I am cooking for a concession stand at a two day event that my daughter's team is hosting this weekend. Its a charity gig, so no pressure and they are selling a bunch of other items that I don't have to prepare (walking tacos, pepperoni rolls, hot dogs, etc). I worked up a $325 budget that would get them 100 brisket sandwiches and 225 pulled pork and they purchased all the materials. That excluded the buns that they were able to get from another source at $0.15 each. They think I will run out of que each day (there are over 1000 people coming to this thing); so I just sized the plan to my largest smoker (25 square feet of rack space) and plan on having a propane/charcoal combo grill handy if needed.
I'll say it now before anyone else gets to it: I am cheating like crazy. Since they want food ready at 9am to 9pm both days I had to start early and I broke out the sous vide. I hacked a 48 quart cooler for my sous vide that worked perfectly on 40 pounds of the pulled pork over the last 24 hrs. I had dry brined it overnight then into the bath at 165F for 24 hrs. I pulled off the liquid and saved it in the fridge for rewarming, resealed the bags and crash cooled the butts for an hour in a separate cooler filled with ice and water and then back in the fridge until Saturday.
Followed the same process for 2 of the three packer briskets (each cut into 3rds) this morning but they will go in for 48 hours at 152F (I did about 10 lbs this way last weekend as practice and it exceeded expectations).
Saturday morning we fire up the big boy, rub everything down with the appropriate rub and put it onto the smoker for a couple hours to develop some bark (last weekend's test was successful at 2 hrs). Pull the pork, slice the brisket and put it into crock pots at the concession stand. I don't even have to serve, just stager the cooks and deliver the meat every few hours. As much work as the prep has been, it may end up being a pretty relaxed couple of days.
That will get me through Saturday; for Sunday's pork I am straight up smoking the other 35 pounds all day Saturday and will have the last brisket packer coming out of the sous vide bath first thing Sunday morning to repeat the process above.
The 60#s of chicken is for dinner Saturday for a group of folks participating in the event, I am just going to brine those overnight and smoke em and finish on the grill.
Sorry for the long post and no pics, I will follow up with a review and q view of the festivities.
I'll say it now before anyone else gets to it: I am cheating like crazy. Since they want food ready at 9am to 9pm both days I had to start early and I broke out the sous vide. I hacked a 48 quart cooler for my sous vide that worked perfectly on 40 pounds of the pulled pork over the last 24 hrs. I had dry brined it overnight then into the bath at 165F for 24 hrs. I pulled off the liquid and saved it in the fridge for rewarming, resealed the bags and crash cooled the butts for an hour in a separate cooler filled with ice and water and then back in the fridge until Saturday.
Followed the same process for 2 of the three packer briskets (each cut into 3rds) this morning but they will go in for 48 hours at 152F (I did about 10 lbs this way last weekend as practice and it exceeded expectations).
Saturday morning we fire up the big boy, rub everything down with the appropriate rub and put it onto the smoker for a couple hours to develop some bark (last weekend's test was successful at 2 hrs). Pull the pork, slice the brisket and put it into crock pots at the concession stand. I don't even have to serve, just stager the cooks and deliver the meat every few hours. As much work as the prep has been, it may end up being a pretty relaxed couple of days.
That will get me through Saturday; for Sunday's pork I am straight up smoking the other 35 pounds all day Saturday and will have the last brisket packer coming out of the sous vide bath first thing Sunday morning to repeat the process above.
The 60#s of chicken is for dinner Saturday for a group of folks participating in the event, I am just going to brine those overnight and smoke em and finish on the grill.
Sorry for the long post and no pics, I will follow up with a review and q view of the festivities.
