- Mar 23, 2009
- 436
- 325
I got a custom order placed for meat to feed 60. Easy enough, and a small enough cook I can use the WSM rather than the gravity fed monster.
Rubbed and plastic wrapped the 50lbs of butt last night. I don't necessarily think the overnight impacts the flavor. For me it's more of a timesaver. Got up and lit coals at 5AM and had meat on right at 6. Was having temp problems most of the day, not sure my ambient probe isn't bad. Wrapped in butcher's paper around noon, had 3 of the butts at 180ish and the other at 165+ so when I wrapped I swapped racks in the hope's to even the temps. Thankfully I was successful and they all hog over 200° at about the same time. Pulled them off and let them rest uncovered for 45-60 minutes before I got to work pulling them by hand.
I finally remembered to get some knit cotton gloves to wear under my blue nitrile gloves. Boy, that worked great! I generally always pull by hand so I do a better job of getting rid of fat and any nastiness. Before I'd have ti take breaks all the time because of the heat, and by the end it would feel like my hands were sunburnt. Not even an issue with the cotton gloves.
Starter with I think 50lbs raw, and by the time I had everything pulled, weighed, bagged, and in the freezer I think there was 22.5 lbs. So a little more than a 50% loss, which is what I always figure when i do my math. I always recommend and personally serve 1/3lb servings to customers because that's a pretty healthy looking sandwich. Plus you'll have those that eat like 3oz, and those that eat 8-9oz. It all evens out in the end.