in roaster or oven the next day. Like the other post said cook to the stall temp usually 160-165f internal before removing from smoker. I usually remove from fridge let warm up to room temp then wrap in foil with some apple juice and toss in oven/roaster. The last hour or so remove foil to firm up the bark on the outside of butt. I have done this several times and the meat was fall apart delicious perfection.

Ok Gents, I ran to the store Friday morning and picked up the butts.  Rubbed and wrapped them Friday about 5pm and put them in the fridge.  Got home today a little later than I had hoped but got them on the smoker at 330pm.  It's now 930pm and they're sitting at about 175 degrees, cooking at about 230-250 degrees.  If the stall doesn't take hours I'll finish them out in the smoker instead of messing with the oven or roaster.  

I had the chance to sneak away from my daughters volleyball tourney for a bit today and ended up buying a Weber iGrill 2 Bluetooth thermometer.  I have to say I really like it.  It came with 2 probes, and I see they make a probe for ambient temps so I'll have to get one of those as well as a third probe for meat.

Oooh  look at that, we're up to 177 degrees already lol  

Thats how I've always done it

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/barbecue-pork-butt-recipe

I do this all the time. When shoulders go on sale, I'll buy a couple and smoke, shred, and vac-seal 2 1/2 cups of meat to a package and freeze it. Toss them in a pot of boiling water to reheat. We use it for tacos, enchiladas, tortilla soup, you name it.

Do the vacuum sealed bags.
I have done it this way many times. Have even went and put it in freezer to have at a later date.

Just when put in hot water pot, don't let it rest on the bottom. If you get water too hot can soften bag seal . Had one bag open when removing and meat went into water...