Commercial Cooking

[dream n smoke]

I'm considering commercially smoking meats, but was wondering if it would be a good idea if I was to lets say cook a lot of ribs or BB's and then vac sealed and freeze what I don't sell that day then the next day boil water to reheat the meat. What temp should the reheated meat be at.

 

[davidhef88]

Are you registered, licensed, and insured? If not you have a lot to look into. There are people here that can help you.


David

 

[dream n smoke]

Not licensed yet, all that will come with the possible eatery my wife and I are planning for the future, just trying to see how to mass produce and still have some tenderness in the meat.

 

[oldschoolbbq]

A lot of trial and error, you need unbiased people to try you food on...maybe at your work(or hers). Get a good Reputation with sample food , then jump in , the competition is tough , so you want to practice,practice,practice

Then you need to get a grip on bulk cooking (that's a choice of the customers-you can't force what you want on them , they will get Jaded.

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• oldschoolbbq
• Oct 14, 2012

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• oldschoolbbq
• Oct 17, 2012

Whether it's Pork Brisket or Chicken, start doing batches and see what you can do:

Start with small cooks and serve till gone and close for the next day, if you get a following then increase the volume. The vac-pac is a good idea and it should be at145° to pass inspection.You'll get all that in you Safe Serve classes.

Good luck , with the BBQ joints out there you're gonna have to be 'GOOD".

P.S. Never give a customer Microwaved food , it destroys the flavor and consistency

So,have absolutely good luck and ...

 

[scarbelly]

Until you have a commercially licensed kitchen you risk a lot. Have you done a business plan for your new venture? It is a tough job 

 

[pineywoods]

Please don't take any comments here as trying to discourage you the members that have commented aren't trying to do that I can assure you. What they are trying to tell you is do your homework and know what your talking about getting yourself into. We have some members that have restaurants, some that do catering, and many that have thought about getting into it. The laws, rules, and regulations to get licensed and getting insurance is different in different states and in many cases doing that is a major hurdle. With the number of restaurants that fail for one reason or another maybe consider catering or a food truck to start with and grow from there.   

 

[scarbelly]

Please don't take any comments here as trying to discourage you the members that have commented aren't trying to do that I can assure you. What they are trying to tell you is do your homework and know what your talking about getting yourself into. We have some members that have restaurants, some that do catering, and many that have thought about getting into it. The laws, rules, and regulations to get licensed and getting insurance is different in different states and in many cases doing that is a major hurdle. With the number of restaurants that fail for one reason or another maybe consider catering or a food truck to start with and grow from there.   

As Jerry said - we are here to help support your dreams but at the same time, we have a responsibility to make sure you go into this with your eyes and ears open. I did a catering gig for several years. We will help guide you with our best intentions in what ever path you choose. Lot us know what questions you may have and how we can help  

 

[diggingdogfarm]

I'm considering commercially smoking meats, but was wondering if it would be a good idea if I was to lets say cook a lot of ribs or BB's and then vac sealed and freeze what I don't sell that day then the next day boil water to reheat the meat. What temp should the reheated meat be at.

Not licensed yet, all that will come with the possible eatery my wife and I are planning for the future, just trying to see how to mass produce and still have some tenderness in the meat.

Sounds like you're fully aware that licensing and all the crap that goes with it is inevitable.

Now, to answer your original question, saving and reheating food that been held for an extended period of time is a no-no (at least in this area).
In other words, food that's left over from being held in something like a steam table or the like must be trashed.....not offered again.
It's just as well, because the quality diminishes.

Having said that, talk to your health officials there, that's the best place to look for answers and all that really matters because those are the folks you have to answer to.

HTH


~Martin

 

[jarjarchef]

You have received a lot of advice. Here is my $.02

As said and seems like you have done. Find out the rules and regulations for what you decide to do. Stay current with them if this will be an over time planning to execution and after you open. Pad your budget heavily for unexpected costs. My wife owns and operates a business and has been in her building for over 12 years. She had 1 inspector change and it had caused her all kinds of headaches. Some could have been avoided if she had just stayed on top of the regulations a bit more, most are due to the inspector change.

Practice, practice, practice the bulk cooking and prepping..... A lot of your cook times are the same for bulk as they are for singles. But your product will react differently with all of the extra product. The biggest thing is bark and color as they cook. So you have to move the meat around to form these. The smoker will cook differently with the air flow change. Practice your recipes in small batches, but after you get the flavor you want practice big batches.

Prep time and batch recipes: WOW that is a big thing. Most batch rub recipes will multiply without issue. But most sauce recipes will need tweaking a bit. Remember if a 1qt sauce batch simmers for 20 minutes a 5 gal batch may need 2 hours to get the same results. Again practice and take notes... Your prep times will be very long at first, but as you get better at it and you will get faster, or at least you should be pushing yourself to get faster and more efficient. Time is money!!!!! Good ways to practice and get your name out is to volunteer at church or school cook outs or other things like that.

Martin is on the money as far as reheating.... The state of Florida does not have any rules on how many times you can reheat an item. What does come into play is the quality of the product after reheating. So our company has a 1 time only reheat. After that it is sent to a food bank after proper chilling down. Every time you heat and chill the product it changes the quality of the product. Thing like flavor, texture and color are only a few things, but the big thing is every time you cook, chill, reheat, chill, reheat..... and so on. You are running a risk of bacteria growth each time you go through the temperature danger zone (40-140F)..

 

[fpnmf]

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129020/catering-questions

 

[dream n smoke]

Thanks everyone for the great input, I never take information as a negative only as a positive. Time to start practicing.