Social Saturday is BBQ Day V3 - How big is your meat?

[usmctanker242]

Brisket, PP, mac and cheese, roasted fall veggies. I'm charging roughly $18 per head and they'll have leftovers. The margins are a little lower than traditional catering, but I'm also not just giving everyone 3oz of each meat.

Sounds like a fun menu but holy crap are those food costs going to eat you alive. Good luck!

 

[Kowboy Karl]

Final product

 

[MASShole]

Sounds like a fun menu but holy crap are those food costs going to eat you alive. Good luck!

15 lbs of brisket is about $45 for me. PP is $20 for 10 or so lbs.

Traditional catering food costs are 27-29% total charge. I'm at 44% for this order, and it includes setup and delivery, slicing/pulling on-site.

There's a BBQ company locally that does catering, and they charge $10.99 for 6oz of meat and set sides, $12.99 for that meat including ribs. I'm planning on 6oz of brisket alone per person.

 

[MASShole]

Crab cakes and sous vide NY strip for dinner tonight. I love crab cakes.

 

[usmctanker242]

15 lbs of brisket is about $45 for me. PP is $20 for 10 or so lbs.

Traditional catering food costs are 27-29% total charge. I'm at 44% for this order, and it includes setup and delivery, slicing/pulling on-site.

There's a BBQ company locally that does catering, and they charge $10.99 for 6oz of meat and set sides, $12.99 for that meat including ribs. I'm planning on 6oz of brisket alone per person.

Are you providing buns / bread for sandwiches? Plates, utensils, napkins, BBQ sauce, tables, tablecloths, drinks, chafing dishes + fuel?

$3 per Lb for raw brisket is pretty decent right now, but brisket is a low yield meat and for the most part you're only going to be able to serve about 50% of your starting weight, so that puts you at $6/Lb in food cost...that's not including your rub / injection / marinade / etc.. Pulled pork tends to come out better at about 60-70% yield, and that's where I always make my money.

Mac and Cheese is by far and away my most expensive side dish and I'm using a run of the mill white / yellow cheddar cheese. I do a basic roux and add milk and then cheese. I would imagine with your skills / techniques you'll be doing a bit more than I do and that's going to get costly.

Either way this will get you some good experience. Good luck with the cook and I hope everything works out well.

 

[MASShole]

Are you providing buns / bread for sandwiches? Plates, utensils, napkins, BBQ sauce, tables, tablecloths, drinks, chafing dishes + fuel?

No, this particular one is at someone's house. They're providing all the other stuff, including plates and utensils. I'll make BBQ sauces, but that won't cost but a few bucks. It's platters, so no bread.

If this was outdoors and I had to provide all that shit, I'd be closer to $375. That'd put me at 32% cost for food alone.

$3 per Lb for raw brisket is pretty decent right now, but brisket is a low yield meat and for the most part you're only going to be able to serve about 50% of your starting weight, so that puts you at $6/Lb in food cost...that's not including your rub / injection / marinade / etc.. Pulled pork tends to come out better at about 60-70% yield, and that's where I always make my money.

Well aware of the yields. I shoot for about 40% yield on a brisket after trim and cook, tend to end up closer to 45%. I'm charging $120 for the brisket alone. So if I get a 16lb brisket, and get 8 lbs of usable meat, that's $15/lb charged, and everyone will get about half a pound of it on their plates, if they choose. Numbers are my game for sure.

Mac and Cheese is by far and away my most expensive side dish and I'm using a run of the mill white / yellow cheddar cheese. I do a basic roux and add milk and then cheese. I would imagine with your skills / techniques you'll be doing a bit more than I do and that's going to get costly.

I do a bit more than this, and use heavy cream instead of milk. Paprika, shredded parm, gruyere and cheddar with panko on top. When I make a giant portion at home for the neighborhood it costs about $10, and I'm charging $20 for that amount, double for this order. I know I'm losing a bit on that because people think "OMG it's just mac and cheese!", but i'll take 50% margin for it for now.

Either way this will get you some good experience. Good luck with the cook and I hope everything works out well.

Exactly. I want the experience. I don't know if you have FB, but I post all my food shit on there, and I've had a lot of friends want us to cater their work events, specifically with BBQ and other fancy shit I can make (like crabcakes: expensive as fuck). So, this is just to get my bearings. If I make $150 from it, great. Learning is part of the price, ya know? I'm not dependent on this for paying bills, and doing it for fun, so any money I make is worth it at this moment.

With the laws where I'm at, we'll likely have to open a food truck/trailer soon anyway.

 

[usmctanker242]

Sounds good buddy, and good luck. I just saw the menu (brisket + mac & cheese) and my brain went crazy. haha I was just voicing my concerns but it sounds like you've got everything under control. Vending =/= catering, and I do very little catering, so my brain is kind of hard wired to thinking about vending in every scenario.

 

[MASShole]

Sounds good buddy, and good luck. I just saw the menu (brisket + mac & cheese) and my brain went crazy. haha I was just voicing my concerns but it sounds like you've got everything under control. Vending =/= catering, and I do very little catering, so my brain is kind of hard wired to thinking about vending in every scenario.

Yeah, vending is hugely different. My prices and portions would change from a trailer/truck for sure.

 

[DesignedFailure]

Ok what is PP aside from the Arlovski jokes lol

 

[MASShole]

Ok what is PP aside from the Arlovski jokes lol

pulled pork

 

[DesignedFailure]

pulled pork

Should have figured as much. Was just wondering if their was some new lingo I didn't know about.

 

[DesignedFailure]

Yeah, vending is hugely different. My prices and portions would change from a trailer/truck for sure.

I am talking out my ass here and wont even lie about It. But isn't the main goal of any restaurant, food truck or stand to make sure people don't opt for to-go/doggy bag.

For example if I am serving 9 oz of brisket and people want to go bags. I am losing money in a way. Ribs are a different story you can serve them 1/3rd a 1/4 a 1/2 and then a full slab.

 

[DesignedFailure]

unless its beef ribs I don't know a place that doesn't sell them by the bone.

 

[DesignedFailure]

And you can take the best pork rib and shove it. It will never compare to a even a mediocre beef rib.

 

[MASShole]

I am talking out my ass here and wont even lie about It. But isn't the main goal of any restaurant, food truck or stand to make sure people don't opt for to-go/doggy bag.

For example if I am serving 9 oz of brisket and people want to go bags. I am losing money in a way. Ribs are a different story you can serve them 1/3rd a 1/4 a 1/2 and then a full slab.

No, that's not the goal. The goal is to maintain food costs under 30%, closer to 20% if possible, to maximize profitability. It has nothing to do with to go food. If you know you're selling a plate for $10, and the food alone costs you $2.50, you're doing well, regardless of whether people take it home. In August, my biz partner's restaurant (he's the chef de cuisine of a fairly high end place) had food costs at 22%, which is pretty amazing. It also takes into account waste and loss.

In your example, using a margin analysis, if you served 9oz of brisket (too much, anyway. Usually closer to 4-6 oz), and your priced it appropriately, you're fine. It may look expensive compared to other plates, but you're giving them more food.

 

[DesignedFailure]

No, that's not the goal. The goal is to maintain food costs under 30%, closer to 20% if possible, to maximize profitability. It has nothing to do with to go food. If you know you're selling a plate for $10, and the food alone costs you $2.50, you're doing well, regardless of whether people take it home. In August, my biz partner's restaurant (he's the chef de cuisine of a fairly high end place) had food costs at 22%, which is pretty amazing. It also takes into account waste and loss.

In your example, using a margin analysis, if you served 9oz of brisket (too much, anyway. Usually closer to 4-6 oz), and your priced it appropriately, you're fine. It may look expensive compared to other plates, but you're giving them more food.

iike I said I am talking out my ass when it comes to making money on it. Pretty good at cooking it though.

 

[usmctanker242]

iike I said I am talking out my ass when it comes to making money on it. Pretty good at cooking it though.

It really all depends on how you price things out. If you're selling by the pound then it doesn't matter how much food people order as you're getting paid regardless. But if people are paying $10 for a serving of brisket, and you're giving them 1Lb rather than 1/2Lb then you're screwing up big time and will go broke pretty quickly.

 

[MASShole]

On Saturday my neighbors had a seafood boil and I made shrimp/mussel/scallop paella. It was glorious.

 

[DesignedFailure]

On Saturday my neighbors had a seafood boil and I made shrimp/mussel/scallop paella. It was glorious.

I have made it three times. I have also never had it made from some one who grew up eating and cooking it. To me it was just like a Jambalaya cooked on the grill.

Still real freaking good just could have got the same result on the stove top. Some thing's you just can't read a recipe and be like yea I can do that.

 

[DesignedFailure]

Now I know this isn't a bbq thing. Have any of you ever deep fried baby back or spare ribs? I have seen a couple videos on it and I am wondering if actually works.

I am thinking of trying it tomorrow give it a slight smoke on the smoker and then try them off almost like a smoke fired chicken wing.