# First Ribfest



## ron petersen (Jun 23, 2017)

Haven't had a chance to look at the forums as a lot of them are for smaller groups. I am going to cook for a local city Ribfest in Aug 11. I need to get all the planning and prep done before that time.

I have done a great job last week cooking for 80 people, some of the ribs have fallen apart while trying to cut. Most have been great.

I use mustard, my rib rub for the first 3-4 hours, in the foil part I put squeeze butter, brown sugar and honey, cook for 2 hours and the last hour I remove foil, let ribs cook for half hour to harden the bark, then mop with sweet baby rays bbq sauce and let it glaze over a little.

For heat I used oak and ash wood with Royal charcoal mixed in, flavor is apple, hickory and mesquite chunks.

Everyone loved it, good stuff.

I built a 250 gal RF smoker and had 27 racks in it, could have put maybe another 8 racks before it was full. I am in the process of making rib racks to double the capacity. I'll also be using my other 120 gal RF smoker to help with more meat. Maybe a bbq grill out of a 24x60 tank to keep warm or heat up after I sauce.

Have few questions and always looking for advice to cook for a crowd, minimum is 200 pounds, but I may go to 4-500 pounds. One vendor made 500 pounds and ran out in less than hour.

I'll double check, but was told I cannot precook, has to be cooked on site, setup starts at 7am serving to judges at 4, serving to public at 5. Very little time to get done.

Any ways I can speed up the cooking process or foiling process?

Tried to foil several ribs in an aluminum pan, just made a soggy mess and bark fell apart. Suggestions? Normally I foil each one. Still can if best way. That's around 150 racks.

Private message is fine also, Thanks In Advance for your help


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