Cooking for alot of People


 
Hey guys

Been lurking a while and have learnt alot from you awesome BBQ experts.

So I'm from the UK where generally most peoples idea is burnt Burger and sausages. Not for me, I'm a huge fan of the american style of grilling. Recently I got an 18.5" WSM to compliment my own brick built BBQ.

So here is my question, hopefully you can help me.

I'm having approx 30 people come for a BBQ in a couple of weeks. I've made a big deal about how great my smoker is so need to impress. I'm planning on doing a couple of briskets, a couple of pork butts and ribs in the WSM and grill sausages and burgers to order.

So my predicament - obviously my WSM is nowhere near big enough to cook it all for the day, I'm gonna need to pre-cook some. I've read a bit about reheating brisket and pulled pork, think this would be ok to do and cook the ribs fresh on the day? Best plan of action seems to be cook as normal, allow to cool wrapped in foil and refrisgerate once cold. does this seem accurate?

I have a few overnight cooks under my belt, although there is still room for improvement I can turn out a half decent brisket, pulled pork but never tried reheating. The BBQ is on a saturday so was thinking of smoking the brisket Thursday night, the pork Friday night and get the ribs on saturday morning. Probably eat around 5pm.

Does this sound ok? Does anyone have an experiance of this kind of thing?

Thank you all in advance
 
IMO-I would smoke in this order, pork butt, brisket, and then ribs. To reheat pork is easy to do. What I do, is reserve the juice from the pork. This is the only time I wrap my butts. Put the juices in the fridge, and skim off the fat from the juice. When reheating the pork, pour the juice over the pork. Taste so good!! And smoke everything else the same way you would usually do.
 
I think Ryan has the order about right, the butts can go the day before and I even pull mine the day before, pan them, cover with foil and reheat the next day, the brisket will be the touchy one in my opinion. It will be done when it's finished,so the timing of that will be a bit more critical, not impossible or even that daunting but, it will require some choreography, the ribs can ride along with the brisket if you have room, you said a couple of briskets, are you talking about full packers? I've done a 14 pound packer on my 18 and it was a tight fit on the top, access for the bottom one might get a little dicey unless you have access to a sous chef, I have to do pretty much everything by myself and have made some careful set up tweaks so I have ample room to "lift, turn and place" as I need to.
What your doing isn't impossible and as far as I'm concerned, kind of the fun of this method of cookery! I wish you the best of luck!
Sing out if you have questions, I have asked for help from folks here and they've risen to the challenge very graciously so, I'm here to help if you need it!
 
Thank you guys, I shall take your advice.

Yes, I'm planning on whole packer briskets. Done a few on their own before but never two at once. I can get 'her indoors' to give me a hand with the top grate. I dont think ribs would fit in along site. I'm hoping if I get the briskets on Friday early evening they should be ready around 9/10am giving me enough time to get the ribs cooked with a little time to spare. Would you attempt to keep them warm by wrapping and keeping in a cooler or allow them to cool and re-heat? Not sure they would stay hot for 9hours in a cooler wrapped in towels?

Looking forward to it, I think I will be exhausted by the time we come to eat. Will be a challenge and just hope everyone enjoys it. Will be the first time many of them will have tried smoked brisket or pork.
 
Kev E, when should I arrive? Sounds like a great meal that you will be serving!
 
I have eaten brisket that been coocked 12 hours before and hold warm in coolers with a lot of towels, all done by mr Franklin himself.

So I'd go for the above PP first, easy to warm up, Brisket and keep warm and then racks right from the grill
my5
 
I agree with the others about the order. In fact, you could easily cook the butts the weekend before the event, but save those drippings. We call it "pig jelly" around my house.

I've cooked many a brisket on my 22.5, so I'm really impressed with those of you who cook one of them on the 18.5s, two is really impressive ! ! !





BD
 
Two suggestions: First, if you're worried about the brisket staying warm, get some heavy bricks or patio blocks and put them in a low (200F?) oven for the last hour or two of the brisket cook. Wrap in towels and put in the cooler under the brisket. The increased thermal mass will keep the whole thing warm for a very long time. Just don't get them too hot or you'll turn the cooler into an oven, and, trust me, that's not what you want.

Second, burnt ends! Separate the point from the flat as soon as it's cool enough, cube, sauce, return to smoker along with ribs. Should be a huge hit at a party.
 
Sounds like a great plan. Just an FYI, if timing/temp is off and the briskets aren't done when you planned, pull them from the smoker and throw them in the oven at the same temp you were cooking at and let them finish there. That will free up the smoker for the ribs.
 
First of all: Good luck!
Just make sure you have fun as well. Don't stress too much.

I was just thinking:
Maybe look at doing some meat loaf? It can be eaten cold as well.
Or you could reheat it in slices on your brick BBQ?

And if you got plenty sides, you will be able to feed a lot of people out of not too much meat (I am very aware of meat prices in UK and Europe)....
 
Good luck Kev, I have a similar event planned, but not for so many people. Don't think I would try it with that many, I'd probably end up looking a twat!

Where do you get your brisket from? I've used local butchers, but just been using rolled brisket (in-rolled!). It's been okay, but I think I need to bite the bullet and buy a proper joint (with point & flat).
 
Ha, looking a twat is a destinct possability. My local butcher has been able to source whole briskets for me. The quality has been ok I think, but when I watch youtube videos from America I think mybe I've just not had a great brisket to know the difference ha.

Thank you all very much for the advice, extremely helpful. Looking forward to it now. Just hope our weathe picks up, we've had almost non stop ran for weeks.
 
Yep there was a time that August in the UK was the hottest month of the year, now its the start of Autumn :(. Good luck with your BBQ
 

 

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