Some good friends of mine who have had my smoked products have asked me to cater a party for them this Saturday. Will be doing 4 6lb butts, about 125 pieces of Kummoks' smoked Salmon, and 100 ABT's. I am a little stressed. The Salmon and the butts are in the brine and am planning on putting the ABT's together Thursday. Will smoke the Salmon Thursday, smoke the Butts 6 hours Friday afternoon and then put them in the oven. Then on Sat. smoke the ABT's before leaving to the party at 3:00pm. Hope everything goes well. They are expecting about 60 people, maybe a little more......I need a drink!! Wish me luck!!
You'll do great bigred! Although I'd be a bit stressed out too, kinda like a long tailed cat in room full of rocking chairs! ;D Need a drink....I'm thinking the whole bottle might help ::) Nah it'll be great and coolest part is your food will be the talk of the party!! Good luck!
C
I am looking forward to the debrief. Good luck with the project and hope you find some time to take some pictures.
Good luck, BigRed! You'll do just fine. Don't forget to have plenty of adult beverages on hand to make it that much easier.
SD
That is so kool BigRed...good luck...you'll do great!! :)
Quote from: bigredsmoker on June 17, 2008, 02:50:16 PM
I need a drink!! Wish me luck!!
Bigredsmoker,
Having that drink for you as I type. Remember, skill overcomes luck; you'll do fine...
Arcs_n_sparks
After they are done chowing, whip them up a few pitchers of Corona Ritas. The tips are sure to get bigger then. 8)
I think Giz is onto something. Start by plying with liquor all the while telling great smoking stories. As the personalities start opening up a bit, offer a sneak ABT and a beer. Tell your best "gotcha" joke, offer another ABT and open the talk to smoked scallops (which ought to be ready in about 30 minutes)...
You get the drift. Play it like a poker hand knowing you're holding aces with the food!
Oh Consigs...you are a crafty one aren't ya!!! :) (I do it all the time!!!) But...with CoronaRitas...I lose my ability to be sly!!! :)
Crafty implies ability and talent. I just know hungry people want food, and if they can get a bit of everything else in between, then we knock over a lot of stones with one throw.
There are so many inappropriate :P analogies, that I'm going to leave it to the collective imagination of the crew.
But I'll bite: what's a CoronaRita? Anything more than sal y limon?
A dangerous mixture that was a colaboration of LQ, my wife and myself from a base recipe I heard in a cooking store and then looked up on the internet. We smoothed it out a bit and of course punched it up at the same time.
Freezing overnight and making a granita makes an awesome treat.
Here is a link to the original post.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7241.msg73699#msg73699 (http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7241.msg73699#msg73699)
I like it. Posted while I had to do things like work; not fair.
I use lime ade for a special gin fiz recipe, when the occassion suits. More on that one later.
Looks like you got yourself a nice gig. Be sure to let us know how it turns out.
Sounds like a good plan. Good luck.
Thanks for the ecouragement everyone. I'm pretty confident today that everything will be great. I am just not looking forward to putting together a hundred ABT's.
Terry
100 ABT's? You'd better up your asking price ;D Course, you know that all the great chefs have to sample the food before serving it to the guests, right ;)
SD
Hey BigRed doing anything "non-smoked"?
No LQ, my friends are providing the 3 items that I am doing and then guests are to bring a side dish as well, so all they wanted was the main meat dish and a couple appetizer type items.
Terry
Sounds like fun BigRed man...I think it's very admirable that you're friends recognize good smoked food...and that you can provide that for a party!!! Let us know how it comes out please...:)
Will do LQ. The Salmon's in the smoker now, and I am getting ready to slice up 100 Jalapeno's (112 actually but who's counting), and the pork goes in tomorrow.
Terry
PS: I'm kinda hoping this catering thing turns into something, wouldn't mind having to buy another Bradley to keep up with demand. ;D ;D
Our friends worry about "carcinogens" from the smoke...takes all kinds!! :)
Quote from: bigredsmoker on June 18, 2008, 06:24:24 AM
I am just not looking forward to putting together a hundred ABT's.
I think that if you apply the Golden Rule (1 golden beer : 20 ABTs), things should work out. :D
Arcs_n_Sparks
Quick update:
Salmon is done and ready to go. The 4 butts have been in the oven since last night at 9:00 and are coming to temp. They are at about 175 so should hit my 190 in a few more hours then it's FTC time. 120 ABT's are in the smoker now. I am thinking a minimum of 4 hours at 220 due to the big load. I have over six hours to give so I think I have enough cushion. I think max load of ABT's in my 4 rack would be about 144. I used 6 racks via the inverted rack method and left the bottom slot open in the Bradley. Decided to hit the ABT's with 2 hours of Pecan. The smell in the house from the Butts is unbelievable, my mouth has been watering all night. At Noon, the butts will have been cooking for 24 hours. LOW and SLOW is my motto.
Terry
How cool BigRed, do you get to stick around the party & see everyone eat your food?
Yes Deb, they are friends of ours and we are invited to the party every year, only this time I am doing the food.
The party went great, and everyone raved about the food. The only thing I had issues with were the ABT's. After the 2 hours of smoke I left them in the smoker another hour at 210. They did not look like they were going to get done fast enough so I move all of them to my convection oven and set it at 200. After 2 more hours and several rotations of the racks (seemed like the top rack was getting done quicker than the lower ones) I started to pull out the done ones. I would put them on foil in three rows about 8 in each row and then stack another row offset on top of the first, kind of like a pyramid, close the foil, wrap in a towel, and into the cooler. I learned that the key to a good ABT is consistent, thin bacon. I had some thicker slices that didn't wrap well and the ABT kind of exploded and didn't look the best. I used those for the bottom row in my chafing dish. Also, I didn't get the rib of the Jalapeno cleaned out good enough in some of them and they were very hot. People didn't care for those ones as much. In the future I think I would do 3/4 mild and the other 1/4 hot and keep them separated. There were some that loved the hot ones. Kummoks' Salmon also went over very well, and the Pulled pork had great reviews as well. All in all it was a great success and a lot of the credit should go to all of the great individuals on this board that I got recipes and hints from. Thanks all!!!
Terry
It is great to hear that your project went well. Congradulations. :)
Congrats Terry, We knew you'd pull it off!
C
Way to go Terry...And I'm very impressed you have chafing dishes!!! You must be a party animal!! We have 3 and we know how handy they are when doing parties!! Nothing worse then cold food...unless your guests are blotto...and then...they don't care!! :)
Be proud of yourself dude!! Very kool!!
Terry;
Congradulations! Glad everything work out so well.
Glad to hear it went well, BigRed!! Guess you'll be looking for a booking agent now?!?!?! ;) :D
You already have it down. The only thing that you are lacking is confidence. You are doing great! As long as you are organized everything will go smoothly. Smile and show everyone that everything is under control.
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