I have been bugging a buddy about letting be be his teams slaveboy for a couple comps this summer, he tells he about two guys that he knows that cater that want a third guy to come into a comp team to split costs so I went to see the smoker and check them out on saturday night, I met them at the prescribed 9 pm, after a few budweisers and normal conversation we went out to check out the pit, its a nice big horizon, no issues.
We spent a few minutes cleaning and prepping some nice stainless steel tables he has.
Here is where the issues begin, he throws in a couple pieces of hickory and some normal kingsford (I'm thinking okay lump is expensive, catering gets kingford maybe) into the firebox and uses the log lighter to get it going, after a minute the logs are burning nicely he starts throwing in more wood, so now we got eight fairly big pieces of hickory burning like a campfire! door wide open to get the pit up to temp quicker?!
off to the basement kitchen he has setup, he starts pulling butts out of the fridge in his garage, the other guy starts cutting open the cryo and tells me to start putting mustard on them, thinking it was odd to not let them sit at least a little to get to near room temp(issue 2) I did as I was told and slathered them up pretty good, and me and the other guy move over to do some beans, 3 big pans that held two 3 lb cans each, off come the lids and then dumped right in, no draining(issue #3) the ketchup went in fine but I noticed when it came to the worschestor he used half the bottle on one and split the other half between the other two, same thing with the brown sugar, the amount put in declined down the line, ranch dressing poured in, precooked bacon added for flavoring and the beans are ready to go on(we'll call all that mess issue #3)
At this point I am thinking these guys need to watch some videos on youtube or read some SMF posts lol
During the bean ordeal the main guy had got the butts all dusted up with rub they go on, I notice the smoker is reading about 285 and mention it to him, he says they thems read a little high so it ain't nothing to worry about at this point(why not check with a digi issue 4)
Next comes the bb ribs ???, this catering is going down for sunday afternoon sometime, how is he cooking ribs at 11 pm? in four tinfoil pans with 10 racks standing up half filled with a sprite and apple cider vinegar mix and covered with foil is how!!! Seems he likes to cook/boil them up then hold them, rub and smoke again for a couple hours before the event.(issue 5)
He has a nice berkel slicer he uses to make meat and cheese trays, all sliced up ready for his wife and duagthers to make the trays, so we finally take a break to sit down and relax a minute, after about 15 minutes we went to check the smoker, he asks me to grab a bag from his pickup, he proceeds to step on the top of the bag a couple times(this is odd why is he breaking it up?) no he is not breaking it up he is compacting it so he can throw the entire thing bag and all into the firebox(issue 6-deal breaker for sure)
After sitting around for a little while longer and finishing the sixer I took I said my fairwells and said I would have to see if the wife will allow me to help them sometime again, and as a final insult to real que everywhere he says he need to run in the house and check on the briskets in the oven adding them things are really hard to cook on the smoker so he just finishes them up on the smoker after they hit 180 internal in the oven
Thanks to everyone at the SMF, if I didn't know any better I would be joining there comp team.
We spent a few minutes cleaning and prepping some nice stainless steel tables he has.
Here is where the issues begin, he throws in a couple pieces of hickory and some normal kingsford (I'm thinking okay lump is expensive, catering gets kingford maybe) into the firebox and uses the log lighter to get it going, after a minute the logs are burning nicely he starts throwing in more wood, so now we got eight fairly big pieces of hickory burning like a campfire! door wide open to get the pit up to temp quicker?!
off to the basement kitchen he has setup, he starts pulling butts out of the fridge in his garage, the other guy starts cutting open the cryo and tells me to start putting mustard on them, thinking it was odd to not let them sit at least a little to get to near room temp(issue 2) I did as I was told and slathered them up pretty good, and me and the other guy move over to do some beans, 3 big pans that held two 3 lb cans each, off come the lids and then dumped right in, no draining(issue #3) the ketchup went in fine but I noticed when it came to the worschestor he used half the bottle on one and split the other half between the other two, same thing with the brown sugar, the amount put in declined down the line, ranch dressing poured in, precooked bacon added for flavoring and the beans are ready to go on(we'll call all that mess issue #3)
At this point I am thinking these guys need to watch some videos on youtube or read some SMF posts lol
During the bean ordeal the main guy had got the butts all dusted up with rub they go on, I notice the smoker is reading about 285 and mention it to him, he says they thems read a little high so it ain't nothing to worry about at this point(why not check with a digi issue 4)
Next comes the bb ribs ???, this catering is going down for sunday afternoon sometime, how is he cooking ribs at 11 pm? in four tinfoil pans with 10 racks standing up half filled with a sprite and apple cider vinegar mix and covered with foil is how!!! Seems he likes to cook/boil them up then hold them, rub and smoke again for a couple hours before the event.(issue 5)
He has a nice berkel slicer he uses to make meat and cheese trays, all sliced up ready for his wife and duagthers to make the trays, so we finally take a break to sit down and relax a minute, after about 15 minutes we went to check the smoker, he asks me to grab a bag from his pickup, he proceeds to step on the top of the bag a couple times(this is odd why is he breaking it up?) no he is not breaking it up he is compacting it so he can throw the entire thing bag and all into the firebox(issue 6-deal breaker for sure)
After sitting around for a little while longer and finishing the sixer I took I said my fairwells and said I would have to see if the wife will allow me to help them sometime again, and as a final insult to real que everywhere he says he need to run in the house and check on the briskets in the oven adding them things are really hard to cook on the smoker so he just finishes them up on the smoker after they hit 180 internal in the oven
Thanks to everyone at the SMF, if I didn't know any better I would be joining there comp team.
