Lots of grub

jha1223 · May 11, 2009, 08:50:23 PM

With the wealth of information on this site and the great contribution from the posters, I've enjoyed some damn tasty bbq. Now, I have been asked to cook for 30-40 people. From the sounds of things, they are wanting brisket AND ribs. So, I'll keep this simple. How in the heck am I going to cook enough for all of them? The tough part for me is figuring out what goes in the smoker and oven at what times and working the smoke and the FTC.

Ka Honu · May 11, 2009, 09:58:10 PM

I'm not sure how much detail you're looking for and it may sound like a simplistic answer, but you should probably plan backwards based on the amount of food, your recipes, and the available cooking tools. I'd set up a spreadsheet (or sheet of plain paper) with three columns (one for the time, one for the ribs, & one for the brisket) and start with the serving time and work backwards.

For example, if I wanted to give the ribs 3 hours of smoke followed by 2 hours in the oven and about an hour of FTC, and the brisket 4 hours of smoke, 14 hours in the oven, and 3 hours of FTC, my plan would be something like:

5:30 PM............serve ribs..................................................serve brisket
4 PM.................FTC ribs
2 PM.................put ribs in oven (xxx^o)
1:30 PM..............................................................................FTC brisket
10 AM..............put ribs in smoker
9 AM...............preheat smoker to xxx^o
8:30 AM...........take ribs out of fridge

11:30 PM (day before).........................................................brisket to oven (xxx^o)
7 PM...................................................................................brisket in smoker
6 PM...............prep & rub ribs...............................................preheat smoker
5 PM...................................................................................take brisket out of fridge

5 PM (2 days before)............................................................prep brisket

If your smoker won't hold all of the brisket or ribs at once, you may have to add columns for other batches and back off their start times depending on when the smoker is available (and also include reheat times, etc.). Hope that helped. If not, you'll have to wait for someone who actually knows what they're doing to give you a hand.

Wildcat · May 12, 2009, 05:55:28 AM

Depending on when you are going to serve this, you could prepare the brisket (and ribs as well) in advance. With the brisket, you can simply reheat. With the ribs, do it all except the final stage on the grill. Vac seal everything and simply keep refrigerated. Smoke flavor will penetrate better this way anyway.

Caneyscud · May 12, 2009, 06:05:19 AM

Ka Honu got ya started out. But first off gotta 'stablish how much food you are going to cook. Brisket and ribs. Will that be half of the people eat ribs and half eat brisket - or will it be everybody eats brisket and a couple of rib bones - or will it be a few ribs with a chopped brisket sandwich - etc...? Will the bbq consumers be big hulking high school footballers or wimpy tofu eaters? A serving of brisket ranges generally from 1/4 pound for a bbq sandwich to 1/2 pound or so for sliced brisket. For me, give me half of a packer! Brisket once trimmed and cooked will yield about 50% or thereabouts. So that nice 12# cryovacced chunk of meat will serve 12 (for 1/2# per serving) or 24 (for 1/4# serving). You will be cooking from 2 to 4 - 12# briskets - if your main meat will be brisket. If ribs are going to be the main meat what will the serving be? I like to serve half racks and have a few more for the hungry guys - that would be 20+ racks. My point is that it is important to decide how much you will cook first - before you can truly schedule your cooks.

As you already have surmised, the use of oven finishing could be essential and the oven management will be crucial to your planning. If you have to do 4 briskets, that is likely all your oven will hold - at least it is all mine will - it has 2 racks. So for 12+ hours the oven will be filled with cooking brisket (man will the house smell good though). That is to point out that not all meat will come out of a cooker/oven at the same time. So you will have to decide what you will have to reheat. My vote would be to reheat the brisket and have the ribs come out of the oven to the table as best you can.

If you do 20 racks of spare ribs, then that is 5 loads in a 4 rack Bradley (or 4 loads if you can piece together 3 half rib racks per rack). With 2 hours of smoke per load and say 4 - 5 more hours for oven cooking and FTC should you choose, you will be cooking ribs for say 13 to 15 hours.

So if you are serving at 5 pm on Sat. Then Brisket cooked overnight on Thursday. Ribs starting about about no later than 2 am on Sat. morning finishing the oven cooking and FTC them by say 3:00 on Sat. and then use the oven to reheat the brisket before serving at 5:00.

If you want to do it all at one time, (assume 4 brisket and 12 racks of ribs) then you will need to start around 2:00 pm on the day before in one scenario

Start brisket smoking at 2:00 pm.
Take brisket out of smoker and put in oven at 6:00 pm
Take out of oven at 8:00 am
Start smoking first batch of ribs at 5:00 am
Take first batch of ribs out of smoker and into oven at 8:00 am when the brisket comes out of oven. Put next batch of ribs in smoker.
First batch of ribs comes out of oven at 10:00 and FTC
Second batch of ribs comes out of smoker at 11:00 am and gets put in oven. Put Third batch of ribs in smoker
Second batch of ribs comes out of oven at 1:00 and FTC
Third batch of ribs comes out of smoker at 2:00 pm. and is put in oven.
Third batch of ribs comes out of oven at 4:00 pm and FTC
From 4:00 and 5:00 warm up the brisket and cool ribs.

The nasty little secret about bbq'ing for a group is that there will be some lost sleep. But on the good side, you get to pick what you watch on TV and/or consume as a beverage!

jha1223 · May 13, 2009, 08:46:28 AM

Excellent replies. That is actually spot on with what I was looking to find out. I don't have any way to vac pack anything right now. I guess that's an investment I need to look at. Is it out of the question to refrigerate overnight if I can't get them vac sealed? It looks like I could smoke all day Friday with the brisket, fridge it and then reheat on Saturday (how long and at what temp?). Ribs, I just need to get up early on Saturday and start them in the morning, foil them when they come off the smoker and pop them back on the grill when I get to our destination. Other than reheating and dealing with the refrigeration questions, I don't think this will be bad at all.

Ka Honu · May 13, 2009, 09:21:14 AM

Not sure why you'd need to refrigerate the brisket. If you time it right, it could come out of the smoker and into the oven late Friday night and be done (and ready for FTC) early-mid afternoon on Saturday. If you're not using the oven for the ribs, you wouldn't even have to juggle oven space for them.

Just a reminder - photos are required.

jha1223 · May 13, 2009, 10:39:40 AM

I need to arrive at the destination about 12:00pm and start serving around 3:00pm.

Ka Honu · May 13, 2009, 01:24:00 PM

Guess you'll have to play with the timetable a bit (and probably lose some sleep Friday night). If your recipe generally matches my timetable and you back everything off about 5 hours (leave home at 11:30 AM), you'll have to get up about 3:30 Saturday morning to do the ribs (see below). If you have to do the ribs in two loads, you'll have to add that in on Friday night.

Saturday
12:30 PM............serve ribs..................................................serve brisket
11 AM.................FTC ribs
9 AM.................put ribs in oven (xxx^o)
8:30 AM..............................................................................FTC brisket
5 AM..............put ribs in smoker
4 AM...............preheat smoker to xxxo
3:30 AM...........take ribs out of fridge

Friday
6:30 PM...............................................................................brisket to oven (xxx^o)
2 PM...................................................................................brisket in smoker
1 PM...............prep & rub ribs...............................................preheat smoker
Noon...................................................................................take brisket out of fridge

Thursday
5 PM....................................................................................prep brisket

Of course you can nap while they're smoking but "oiling the smoker" would probably be a better option (At that time of the morning, I'd suggest starting with a Bloody Mary or three).

Roadking · May 13, 2009, 04:20:14 PM

30 to 40 people! Hire a pro and enjoy the party.

jha1223 · May 13, 2009, 09:42:51 PM

Quote from: Roadking on May 13, 2009, 04:20:14 PM
30 to 40 people! Hire a pro and enjoy the party.

I would, but here's the problem - ya'll have given me such pro pointers that they all think I'm pro! I think with the help I've gotten here, that I have a schedule that will work and I will be able to drop some seriously good BBQ on them.

May your BBQ be tasty and your leftovers be few....

Ka Honu · May 13, 2009, 10:34:34 PM

Leftovers? What are leftovers? The only ones I've even heard of were either made of tofu or liver.

And don't forget the pictures!

Wildcat · May 14, 2009, 06:11:18 AM

You have lots of options available to you. In response to your question regarding refrigeration without vac sealing, yes you can. If you go with the early preparations, there are several ways to re-heat as well (oven, microwave, crockpot, etc.) Let us know how it turns out and good luck.

jha1223 · May 28, 2009, 09:07:02 AM

A little bump to this great advice thread. Looks like due to the number of loads needed, my sister-in-laws have decided they just want some darn good brisket. So, that does simplify things quite a bit.

If I'm reading this right, three brisket only need 4 1/2 hours in the smoker? That seems a bit low to me, but I could be wrong. I have three 10.5-11.5lb briskets that I'm going to trim and rub tonight. Instead of using the smoker to do some of the cooking, am I really just using it for the smoke? And the like 14 hours in the oven to do the real cooking? Or perhaps a more straightforward question, is there a limit on how long I can leave the brisket in the oven so long as I have some apple juice in the pan? How long will the brisket stay hot if FTC'd properly? Jeebuz, questions, questions, questions!

Tomorrow is the day before the party as well as my 5 year anniversary. So, I want to make the food, but I need some time with my wife as well :P What a weekend!

Ka Honu · May 28, 2009, 11:17:15 AM

Generally smoking reaches a point of diminishing returns as the meat heats and is "saturated" with as much smoke flavor as it's going to accept. Most Bradley users find that 4 hours of smoke is about the max - after that, you're pretty much wasting briquettes. The meat, however, may not be fully cooked at that point (especially larger pieces like ribs, briskets, butts, etc.) so you have to keep it going, either in the Bradley (without smoke), in the oven, or some other way. There are lots of different techniques (wrapped in foil, boated, grilled, TBE'd, etc. - see recipe site and other posts for ideas & details) but essentially you're just continuing to cook the meat, after it's absorbed as much smoke as it's going to, until it's done.

jha1223 · May 28, 2009, 11:32:07 AM

Quote from: Ka Honu on May 28, 2009, 11:17:15 AM
Generally smoking reaches a point of diminishing returns as the meat heats and is "saturated" with as much smoke flavor as it's going to accept. Most Bradley users find that 4 hours of smoke is about the max - after that, you're pretty much wasting briquettes. The meat, however, may not be fully cooked at that point (especially larger pieces like ribs, briskets, butts, etc.) so you have to keep it going, either in the Bradley (without smoke), in the oven, or some other way. There are lots of different techniques (wrapped in foil, boated, grilled, TBE'd, etc. - see recipe site and other posts for ideas & details) but essentially you're just continuing to cook the meat, after it's absorbed as much smoke as it's going to, until it's done.

Ok, that makes sense. What about the time in the oven though? Is there a limit or is it pretty much just keep the going?