Tony-Chicago
TVWBB Wizard
Great start. Now that you have an idea on timing, plan to pre-cook the rest soon. Congratulations
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Preparing to cater my own baby shower
- Thread starter JungWoo
- Start date
Tony-Chicago
TVWBB Wizard
How is your planning going? Want a hand? Start doing some more. Makes it a lot easier as the schedule tightens up. Let us know
Good! I have about 40 lbs of brisket, 40 lbs of pork butt, and 30 lbs of chicken, all cooked, vacuum sealed, and in the deep freezer until this morning. I have about 60 hours until the event.
I did 30 lbs of potato salad tonight, and vacuum sealed it. I moved all the meats from the deep freezer into the fridge to thaw. I think I may need to have them sit in a cooler overnight to speed up the thawing and for more fridge space for the sides.
Would freezing potato salad be a bad idea? It would only be for a night or two.
Jeff Boudman
TVWBB Wizard
I would not freeze potato salad.
Tony-Chicago
TVWBB Wizard
So far so good. Congrats. Do you have all the sides and fixins ready? Buns, sauce, you know... You are really kicking it so far. Let us know what you discover so we will know more too
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Chad-Burnt to a T
TVWBB Super Fan
Not sure what you mean by setting in cooler overnight but not sure that's a good idea depending on what you ment. You don't want 100 people getting sick and having the hershey squirts.
These two options are what I would do. Either one works well.
Cold water bath. Fill the sink or a pot big enough to hold the meat with cold water. Put the meat in a watertight plastic zipper bag. Leave the bag unzipped at first, and slowly submerge it keeping the zipper above water. The water pressure will push out all the air. Then zip it up tight. Leave it in cold water, and hold it under with a plate if necessary. Stir it occasionally to break up the envelope of cold water surrounding the meat. Make sure the water is under 40°F. Add cool water or ice cubes if needed. If you have a digital thermometer, use it to monitor the water temp. Allow 30 minutes per pound, so if you have a 20 pound turkey, you will need 10 hours, so make sure to set the alarm for early Thursday morning!
Very cold water bath. This method produces the least amount of “purge” or loss of fluid. Place the meat in an airless zipper bag in a plastic insulated cooler. Cover with cold water. After an hour add a quart of ice and add ice as needed, perhaps every hour, in order to keep the temp under 40°F.
I pulled my frozen meat from the deep chest freezer, and put some into the fridge, and some into a cooler.
The cooler was filled with frozen water bottles and ice, and I had a probe in it, making sure the temp was about 37 degrees the whole time.
I also bought a regulator that converts the chest freezer into a chest refrigerator by turning on/off.
30 lbs. of potato salad done, 9 lbs. of mac & cheese done. All that's left to make is coleslaw, cornbread (done by wife) and beans.
The cooler was filled with frozen water bottles and ice, and I had a probe in it, making sure the temp was about 37 degrees the whole time.
I also bought a regulator that converts the chest freezer into a chest refrigerator by turning on/off.
30 lbs. of potato salad done, 9 lbs. of mac & cheese done. All that's left to make is coleslaw, cornbread (done by wife) and beans.
Jeff Boudman
TVWBB Wizard
You’re doing great! You must be young and full of coffee. Oh, and it appears that you have a wonderful wife.
I know you're already underway on this, but for future reference, I've smoked a brisket I had in the cryo bag in the refrigerator for three months and it was okay. I'm not saying I recommend that, but it tasted fine and nobody got sick. Normal bacteria isn't an issue since you cook it for so long to such a high temp. Even bacteria that might bore their way through to the center won't stand a chance of survival. As long as the cryo is still holding a vacuum, you should be good. Of course, if it smells bad when you open it, that's a different story.
Tony-Chicago
TVWBB Wizard
How are you reheating again? I forgot. Doing well. Looks like starting well in advance is the way ti go
I have a sous vide and a big tank.
Tony-Chicago
TVWBB Wizard
Pics, pics yes more pics of the event. Tell us what worked, what different, what should if done, what could have been better, and how glad you did it all in advance...
I can't speak specifically to mac & cheese, but here's a trick I used once to hold a ham for a long time at serving temp. I took patio blocks and heated them in a very low oven for a couple hours, wrapped the blocks in a lot of newspaper (to protect the cooler) and put them in the bottom of the cooler. This was a good twenty pounds of thermal mass at ~150F. If the food is hot when it goes in it should stay that way for many hours.
The baby shower was a success! Very hectic day. I stayed up late last night packing sides into individual containers. I woke up early to build 150+ sandwiches. Everyone loved the food. Some people told me I should start a food truck. Others asked me seriously if I could cater their next event. I don't think I would do it again...at least not for that many people without lots of extra help.
The full menu was:
-brisket sandwiches
-pulled pork sandwiches
-hawaiian chicken sandwiches
-cornbread
-potato salad
-coleslaw
-bbq baked beans
-mac and cheese
-fruit
Squeezing the potato salad from a cut corner of a vacuum sealed bag made it easier. It worked similar to a cake frosting bag.
Sous vide took a bit longer than I expected, but with the time it took to build the sandwiches, it was fine. Starting the container with already hot water helps a lot.
Here's all the meat before it was pulled.
It was an extremely hectic and stressful morning. My in-laws came and helped, but I wish I had a lot more people to help on the day of. Perhaps a sandwich assembly line.
I used some serving trays and canned diethylene fuel to warm up the sandwiches at the venue, but they didn't really do anything. Perhaps the fuel type was not the best. I also burnt myself lighting it, since it was hard to tell if it was lit.
I didn't get any pictures of the spread. I was too busy running around and setting up other things. It was also nearly 90 degrees out and I was drenched in sweat.
I only have a few photos of the food from attendees. I jokingly put my own logo on the sandwich labels.
The weather was pretty hot, but the pavilion roof helped a lot. It was a bit windy and our backdrop fell onto our table, and broke some of the BBQ sauce party favor bottles.
The full menu was:
-brisket sandwiches
-pulled pork sandwiches
-hawaiian chicken sandwiches
-cornbread
-potato salad
-coleslaw
-bbq baked beans
-mac and cheese
-fruit
Squeezing the potato salad from a cut corner of a vacuum sealed bag made it easier. It worked similar to a cake frosting bag.
Sous vide took a bit longer than I expected, but with the time it took to build the sandwiches, it was fine. Starting the container with already hot water helps a lot.
Here's all the meat before it was pulled.
It was an extremely hectic and stressful morning. My in-laws came and helped, but I wish I had a lot more people to help on the day of. Perhaps a sandwich assembly line.
I used some serving trays and canned diethylene fuel to warm up the sandwiches at the venue, but they didn't really do anything. Perhaps the fuel type was not the best. I also burnt myself lighting it, since it was hard to tell if it was lit.
I didn't get any pictures of the spread. I was too busy running around and setting up other things. It was also nearly 90 degrees out and I was drenched in sweat.
I only have a few photos of the food from attendees. I jokingly put my own logo on the sandwich labels.
The weather was pretty hot, but the pavilion roof helped a lot. It was a bit windy and our backdrop fell onto our table, and broke some of the BBQ sauce party favor bottles.
