Newbie Questions

[Harvey M.]

Hi folks,

A friend and I have come up with some pretty dang good Ribs and we are thinking of cooking them at a few local community
events next year.

Can anyone help with this problem...lets say we smoke 50 racks of ribs that will be ready to serve at 10:30 a.m., how can we keep these same ribs from being overcooked at 3 p.m. or 4 or 5 pm ?

Do you guys normally fully cook your ribs ahead of time ? Would you cook them and freeze them ?

How many racks would you start with for say an event that draws 3-4000 people ? (and no one else is serving ribs)

Sorry for so many questions.


Any help is appreciated !

 

[Dean C.]

I have no idea how to answer your quantity question, but we keep ribs triple wrapped in foil (with a little spray) in a cooler with hot towels waiting on the crowd. Good luck, thats a damn mess of people, it would take a lot of coolers!!!

 

[Art R]

There are simply too many variables in your question to answer it. First, what type of rig and set up will you have to cook the ribs? You will also need adequate refrigeration to store uncooked ribs. Perhaps speaking to an event organizer may give you insight as to how much demand you could expect. Regardless of demand you need to figure out the economics of the operation. e.g. With our rig we can produce 250 slabs in an 8 hour period. If a serving is 1/3 of a slab, that is 750 servings. If we charge $5 per serving our gross will be $$3750. It costs us $1250 for the slabs and $500 to rent the cooker. Insurance and fees are $250. Other expenses such as paper products, sauce and such run $300. Our net will be $1450 if I did the math right in my head. Just an example, but you might want to think about those costs and weigh the benefits.

AR

 

[Doug Parizo]

4000 people?

If you're a newbie, I don't think you can make 50 racks of ribs all be done at the same time. That would take some serious infrastructure, money, experience, and good luck.

Can you scale back somehow (6-12 racks = 1-2 fully loaded WSM's) and still enjoy the event?

 

[Chet Johnson]

If you had 7 or 8 WSMs or something of equivalent capacity, you might be able to stage them so that they would be ready at varying points through the afternoon. It sure doesn't sound like a catering job for the uninitiated (like me).

If I were to attempt anything close to that, I would consider smoking the ribs well ahead of time and holding them in a refrigerator. As the time comes closer to serve, heat and finish them in smaller batches on a grill with a little mop sauce. It wouldn't be quite the same as right off the smoker, but it would probably work out ok.