big weekend cook coming, up what do you guys think?


 
A

AdamKing

TVWBB Fan
Ive posted a few questions related to this cook coming up that im starting tonight for a birthday party and i think ive got all my timing planned out but i want to see what you guys think...First off the cook will consist of a 13.54 LB brisket, two bone in pork shoulder roasts totaling at 15.4 LB and 4 racks of St. Louis ribs all around 3.5 Lbs (all pretrimed weights). We are planning on serving food starting at 1 on saturday. Tonight when I get home from work i will trim and fix up the brisket and roasts with their rubs and have them on the 18.5" WSM at 8 pm with the charcoal packed full as possible minion method shooting for between 225 and 250. I decided im going to do the brisket on top after a lot of arguing with my self i just dont believe which meat drips on the other will make much difference and i think the brisket will finish first and i want to keep a closer eye on it vs the pork. Im going to ATTEMPT to get a good nights sleep then get up early to start my ribs. Get up early probably around 6 to trim ribs, remove membrain and rub i will try to have all four racks on the other smoker by about 7. My thinking is that the brisket and butts will be done somewhere between 8 and 10 just based off of previous cooks ive done (12 to 14hrs) which would give them a few hours wrapped and resting in a cooler. The ribs should take between 4-5 hours between 250-275 so they should be done by noon. If everything goes as planned we should be serving pulled pork, brisket and ribs by 1 for an army! What r your guys' thoughts?
 
Sounds good. Are you injecting the butts and brisket? If so, when? Is anything being rubbed and when?
 
Sounds good to me. I'd be worried on the brisket or butts taking longer but I tend to cook a little bit lower. If you are up around 275 most of the time I think it will work out. If you are wrapping briskets and butts you should be fine. Sounds like a lot of fun!
 
Just as a side note, if I am cooking for a large group, I always put the brisket on top. This is because my ex son in law is Jewish so the pork was not dripping on the beef. Does not matter anymore but now it is a habit.
 
I will be injecting the butts with apple juice with the rub mixed in it and the brisket with low sodium beef broth, the ribs will be rubbed with the same stuff as the butts. All the rubs are meat church rubs and will hopefully have at least an hour or so to set up on the meat before going in the smoker. Dustin i will probably float around 250 with the butts and brisket and i dont usually wrap anything so now you've got me a little worried. If they go on at 8 pm, 10 am would be a 14 hour cook and ive never had a brisket go longer than 13. The buts i expect to be done around the 13-14 hr mark so this would give them around three hours aprox resting. So if they did take another hour or so i would still have time i think. As long as they were all done by noon at the latest they could still get an hour rest in and that would be 16 hours of cooking...maybe ill shoot for 7 at night they go in...i dont know haha!
 
Great job planning out the cook as this always helps when doing large, multi meat cook. Only suggestions I would make is shoot to start the cook an hour to 30 min earlier than you currently plan. That way if you are running behind a little then you are still on time. Also, trim the ribs the night before and then rub them in the morning. That way they are already done and you have some extra time incase something happens over night. Good luck and remember to enjoy the party.
 
KevinJ said:
Great job planning out the cook as this always helps when doing large, multi meat cook. Only suggestions I would make is shoot to start the cook an hour to 30 min earlier than you currently plan. That way if you are running behind a little then you are still on time. Also, trim the ribs the night before and then rub them in the morning. That way they are already done and you have some extra time incase something happens over night. Good luck and remember to enjoy the party.
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that would be my suggestion as well. personally I'd start at least at 7. you aren't giving yourself much leeway and it will stay nice and hot in a cooler no problem if you finish early. I did something similar for my kids bday party and despite giving myself extra time barely finished on time because I was delayed by other party duties and it took longer than normal to get the wsm in the right range and the food took slightly longer, etc.
 
so lets say i get them in the cooker at 7 pm and and they are all done at 7 or eight in the morning if i put the butts and the brisket all in the same cooler they shouldnt drop into the "danger zone" durring the 4-5 hour rest? i plann on taking them out and slicing and pulling at around 12 and they will go in crock pots to keep warm. Which brings another question...I was going to put a little apple juice and rub in with the pulled pork to keep it moist and make some ajus for with the brisket in the crock pots....good or bad idea?
 
I have held butts for 5-6 hours no problem. I kept the therm prob in so I knew what the temp was. As for the pork, I always use a finishing sauce as I pull the meat and serve it with BBQ sauce on the side, so if you want to go ahead and add the AJ and rub. As for the brisket, I have not prepped that for a party so someone else can help you with that.
 
AdamKing said:
so lets say i get them in the cooker at 7 pm and and they are all done at 7 or eight in the morning if i put the butts and the brisket all in the same cooler they shouldnt drop into the "danger zone" durring the 4-5 hour rest? i plann on taking them out and slicing and pulling at around 12 and they will go in crock pots to keep warm. Which brings another question...I was going to put a little apple juice and rub in with the pulled pork to keep it moist and make some ajus for with the brisket in the crock pots....good or bad idea?
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they'll be fine. I always season my pulled pork with more rub. I baste with apple sauce a lot, but when I've added it to the final product it tastes too sweet for my liking at least. recently I've been squeezing lemon on the final product, but I love lemon. anyone else do that?
 
Sounds like you've got all the details covered. But, you know that whole thing about "the best laid plans"...well, let's just say it's good to have a "plan b" in mind if things go awry. In your situation, my fear would be oversleeping and not getting the ribs on soon enough. FWIW, the best ribs I think I've ever cooked were also the quickest rib cook I've ever done: about 3.5 hours total. This was on my kettle, 3 racks of spares in a rib rack with a pair of Weber's charcoal bins running about 350-375. Never foiled them, just rotated them every 45 minutes to even things out.
 
I do one or two family barbecues a year with about the same amount of meat you're doing. After some trial and error I have found that ribs reheat easily and don't suffer in the taste or texture department, so I do those first, a day or two early. Do them "nearly done", wrap them in foil and refrigerate. You can reheat them in the oven and then glaze them on a grille. Nobody will guess that they have been reheated. For me, brisket is the hardest to reheat, so I always plan for that to be done last. The butt can be squeezed in between the ribs and brisket, even overlapping, with no downside. I keep the cooker (18.5 WSM) going pretty much the whole time. It's a marathon, but it's damn fun.

Jeff
 
AdamKing said:
so lets say i get them in the cooker at 7 pm and and they are all done at 7 or eight in the morning if i put the butts and the brisket all in the same cooler they shouldnt drop into the "danger zone" durring the 4-5 hour rest? i plann on taking them out and slicing and pulling at around 12 and they will go in crock pots to keep warm. Which brings another question...I was going to put a little apple juice and rub in with the pulled pork to keep it moist and make some ajus for with the brisket in the crock pots....good or bad idea?
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I never like letting my meat rest for that long. It tends to turn them to mush. If you do decide to hold it that long, Vent them down to 180 and wrap in fresh foil( save the dripping of course for the crock pot) I like adding the apple juice and rub when I start pulling. A little goes a long way. Just make sure you warm it up to room temp before adding. If it's ice cold it will seize that meat up if its piping hot.
 
Thanks for everyones ideas and help! Everything went pretty smoothly and turned out good. I had the brisket and butts on (brisket on top) at about 7:30 friday night and was in bed by about 11. I got up once at around 3 and the smoker was at 215 so i opened all the vents a bit and went back to sleep. I woke up at about 530 and started prepping the ribs and also added about 30-40 unlit coals the the wsm. The brisket was about 178 at this time and the butts were in the stall. I had the ribs on at 6:45 in the other smoker. The brisket came off at 200 at about 9 and went in the cooler followed by the smaller pork shoulder at about 10. The ribs were coming along nicely at around nine i started basting them with pinapple juice and at around 11 the bigger shoulder came off (15.5 hours). The ribs came off at noon and got covered in foil to rest while i sliced the brisket and pulled the shoulders. Everything went in warm crockpots. The ribs were not my best but there wasnt anything left of them after about an hour so i kept my mouth shut, the only thing we had leftovers of was some pulled pork. Btw im blaming the ribs not being up to snuff on using my friends pellet grill instead of the wsm...thats my story and im sticking to it. I dont have many pics because i was running around like a chicken with my head cut off but i will post them when i get a chance.
 
AdamKing said:
I dont have many pics because i was running around like a chicken with my head cut off but i will post them when i get a chance.
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Man do I know how that is! I always end up planning on documenting my smokes, so I get several pics of getting the rub together and the meat before it's prepped (i.e. before my hands get too dirty). I might even get some of the smoker being prepped (unlit coals and wood waiting, coals starting in the chimney)! But as soon as the fire starts I'm more concerned with getting food on the heat, setting up thermometers (if used), cleaning up the kitchen so my little girl doesn't get cut or start playing around with anything that has had raw meat on it. Then I realize I didn't take any pics and remind myself to do better on the other end of the cook. Of course at that point it's always a "race" to get all of the finishing touches done so we can eat and I once again forget. Oh well, at least my food gets enjoyed!

Anyway. Sounds like you had a very successful cook! Congrats!
 
Yup i have tons of pictures of meat that is getting ready to go on the smoker or something halfway through cooking or something done and sliced up but very few cooks from start to finish...ive gotta work on that.
 
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