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Guest
Guest
Ok Folks; here?s the report I promised on cooking ribs and butts for 80 people on a single WSM. Sorry it's a bit late.
Executive Summary: It worked. It worked wonderfully. Not a single technical glitch, due mostly to advice that I received here at the VWB forum. I would have been in trouble otherwise.
The only bad part: Three solid days of 24 hour smoker supervision. I was bushed.
The task: Smoking twenty slabs of full-sized pork side ribs, St. Louis cut; and six boneless pork butts, each approximately six pounds. I had from Thursday morning ?till Saturday afternoon. Dinner was to be served at 5:00 on Saturday.
- I started Thursday morning, and did two batches of side ribs, six slabs per batch, each for about six hours.
- Here?s where the advice from this forum kicked in. Thank GAWD that Steve B. recommended doing the butts overnight from Thursday to Friday. My initial plan was to get up early and do them during the day on Friday. I wouldn?t have made it.
- I couldn?t fit all six butts in at once, so I had to settle for four. They took 15 hours to reach 190 degrees. It?s now about three p.m. on Friday.
- We started pulling the pork butts and put on a batch of 8 slabs of side ribs (a personal record). I didn?t roll them, just sort of ?weaved? them through my el-cheapo rib racks.
- On Friday night I did another overnight session that night for the two remaining butts. We pulled them on Saturday morning. By noon all the meat was in roasting pans in refrigerators. At about three p.m. we began warming all the meat for dinner in as many ovens as we could commandeer.
Here?s a few other details:
I cleaned all the grease and other crap out of the smoker at about the half-way point.
I used two large bags of lump charcoal in total.
People kept showing up to raid the food throughout the cooking process. I reckoned this was a good sign.
Stainless steel Food warmers are a great help when serving pre-cooked BBQ to a crowd. They look good, and they keep the food at a safely elevated temperature. Costco has a real nice one, with water jacket, for about $40. We used three of them. If you don?t want to buy them they can be rented for about eight bucks each.
I made three different finishing sauces for the pulled pork (vinegar, mustard, sweet-tomato). People liked the choice.
We also served slaw, pintos, a tossed salad, veggie and fruit trays, and a few desserts.
Much thanks to all who helped.
Cheers,
Scott.
Executive Summary: It worked. It worked wonderfully. Not a single technical glitch, due mostly to advice that I received here at the VWB forum. I would have been in trouble otherwise.
The only bad part: Three solid days of 24 hour smoker supervision. I was bushed.
The task: Smoking twenty slabs of full-sized pork side ribs, St. Louis cut; and six boneless pork butts, each approximately six pounds. I had from Thursday morning ?till Saturday afternoon. Dinner was to be served at 5:00 on Saturday.
- I started Thursday morning, and did two batches of side ribs, six slabs per batch, each for about six hours.
- Here?s where the advice from this forum kicked in. Thank GAWD that Steve B. recommended doing the butts overnight from Thursday to Friday. My initial plan was to get up early and do them during the day on Friday. I wouldn?t have made it.
- I couldn?t fit all six butts in at once, so I had to settle for four. They took 15 hours to reach 190 degrees. It?s now about three p.m. on Friday.
- We started pulling the pork butts and put on a batch of 8 slabs of side ribs (a personal record). I didn?t roll them, just sort of ?weaved? them through my el-cheapo rib racks.
- On Friday night I did another overnight session that night for the two remaining butts. We pulled them on Saturday morning. By noon all the meat was in roasting pans in refrigerators. At about three p.m. we began warming all the meat for dinner in as many ovens as we could commandeer.
Here?s a few other details:
I cleaned all the grease and other crap out of the smoker at about the half-way point.
I used two large bags of lump charcoal in total.
People kept showing up to raid the food throughout the cooking process. I reckoned this was a good sign.
Stainless steel Food warmers are a great help when serving pre-cooked BBQ to a crowd. They look good, and they keep the food at a safely elevated temperature. Costco has a real nice one, with water jacket, for about $40. We used three of them. If you don?t want to buy them they can be rented for about eight bucks each.
I made three different finishing sauces for the pulled pork (vinegar, mustard, sweet-tomato). People liked the choice.
We also served slaw, pintos, a tossed salad, veggie and fruit trays, and a few desserts.
Much thanks to all who helped.
Cheers,
Scott.
