Selling my BBQs. I need advice!

[smokeyj121]

Hi there,

I've been practicing BBQ, and I've learned a lot of lessons. I am starting thinking of opening a small place to sell my BBQs. I often smoke chicken, pork spare ribs and some beef short ribs. I have a few questions that I would love to hear the answers from you pitmasters:

1. I am actually selling my BBQs online already. Basically, I smoke the meats, then portion them:
+ For pork ribs: I often split 2 riblets into a single pack (weighs around 9oz-11oz per pack)
+ For beef ribs: Since beef short ribs are a lot thicker, I portion a riblet per pack.
+ For chicken: a wing and a chicken lollipop (drumstick) per pack.
Then I vacuum seal them, refrigerate them and ship them to my customers when there's an order. They reheat the meats when they want.
All ribs are served with a special Smoked Pineapple BBQ sauce; chickens are served with White Alabama sauce and besides that, I have included some bread and butter pickles! I'm only having Corn Elote as a side dish for now.
Everything came out of the smoker pretty much lovely and gorgeous, juicy and moist. However, I tried reheating the meats from the vacuum seal pack, and compared to when they just got pulled out from my smoker, I didn't like it. Seemed like they couldn't keep the freshness, the color and the juiciness. I am asking if there is any good ways to reheat smoked meats and keep the same quality, juiciness?

2. Since different meats cook with different temps, I don't think I can smoke all meats in one day, everyday. I was thinking about the same thing that I'm doing now, maybe pork one day, then refrigerate them, then beef and chicken the next day. But do BBQ restaurants do the same? Or how should I do it? How should I stock up my meats and still have them fresh, moist and tasty to serve when it's eat time?

3. Below are a few pics of my products. I know it's a tougher task now but I'm going to try. I want to keep on BBQing and even bring my BBQ to people. Do what I love and make money out of it? It's my goal!


Thanks for your response.

I live in a different country, outside the US; therefore our procedure might be a little different than yours. However, I worked with the local food inspector as well as the health department. Everything was okay. I don't know if they have strict laws here in my country, compare to the States, but I passed them all. My equipments, storing foods, the way I cook, everything. Plus, I did study Culinary Arts for a few years, also worked as a cook for years, I kind of know what should be done for my customers' safety.

However, since I'm recent in this BBQ department, I'm looking for more advice, even in my cooking/storing procedure.

I saw a lot of people asking for advice for their caterings and so on? Since I'm starting out small it's not too much different than a catering.

 

[SmokinAl]

There are all kinds of Health Dept. laws that need to be followed when you are selling food. I'm hoping that you are aware of this & have all the necessary licensing & insurance.
Al

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

The regulations would be just too much for me to deal with. I'm glad that they are there to protect me but that is a huge reason I would never consider turning my BBQ passion into a business. As Al said I hope that you are adhering to all of the rules and regs for your intended purpose of selling BBQ. Your food looks good. The best of luck to you in your endeavor.

George

 

[flatbroke]

Sous vide for reheat in bag

 

[pops6927]

If you are charging money for your products, that is selling. You need to contact your local, county and state health and food/inspection departments to obtain the proper licensing, health regulations for doing so. This is an amateur site and we do not endorse commercial enterprises of any kind, I apologize.

 

[krj]

You know, I'm glad you all are making sure that people are being food safe, and advising people look into their local regs. Seriously, it really is good advice. But I know there is a ton of knowledge that those of you who post the same safety/reg rigamarole in several threads also have answers to the OPs questions. But nope, let's just give them the old safety speech and ignore any questions they might have. I know you're not trying to be, but it can come off a little rude that you took the time to post, and somewhat lecture someone. But couldn't be bothered to answer their question.


Now that I've gotten that off my chest, to the OPs questions.

1. Reheating is always going to it's former glory is a pipedream. You can get close, but it'll never be the same as fresh out the cooker. That said, Sous Vide is a good option like flatbroke suggested. You can also run a low temp oven/smoker and reheat that way.

2. Easiest way, more smokers! Outside of that, you could do daily cooks, but my recommendation is set down and examine your times and cook temps and see what items you can do at the same time. If there are some that are close, I can almost guarantee adjusting one way or another 10-15 degrees isn't going to kill your product.

3. I wish you the best of luck making it work, at the moment I'm starting to do vendor events and I'm getting ready to take on catering jobs soon(ish). So I understand the stage you're at. Seriously good luck, and your food looks great.

 

[smokeyj121]

There are all kinds of Health Dept. laws that need to be followed when you are selling food. I'm hoping that you are aware of this & have all the necessary licensing & insurance.
Al

I am very aware of that. Thank you Al!

 

[smokeyj121]

The regulations would be just too much for me to deal with. I'm glad that they are there to protect me but that is a huge reason I would never consider turning my BBQ passion into a business. As Al said I hope that you are adhering to all of the rules and regs for your intended purpose of selling BBQ. Your food looks good. The best of luck to you in your endeavor.

George

Thank you so much. I've added more infos about me and I just want to clarify that I did pass the inspections and everything, where I'm from. Thanks for your compliment on my foods and I'll keep on improving it.

 

[smokeyj121]

Sous vide for reheat in bag

It's my number 1 option when thinking of reheating. Thank you so much!

 

[smokeyj121]

t

If you are charging money for your products, that is selling. You need to contact your local, county and state health and food/inspection departments to obtain the proper licensing, health regulations for doing so. This is an amateur site and we do not endorse commercial enterprises of any kind, I apologize.

Thank you for helping me out with everything. I would pay more attention next time I post something similar. I appreciate your help a lot!

 

[smokeyj121]

You know, I'm glad you all are making sure that people are being food safe, and advising people look into their local regs. Seriously, it really is good advice. But I know there is a ton of knowledge that those of you who post the same safety/reg rigamarole in several threads also have answers to the OPs questions. But nope, let's just give them the old safety speech and ignore any questions they might have. I know you're not trying to be, but it can come off a little rude that you took the time to post, and somewhat lecture someone. But couldn't be bothered to answer their question.


Now that I've gotten that off my chest, to the OPs questions.

1. Reheating is always going to it's former glory is a pipedream. You can get close, but it'll never be the same as fresh out the cooker. That said, Sous Vide is a good option like flatbroke suggested. You can also run a low temp oven/smoker and reheat that way.

2. Easiest way, more smokers! Outside of that, you could do daily cooks, but my recommendation is set down and examine your times and cook temps and see what items you can do at the same time. If there are some that are close, I can almost guarantee adjusting one way or another 10-15 degrees isn't going to kill your product.

3. I wish you the best of luck making it work, at the moment I'm starting to do vendor events and I'm getting ready to take on catering jobs soon(ish). So I understand the stage you're at. Seriously good luck, and your food looks great.

Hi there,

Thank you so much for understanding. I really appreciate it!

I do take responsibilities for my post; and I understand people really concern about food safety. I do too!

It was my fault that I didn't inform this earlier, but I've added this :

"I live in a different country, outside the US; therefore our procedure might be a little different than yours. However, I worked with the local food inspector as well as the health department. Everything was okay. I don't know if they have strict laws here in my country, compare to the States, but I passed them all. My equipments, storing foods, the way I cook, everything. Plus, I did study Culinary Arts for a few years, also worked as a cook for years, I kind of know what should be done for my customers' safety.

However, since I'm recent in this BBQ department, I'm looking for more advice, even in my cooking/storing procedure."

Thank you brother for all the advices. I really appreciate it. And thank you for your compliments on my foods; I will keep on practicing to improve it.

Best of luck to you too brother. Ain't nothing better than doing what you love and be able to make a living out of it, everyday!

 

[petehalsted]

Your customers will be reheating, correct? Not you.

Expecting your customer to have Sous Vide equipment is a big ask, especially considering the type of folks that will order prepared food from someone else, aren't likely to be "kitchen gadget" collectors.

I usually do a full smoker, and vacuum seal up lots of meals for the two of us. Here's my process:
1. When I vacuum seal, depending on what it is I put just a touch of liquid (collected dripping) in the bag. Especially stuff like pulled pork, chicken.
2. To avoid the extra liquid / plus the moisture from the meat itself, from getting sucked out during vacuuming, I par freeze the items first. This is one of the big difference between consumer and commercial equipment. Commercial chamber sealers are able to work with liquids, and there are flash freezers to prefreeze before sealing as well.
3. So when I am ready for a meal, I pull the bag out, thaw, and heat it in a pan of water on the stove. But the key is I only let the water get to 125-140. Plenty warm enough to get to serving temp, but not hot enough to "cook" the product further. Most folks try to reheat like they are boiler bags, using boiling water, but if you do that you are cooking the product not just reheating, not to mention the seals on the bags can soften and give way at those temps.

So my suggest would be to create a simple "reheat instructions" pamplet to include with the product that tells them to "simmer" not boil water with bag in it for # minutes.

This thread has already gotten a bit touchy, so I hate to bring it up, but I will toss it out there and let you do your own research/decision process. Many caterer, etc. use phosphates specifically to help food retain its moisture, etc. when reheated. There is a giant debate around phosphates, as I said do your own research and decide if its something you need to consider or not.

 

[dougmays]

I'm not even going to touch this one :/

 

[gmc2003]

Honest question: Did you really mean you just refrigerate your food or did you mean freeze? Plus you sell it online? Is it only available in your country or do you ship out of country?

Curiosity on my part.

Chris

 

[smokeyj121]

Your customers will be reheating, correct? Not you.

Expecting your customer to have Sous Vide equipment is a big ask, especially considering the type of folks that will order prepared food from someone else, aren't likely to be "kitchen gadget" collectors.

I usually do a full smoker, and vacuum seal up lots of meals for the two of us. Here's my process:
1. When I vacuum seal, depending on what it is I put just a touch of liquid (collected dripping) in the bag. Especially stuff like pulled pork, chicken.
2. To avoid the extra liquid / plus the moisture from the meat itself, from getting sucked out during vacuuming, I par freeze the items first. This is one of the big difference between consumer and commercial equipment. Commercial chamber sealers are able to work with liquids, and there are flash freezers to prefreeze before sealing as well.
3. So when I am ready for a meal, I pull the bag out, thaw, and heat it in a pan of water on the stove. But the key is I only let the water get to 125-140. Plenty warm enough to get to serving temp, but not hot enough to "cook" the product further. Most folks try to reheat like they are boiler bags, using boiling water, but if you do that you are cooking the product not just reheating, not to mention the seals on the bags can soften and give way at those temps.

So my suggest would be to create a simple "reheat instructions" pamplet to include with the product that tells them to "simmer" not boil water with bag in it for # minutes.

This thread has already gotten a bit touchy, so I hate to bring it up, but I will toss it out there and let you do your own research/decision process. Many caterer, etc. use phosphates specifically to help food retain its moisture, etc. when reheated. There is a giant debate around phosphates, as I said do your own research and decide if its something you need to consider or not.

Thank you for all the words. I will do my research for everything. For now, I deliver cooked foods to their doors, so yes they will be reheating themselves. However, Im also asking on how to manage cooked meats when having a restaurant. Because I would love to open one one day.

I dont know why everybody thinks this thread is touchy. Probably it is business in a different country makes you all feel a little weird and everything?

I just want to tell everybody that Im just asking for advice. Either you share it, or you don’t. It’s up to you. All im doing is asking.

Thank you for sharing. I will keep on learning.

 

[smokeyj121]

I'm not even going to touch this one :/

Welp. Okay then. Thanks anyway :D

 

[smokeyj121]

Honest question: Did you really mean you just refrigerate your food or did you mean freeze? Plus you sell it online? Is it only available in your country or do you ship out of country?

Curiosity on my part.

Chris

I cooked the foods, then let them cool, then vacuum sealed, then refrigerated. Normally I sell them all within a day two; customers reheat the food themselves.

I dont think Im able to deliver anything internationally. I ship locally actually, within my city. Im from Asia by the way.

 

[gmc2003]

Thanks I wasn't sure.

Chris