Planning ahead...WAY Ahead


 
Charles Howse

Charles Howse

TVWBB Wizard
If everything goes as planned, this May 15th I will be cooking a big BBQ for my teammates at work.

We did this last year and it was a big success.

I need to plan now so I'll be sure I have everything cooked when time comes to eat.

Current plans are to eat at a local city park, not too far away. No electricity available.

The proteins will be:
ABT's & Pig Candy to be smoked on site (WSM)
Pulled Pork, Brisket and Burnt Ends

The sides will be easy. I'll only have to make a gallon or so of Keri's Hog-Apple beans, but I'm gonna use Peach pie filling instead of Apple. Gonna get store-bought everything else.

Here's the challenge...
I will have the entire day before to cook, and until 3:00 the day of to finish up and get the sides ready. Don't know what time I'll get off from work the day before the day before.

I think my best bet is to do the Brisket High Heat, but I'm not confident about the Butts being on at the same time.

Another question...Chris has a great guide to measuring temps in the WSM, but he doesn't have a guide as to the difference between lid and grate temps when cooking above 250°. What grate temp equates to 350° at the lid?

Any thoughts?
 
Seems like you just need to have the butts out of the way to handle the brisket and sides.

You could cook the pork butts a couple days in advance, refrigerate, and warm back up (foiled) on your 22.5 kettle. I would normally say cook a couple weeks in advance, pull and freeze, but if you don't have electricity, boiling water to reheat isn't as easy.

Whenever I need to reheat from the refrigerator, I cut the finished butt into large fist size chunks to cool, then refrigerate in gallon zip locks. To reheat, I wrap the chunks tightly in foil and reheat. Pull for serving.
 
You didn't mention how much you're cooking but, without easy reheating in the fore, I'd do the butts overnight, planning to pull them off that cooker at ~9:00. Cooler them for the rest. Ramp the heat to handle the brisket(s). They'll be done before 2, likely. Move on to finishing the ends at that point.

As to the question about the lid vs. grate temps - it doesn't matter. Pick a spot to temp and shoot for your target there.
 
Hi Kevin,
Don't know exactly how much I need to cook at this point, it's too early.
I expect it will be about 20# of pork butt and 12# or more of brisket.
 
I assume you're going to cook "on site" of this company picnic. If you've got one WSM and not willing to spend the night with the smoker on site, IMO, you're looking at a logistical nightmare.

How far is the picnic location from your home?
 
Terre,
Sorry to be so long getting back.
I am NOT going to cook on site. I plan to cook at home and transport about 3 - 4 miles to the park.
I WILL have my WSM onsite to make the appetizers, and can use it to re-heat the PP and Brisket.
 
Do what Kevin suggested, and if you cook enough pork and have a good cooler, you shouldn't need to reheat it. It'll stay plenty hot if you preheat the cooler good, and put the flat in there on top when done with the brisket. You can do the burnt ends, stuffed jalepeno's and what not on site.
 
I'd like to re-visit this topic because we're about a month and a half out, and I have 23 people committed to come to the picnic.
Final invitations go out in about 2 weeks.
The other reason I want to be sure and do this one up right is that it will almost certainly be the last one. I'm gonna retire March of 2012.

By my calculations, I'll need about 17 lbs. of raw meat, which can be split 50/50 by Brisket and Butt.

That being the case, I can get by with 1 big Packer, and 1 big Butt, possibly 2 so I can freeze some for our family.

I have a co-worker who is committed to coming, and will bring the "rolling smoker" from his Church so we can cook/re-heat/keep warm on site. It's a stick burner, and he says he can operate it, and it can hold a low temp for a long time.
That in itself solves a lot of issues for me.

The plan is to have 2 servings. One at 5:30, the other at 7:45. We will have an 'early' crowd, and the 'closers' or the folk who have to close the store or can't be there early and I want to have hot food for them as opposed to last year.

Looks like it's gonna be a simple matter of cooking the butt(s) on Saturday, and the Brisket early Sunday, keeping them warm till they see the rolling smoker, and transporting and cooling the cold stuff to cook onsite.

Discussion?


--
"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."
-Dave Barry
 
Charles, do you know anyone that has a camp stove that you could borrow? You might not need it but it would be handy to have just in case.

Brad
 
Brad, I don't but that's a good idea.
I also need an easy way to keep the slaw cold. Will probably put a bag o' ice in a serving pan, and put the serving pan with the slaw in it on top of that.
 
If you plan to cook the pork & brisket the night before - I would recommend giving it a "practice run" some weekend beforehand.

This should help you guage how much time you'll actually need and allow you to breathe easier on the big day.

You could also speed-up the pork a bit by cooking more smaller chunks. Don't know if you normally do whole shoulders or halves - but halves or thirds should go quicker, and loading-up your smoker with a lot of chunks will slow-down the process a bit, but not a lot. Then again, if you want to foil them and pull before serving - bigger chunks / halves will hold the heat better.

Hope this helps and good luck!
 
Thanks Ron, I have indeed been doing a pratctice run or two. Planning on doing one the next time it's nice outside.
I'm not up for cooking outside in "Lampe-style" weather. With all due respect to Jim, he's younger and apparently doesn't mind the cold as much as my old bones.

--
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."
-Lyndon B. Johnson
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top