Any problems with this? Big burn planned...

[forluvofsmoke]

Hey, guys and gals! I'm planning on a rather large smoke and grill session for approximately 40 people in mid-May. My oldest son's high-school graduation reception dinner, and one our friend's daughter's reception dinner will be combined with ours (shared expenses).

I'm the only smoker in the area, so, naturally, I'm be pulling that duty. I'm planning on smoking about 12 lbs of pork butt (2) for PP on 3 loaves of Crusty French bread for sammies, 8 slabs of St. Louis spares, maybe 2 slabs of BB, 4 beer-butt style yard birds, 60-70 ABTs, 8 lbs of Dutches Beans, 2 large breakfast Fatties, and a couple small items. Numerous other sides and deserts will be attending the festivities as well.

I figured out how to fit 10 slabs into my SNP with my new rib racks, and then, I discovered that I'll need to do chamber baffle mods (I have a plan and the materials/equipment and tools for that) to even out the chamber temps near the edges of the grates, or, I'll have 2-4 slabs of burnt ribs.

The meats will be trimmed, rubbed, wrapped and ready the day before. Here's my problem: I'll be attending the graduation ceremony at 4:30 pm and in my planning I have found that I need the fatties assembled the night before so our family can eat breakfast at a reasonable hour. Is there any problem with raw pork contacting precooked eggs/onion or fresh cheddar while in the fridge for 8-12 hours? They'll be tightly wrapped in plastic, and I'll cook them to 175* minimum internal temp.

Then, there's the ABTS: I need these assembled the night before as well, so I can toss 'em in when we return from the ceremony to finish everything for dinner. These will be part of our appetizers. They will have the standard components of cream cheese/pork sausage/green onion mixed filling and wrapped in bacon. Will these ride it out through the night in air-tight containers without any risks?

I plan on running the fridge at 35-36 degrees, and it should have plenty of air circulation, as this is my new Q-fridge/freezer (house rig).

It's a big event, for me anyway. There should be enough food with onsite prepped and the food brought by some guests to feed over 75 people, so it should be a great feed. I just don't want anyone having gastro-intestinal problems due to mis-judgement.

Thanks for your help.

Eric

 

[geek with fire]

Sounds like you're going to have your hands full, but I'll bet you can pull it off. If it were me, I'd go ahead and do the pulled pork the night before, and reheat it in a pan with the juices the next day. That way if you run short on time, you won't have that taking up space in the smoker. I couldn't tell, but was that 12 lb total of PP, or 2 12lb shoulders. I'd do 2 large shoulders for that many people if it were me. Also note, and you may know this already, ABT's don't reheat well, and they aren't good cold. So make sure they are in the smoker when people start to show up.

Best of luck and have fun!

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Thanks, Geek. It will be a bit of a challenge, but, I am looking forward to doing it. I've been so excited about this that I couldn't get to sleep until 2 hours after going to bed lastnight at 1:30 am (about 3 hours past my norm)!

I did plan on hitting the ABTs as soon as we get back from the ceremony...figured on about 5 minutes to lay out on my spare bakers racks on a table top and toss into a 275* smoker. Then bump up to 300 or so after a 15 minute smoke. Bacon should be crisp after 45 minutes for sure, and just in time to be sampled...mmm-mmm-mmm.

The butts I'm looking to get will be 12 lbs total pre-cooked weight, and will go on with the fatties at 6:00 am, then into covered steam pans after 170 or so internal. They'll have over 12 hours to get nice and tender. We have a big rectangular shaped Nesco electric roaster/slow cooker to put them into in the foil pans if needed.

The one part that's kinda spooky is that I need to have the 4 beer-butt birds in the small GOSM (yes, that's a pretty full load right there) when we leave, with the smoking done and just wet heat to get them close on internal temp when we return. Then, I'll dump the water, put the pan back for a heat baffle and crank 'er up to about 325-350 to crisp up the skin. If this part all comes together, I will be thoroughly impressed with myself. I'll be monitoring the internals pretty closely for about 2 hours before we leave and hopefully get my chamber temp correct to hit my target temp when we return. Oh, the bird weights I'll be looking for are 4-3/4 to 5 lbs each. I don't think I've ever done one smaller than 4 lbs.

I started working on menu options about a week ago, and things just started to come together after that. We just found out yesterday what time the ceremony will be, so, I guess I'm off to a really good head start. I wasn't sure if much of this would come together at first, then, BAM!!! I t hit me...I just did what I'm good at and it's already looking do-able. Man it's a kick just to imagine all the different things you can do on a smoker, but, try to imagine yourself doing so many different meats and sides, mostly at the same time, with a few being staggered for time/smoker space management...and to think I would do this all for the sake of variety...there should be something that everyone will really enjoy eating. Some of the folks attending are from New York, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota...quite a mix of different ethnicities as well. It's gonna be a blast!

I'm taking advantage of my current 2 days off of work to take measurements of my smoker grates, warmer rack to cooking rack clearance (on SNP), putting together a supplies, groceries, meats and need to do list (down to filling all my propane tanks and restocking charcoal...yes, I too have been there).

I even managed to write up a schedule today for what time to start a certain item, what wood(s) I want to smoke it with, what temps, and when I can expect it to be nearing the finished stage...now that I know for sure how to fit everything into my GOSM and SNP. That was pretty tricky. I do have a really good reason now for converting my old Brinkmann gas grill to a wide body vertical smoker (these larger gatherings of Bbq fans)! I'll post on that when I start the project. This upcoming May event will test my planning skills to the limits. It's been a crunching of time and smoker space...with overlapping entry and exit times in the smokers, etc, so all the main courses are ready about the same time, give or take a few minutes. I even remebered a 20 minute resting period before carving the birds! Hah-hah!!! If I did it right, I'll come out of it smelling like smoked pork and poultry...yummy!!! LOL!!!

I'll post this event afterwards, because, as you said, I'll be pretty busy...even on the 2 days preceeding the smoke...equipment prep and checks to do...setup of my outdoor kitchen space, checking the thaw on meats...then on the last day before, getting lots and lots of food prep done. I'll try to get as many pics as I can along the way, too.

Lucky for me I'll have my wife's Aunt and Cousin to help my wife and girls with sides, and her Uncle and Cousin's husband, along with my boys to lend a hand with my end...trick is getting my boys interested enough to stay with it a few hours. They're good kids, sometime it's hard to see that if you don't stand back and take a good long look...I'm realizing that with 5 kids, everyday is a new adventure.

I gotta hand it to the guys that do big burns for catering events, or even competitions...they got their beans together, or else they'd never pull it off!!! Hats off to 'em

Thanks again, Geek!

Eric

 

[geek with fire]

One last thing, make sure you've got someone who knows to take pictures of all of this. Not so much for the Q-view (although, you know that's required, eh!) but this is a heck of a lot of food that you may not do again for years to come (if ever). You are going to want to look back later at something I'm sure you will be proud of.

 

[rivet]

You'll be fine with the meats touching other items. Just keep cold things cold, and hot things hot. With 40 people and a graduation dinner I'm thinking that there will be many hungry eighteen year-olds. You might want to bump up the PP roasts by another one or two, or the chickens by about 6. Either way or you can load up on more sides.
Sounds like you have it under control and will be doing fine. We look forward to hearing about the results!

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Thanks again, Geek.

Yep, I plan on pics...I wouldn't want to leave you guys hangin'! The prep work and most of the smoking will give me some time for that. Things will be slow enough paced for it. I'm allowing some breather time in between...clean up boards, clean & steel the knives, etc, then get started on the next item.

It is quite a bit to do, but, it's spread out over 1 day for equipment/facility prep (my outdoor kitchen), 1 day of food prep, and about 11-1/2 hours of smoking, so it's do-able. I didn't want any surprises to jump out and bite me, so I will use three days to cover all my bases. Most of the meat items and other supplies will be purchased more than a month ahead of time. The non-freezable perishables will be purchased just in the last couple days before, so they'll be nice and fresh.

And, yes, this will definateley be a day of memories...even if all my smokes don't work out perfectly, I'll be happy to have had the ambition and the opportunity to try it. The graduates and guests will have something to look back on as well. It's gonna be a great day!

Eric

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Thanks Rivet.

I was a little un-easy about putting the fatties and ABTs together and then not cooking them right away...never did it that way before. But, any cross-contamination would be wiped out once the food reached the proper cooking temperature. Makes sense.

There will only be the 2 graduates and families, a few friends, and relatives, and my son's college coordinator. Alot of the guests will bring sides, as well as some entrees, so, I think we'll have quite a bit of food to work on once everyone shows up for the festivites. I'm not worried about the volume coming up short, and should be a huge variety. I can't wait to see and sample all this food!!! Some folks might bring a few grill items, and I'm prepared for that, too. I'll have 1 or 2 spare grills (1 charcoal, 1 gasser). I also have an electric hot plate for an extra warmer, and a total of threes gas burners for cooking/warming...I think we'll be petty well equipped.

Each day that passes, as I go through my process of planning, I'm feeling alot more comfortable with the way things are coming together. Big events can't just be thrown together without having a bunch of snags, so I'm handling about 90% of the planning, as I've had time to experience what it really takes to pull-off something like this on a smaller scale. The other graduate's parents really aren't up for it...I'm OK with that. People helping each other, and having good fun and great food is what it's all about, right? It's not my first, but it is my biggest one yet. I'm not worried anymore, though.

Thanks again!

Eric

 

[Dutch]

Eric, what I do is place all uncooked foods on the lower shelves of the fridge. The pre-cooked/ready to eat stuff goes on the upper shelves. Sounds like a got a good handle on things.

 

[capt dan]

OK, No more caffiene! Your makin me tired!

Sounds like you'll have more than enough food, like you said, thats enough meat to feed 50-60 people easily. Sounds to me like a very sound plan of attack. I have to agree with Geek, do the butts the day before, you could do the ribs then too. PP and ribs are always better the next day warmed up. You do want to spend some time with your guests without being on edge or worried to death about timetables.

Doing my sons this June also for 75 people, and the following saturday another party for a friends daughter with 125 folks attending. I hope to book 1-2 others in late May or early July. I will precook the pork and beef the day before for my own kids, but the others I do, I stay overnight and start these cooks around 1-2 am in order to serve folks at 3-4 pm.

Its alot of work, but the smiles and Kudos are well worth it.

Good luck, stop worrying about it, at least until the week before LOL.

 

[kueh]

I'd say pre-cook the yard birds as well. That way you won't have to worry about any "gastro-intestinal problems due to mis-judgement". You can warm them up before putting in the ABT's and crisp them at the same time.

 

[garyt]

Seems to me unless I missed something, 12 pounds of butt before cooking? That's about 6 or 7 pounds finished. The way my friends around here go through it I would at least double that and hope there were any leftovers for me. Ill keep watching this thread because Ill be doing something similar in June.

Good Luck, and don't forget some Dutch's Wicked good Beans

 

[forluvofsmoke]

It's only a temporary structure, but I'm going heavy duty with the framing (2 x 4 lumber) and roof (6oz/yd silver poly-pro). 10' x 20' on my patio & connected to a heavy building. This will house all the cooking, refer, and food service equipment and tables for the upcoming Que. If the weather gets nasty I can move some stuff outside and we can fit about 15-20 peeps under this roof. Plus, I could extent the poly roof out farther over our side walk, cool.

My wife's brother is talking about coming up and putting a roof over our existing 10' x 16' deck (he's a roofer/sider/deck builder by trade), which is connected to the patio. This can house about 18-20+ peeps. If he comes through with that, we should all be warm and dry if it rains, and still have a nice outdoors event! I love the lul of a nice rain, as long as I'm not in the middle of it....trying to cook or eat.......

I'll post pics of the kitchen and all the amenities (for the curious readers) when it's ready for the big one, hopefully in about 3-5 more days. I just started on this after work yesterday, (my 1st day back to work). I have 8 more work days and one more weekend to get this done. Plus, I need to make one more store trip to pick up the last items on my LIST...oh, crap...the list..........! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! LOL! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I'm getting excited about this. The whole process of planning for this has opened my eyes to a whole new Bbq world! Smokin' butts in the middle of a January Wyoming Blizzard @ -25*F, with 40+ MPH winds...in total comfort...................That's my kind of outdoor kitchen!

As far as food goes, the list has grown some since I started this thread. I have over 15# of butts (was gonna get another, than) the other party has 2 slabs of BBs, and a pack of CS ribs. With sides items and desserts, I'm sure we will be a happy crowd! I can't imagine 40 peeps eating all this stuff! It's gonna be a alot of fun tryin' though! HAH-HAH-HAH! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I'll be back ASAP with more updates. This Is gonna be a great, fun time! I havin' fun just gettin' ready for it!

Eric