The Task: BBQ for 60-75 boys / men to be consumed on Saturday the 6th of October, 2012.
The Goal: BBQ some awesome food and get feedback on our flavors to improve / refine our flavors.
Pre-Prep Work:
This started Monday and carried through all the way until Friday when we started the Smoke. Went to Costco and get 45 brauts, 32 hot dogs, and 14lbs of Pork Shoulder (aka Boston Butt). Went to Kroger and spoke with the butcher who told me they would have fresh packed Brisket arriving on Wednesday. Came back Wednesday and discovered they didn't have larger Briskets that I had originally hoped for so ended up picking up two 10lbs + briskets for the event. The Pork Shoulder and Brisket remained in their cry-o-vac sealed bag until Friday and kept at the appropriate temperatures.
Also picked up throughout the week were general essentials such as: brown sugars, ground mustard, onion power, garlic powder, chili powder, basting brushes, aluminum pans, and a few other items.
Picked up our Fuel: Competition grade charcoal, Competition grade lump coal, Apple wood chunks, Pecan Wood. Fuel will make or break your smoke so don't go cheap and make sure you have plenty on hand!
Friday, Food Prep Day:
I arrived home from work around 5:30pm and Craig met me at my house around 6pm. We unloaded his smoker from the back of his truck and got our smoke kitchen in my backyard setup. 12x12 EZ UP, and eventually added a wind break as the wind was killing our smoke fire box temperatures.
Went back inside and started on the meat. Craig handled the Brisket and I handled the Pork Shoulder. When we opened our cry-o-vac'd meat and started trimming we were both a little disappointed in the quality of the meat we'd purchased for the event. Normally I have not had much issue with Costco and Kroger for meats but they are beginning to be less and less consistent with quality. Buying cry-o-vac does pose the challenge of making sure you get a good piece of meat and one looks for certain things such as pack date, meat color, texture, feel, etc. and for the most part they met those requirements we had. But once opened it was a heck of time trimming off excess fats and my Pork Shoulders, which are normally more squarish barely resembled what I have always used. But hey, this is what we had and we went with it.
*In the future we will most likely get our meat from Rudolph's Market, Hirsch's Meats, or Restaurant Depot - not sure which yet but we've been told for the Dallas Metroplex these are the places to go. Either way, Kroger and Costco got crossed off my list of places for the larger cuts of meat.
Typically with Briskets and Pork Shoulders, fat needs to be trimmed as fat gets in the way and keeps rubs and smoke from penetrating the meat. I trimmed up the shoulders, something that usually takes about 30 minutes (took me over an hour), then injected the shoulder's with my homemade Pork Injection. Then while the Pork was marinating in the injection, I waited about 30 minutes then I went outside and started my fire. My goal when cooking pork shoulder is a temperature between 225 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. After I got my fire started, I came back inside, flipped my shoulders upside down so excess injection would drain, then I applied a my homemade pork rub #1. After applying the rub I tend to give the rub enough time to get wet and adhere to the meat. So I went outside to get my smoker temp and it was a little low.
Meanwhile, back in the bat cave, err um kitchen, Craig had finished his meat preparations (dry rubs, spicy mustard, sauce, and I believe he injected 1 of the briskets) and was joining me outside to check his fire. It was at his point he grabbed his keys and headed to Walmart. We needed tarps for the EZ-UP to block the wind. It put us behind about 45 minutes but was needed and well allowed our injections and rubs to marinate intimately with the meat a little longer before being touched by the heat of the smoke.
We got the Tarps up and connected to the EZ-UP and then got our temps a little more under control and then meat added. GAME ON!
Thermometers were added throughout the Smokers (for those not experienced with this typically smoke boxes have a hot end and a cooler end. The end with the fire box tends to be 10-20 degrees hotter and sometimes even greater if you have a lower quality Smoker. Either way I rotate my meats throughout the evening to ensure one is not over cooked. Others use a foil method to balance it out; Craig uses this method with his smoker.
My schedule was ever 45 minutes to check the fire, check meat temp, rotate my shoulders. Craig's schedule was pretty similar to mine except he wasn't rotating his brisket just checking the internal meat temp to know when to wrap the brisket closest to the hot end with foil.
At 3 hours into the smoke, I removed pork from smoker, transferred to clean aluminum pans along with 1 cup of apple juice in each pan, cover with heavy aluminum foil and returned to the smoker. A piece of meat can only take so much smoke before it reaches its max. I've found, that for me, this is around 3 hours. The heavy foil locks in the moisture and helps keep the meat from drying out. From this point its about another 6 hours before I will see the meat again.
Problem we ran into was a cold front that hit mixed with winds that were making it tough for us to maintain temps over 200. This will mostly be solved when my professional level smoker arrives, but since it wasn't here and all we had were our, as we call them, introductory smokers, we worked throughout the night keeping those temps up so our product would be good.
**Second note: Anyone getting into BBQ Smoke, take note - if you love sleep, I mean really love sleep, prepare yourself. Cause BBQ Smoke is one mean mistress that hates sleep!
So we were up all night and well into Saturday before our meats were nearing ready. When my pork reached 195 degrees internal temp, usually after about 9 total hours on the smoker (today it was 10ish hours), I brought the pork inside, transferred it again to a clean aluminum pan, applied a layer of Gerry's Pork Peach Glaze, and then took it back outside and returned it to the smoker. I checked the fire for the last time, made sure the smoker was around 225 and then went inside for about 30 minutes. I returned back outside, and added a 2nd layer of glaze, waited 15 minutes then added a 3rd, and then after another 15 minutes added a 4th. Waited oh another 20 minutes, looked at the pork shoulders, liked the bark and the feel of the meat so brought them inside to rest.
Craig's first brisket, the one he had foiled at about 5 hours into the smoke was the first to come off, even before my shoulder, and he had it inside resting. Checked his 2nd brisket then went back inside to get Points started from his brisket. By the time he got that done other brisket was ready to go.
For the next hour plus, we prepared our meats, slicing, cubing, shredding, applying extra sauce where needed, the packaging them up for transportation to the church. I also, managed to get the 30 minutes needed to grill up the 45 brauts and 32 hot dogs and even allowed them to get a little smoke before we had to leave.
Got to the church and fed, I believe 57 people and no one went hungry.
Over all we did take back a few lessons learned:
- Better quality meat
- For 60-75 people we really needed another 10lbs of meat
- Little better time management
- A Timer alarm with a SNOOZE function
- There are more but ...
Now we are waiting on feedback via email from those we fed. As this was our first big cook we are taking advantage of having a small sampling pool to let us know what is thought of our flavor profiles.
Overall awesome fun time and great learning experience!
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