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

[usmctanker242]

So not sure if you're all familiar with the Bluetooth meat thermometer called the MEATER, but it's been in development for a few years. It's a pretty cool idea : it's a meat probe which you insert into the meat to get the internal temperature, and the back end of the probe measures the ambient temperature. So with just a probe (no wires) you get both internal temp and pit temp which are sent via Bluetooth to an app.



So anyways, last year I invested via IndieGogo as it was supposed to ship about 6 weeks after I invested. Fast forward and its been a whole year of waiting, but finally got the email today that it's being shipped and I should have it by the end of this month!!! I'm pretty excited though I'm still very dubious that Bluetooth is going to be able to make it out of the smoker, and even if it does, I'm very dubious about its range. We'll see what happens but I'll do some testing with it and post some results. Regardless it's a good idea and I'm super hopeful that it performs.

 

[MASShole]

Right now I have almost zero overhead, so I'm just charging double the meat prices plus about 10%. So I charged $75 for the brisket and $50 for the pork... total cost to me was about $50. I've had a few people who want the pork pulled or the brisket sliced, but usually I just deliver a fully cooked, whole hunk of meat. I'm still working out a good way of doing that though : right now just using aluminum pans inside of chafing dishes for some stability. I've got a nice Cambro which holds a bunch of trays and it's very well insulated so it makes for an easy delivery system.

Cool. Just a heads up, at restaurants food cost should be 20-25ish% of total charge to the customer with another 30-40% being overhead and employee cost, then profit after that. A $10 sandwich should cost you $2.50 or so. When you get up and running fully you could use those guides for pricing.

Perhaps food truck pricing is a little less because there isn't a fixed restaurant, but that's the general breakdown of normal pricing at a regular restaurant.

 

[GhostZ06]

Brisket and pork shoulder (both picnic and butt) that I smoked today for a customer. Put the brisket on at about 6am and the pork on at about 7am. I kept the smoker right at 245-255F for about 10 hours total. Brisket was rubbed with a heavy pepper / salt / garlic / chipolte / celery seed rub and I used a basic commercial rub on the pork. Never wrapped or spritzed anything and it came out so juicy and tender. The brisket was basically "meat jello" and the pork was nice and soft without being mushy. One thing I hate about cooking for other people is that I don't get to slice the brisket or pull the pork, so I don't get to see that amazing smoke ring or really revel in the smells.

looks good, but the rub seems pretty basic coming from you.

i like the rubs with sugary or sweet bite

 

[usmctanker242]

Cool. Just a heads up, at restaurants food cost should be 20-25ish% of total charge to the customer with another 30-40% being overhead and employee cost, then profit after that. A $10 sandwich should cost you $2.50 or so. When you get up and running fully you could use those guides for pricing.

Perhaps food truck pricing is a little less because there isn't a fixed restaurant, but that's the general breakdown of normal pricing at a regular restaurant.

Yeah, I'm aware of food costs, but like I said I have almost no overhead right now so I can afford to give a better price to attract more customers. Since I'm still working with the VFW for a culinary kitchen my options are limited in terms of what I can / can't do legally (health code stuff). Appreciate the heads up though... food truck is something I looked into but holy shit the regulations, permits, penalties, etc make them an absolute nightmare. It's one of the highest attrition rates in the food industry right now... just brutal. Plus, you kind of have to invest a sizable chunk of money just to get started. It's kind of tough to drop $30K to see if people are really going to gravitate towards your concept.

looks good, but the rub seems pretty basic coming from you.

i like the rubs with sugary or sweet bite

Without any sugar in my brisket I got a pretty good bark, don't you think? While I don't mind a sweeter style rub on pork or chicken, when it comes to brisket I really like the "Texas-Style" with a basic rub which gives a killer bark and really accentuates the flavor of the meat. Just in my opinion "sweet" really clashes with beef and especially so when you're talking about brisket or chuck. Great thing about BBQ is that everybody has their own method, their own tastes, and as long as we aren't cooking with white smoke it's all good!

 

[Rob Battisti]

I've done away with sugar in all of my rubs. Just not a fan of the taste.

For brisket, I go salt pepper and garlic powder only.

 

[mushishi]

Guys. I love sous vide steak. That's all.




Also, I want to smoke a giant prime rib soon. Any thoughts?

Me, too! I got a joule and sous vide steaks come out perfect every time. Need to grill for Maillard reaction, though that's not a problem.

 

[MASShole]

Me, too! I got a joule and sous vide steaks come out perfect every time. Need to grill for Maillard reaction, though that's not a problem.

I sous vide until 5* lower than temp, then quick sear each side, maybe 30 secs to 1 min, and let rest 5 mins.

I did pork chops last night this way, and they're dynamite.

 

[MASShole]

I've done away with sugar in all of my rubs. Just not a fan of the taste.

For brisket, I go salt pepper and garlic powder only.

I use sugar on my pork, but definitely not on brisket.

 

[MASShole]

Yeah, I'm aware of food costs, but like I said I have almost no overhead right now so I can afford to give a better price to attract more customers. Since I'm still working with the VFW for a culinary kitchen my options are limited in terms of what I can / can't do legally (health code stuff). Appreciate the heads up though... food truck is something I looked into but holy shit the regulations, permits, penalties, etc make them an absolute nightmare. It's one of the highest attrition rates in the food industry right now... just brutal. Plus, you kind of have to invest a sizable chunk of money just to get started. It's kind of tough to drop $30K to see if people are really going to gravitate towards your concept.

There is no way I'd own a food truck unless I had a successful restaurant as the anchor, and just used the food truck for rallies, events, etc. Otherwise its not worth it. They're inspected like 4x more than restaurants, and are so much cleaner yet get dinged for the littlest of infractions.

There's a food truck (or was one) in Denver called OwlBear BBQ, and the guy who owns it used to work for Aaron Franklin. OwlBear had the best BBQ in town, hands down, and the city shut them down because someone used a piece of their equipment (or something like that) for too long and it was a violation. So, they said fuck it, are now leasing a space, doing a buildout and having a full restaurant instead of a truck. It's stupid, but I'm very happy for them because they're literally 1 block away from where they used to be parked all the time.

 

[usmctanker242]

There is no way I'd own a food truck unless I had a successful restaurant as the anchor, and just used the food truck for rallies, events, etc. Otherwise its not worth it. They're inspected like 4x more than restaurants, and are so much cleaner yet get dinged for the littlest of infractions.

There's a food truck (or was one) in Denver called OwlBear BBQ, and the guy who owns it used to work for Aaron Franklin. OwlBear had the best BBQ in town, hands down, and the city shut them down because someone used a piece of their equipment (or something like that) for too long and it was a violation. So, they said fuck it, are now leasing a space, doing a buildout and having a full restaurant instead of a truck. It's stupid, but I'm very happy for them because they're literally 1 block away from where they used to be parked all the time.

Yeah, the food truck thing sounds like such a great idea, but I think brick and mortar places put a lot of pressure on the legislators to ensure that owning a food truck was a financial heartache. Each city and county have their own regulations and you'll need a permit (usually about $250 each) to do business. Then there's a ton of stupid regulations like you can only be stationary for a certain amount of hours, only for certain times of the day. New York has some of the worst regulations where if your truck stays for more than 40 minutes you have to provide a bathroom to the public. It just really feels like there are enormous and unnecessary barriers to entry for operating a food truck.

I'm doing OK with just selling some Q as it is right now. I'm still looking to get a lunch service going on at the USMC base up the road and it's possible that I might be able to take over a current snack bar operation that's not performing well. My name is in the hat for that one and I've got a pretty good reputation on the base already with the Base General / Base SgtMaj, as well as some of the billeting directors (who control all that stuff). So we'll see what happens in the future, but for now, I'm happy to refine my recipes and have a good time!

 

[Rob Battisti]

I'm potentially going to enter lease negotiations next week on a place down the shore! Will keep my Qbros posted.

 

[MASShole]

Yeah, the food truck thing sounds like such a great idea, but I think brick and mortar places put a lot of pressure on the legislators to ensure that owning a food truck was a financial heartache. Each city and county have their own regulations and you'll need a permit (usually about $250 each) to do business. Then there's a ton of stupid regulations like you can only be stationary for a certain amount of hours, only for certain times of the day. New York has some of the worst regulations where if your truck stays for more than 40 minutes you have to provide a bathroom to the public. It just really feels like there are enormous and unnecessary barriers to entry for operating a food truck.

I'm doing OK with just selling some Q as it is right now. I'm still looking to get a lunch service going on at the USMC base up the road and it's possible that I might be able to take over a current snack bar operation that's not performing well. My name is in the hat for that one and I've got a pretty good reputation on the base already with the Base General / Base SgtMaj, as well as some of the billeting directors (who control all that stuff). So we'll see what happens in the future, but for now, I'm happy to refine my recipes and have a good time!

*and enter competitions and learn more.

Yeah, food truck regulations are stupid. I've thought about going to some local festivals with my Q and a tent and selling it all. I just don't know if I'm legally allowed to, and I haven't cared to look it up.

 

[MASShole]

I'm potentially going to enter lease negotiations next week on a place down the shore! Will keep my Qbros posted.

Hell yeah, my man! That's awesome. Whereabouts?

 

[Rob Battisti]

Hell yeah, my man! That's awesome. Whereabouts?

Long Beach Island, NJ

Really it's Beach Haven,NJ.

It's an excellent spot. No BBQ on the island and vacationers are just trying to get rid of money. Prices on the island after Sandy hit have skyrocketed especially for food. The location gets excellent foot traffic as well.

 

[sleepwalk]

Just stopped in at this spot in Lancaster County, PA, while on vacation. Damn good brisket. Mild wood smokiness, super tender. Great sauces.
https://smokehousebbqandbrews.com
Check it out if you're out that way.

Long Beach Island, NJ

Really it's Beach Haven,NJ.

It's an excellent spot. No BBQ on the island and vacationers are just trying to get rid of money. Prices on the island after Sandy hit have skyrocketed especially for food. The location gets excellent foot traffic as well.

Nice! The wife hates LBI (long story, former resident, legit childhood trauma) but we have enough friends down that way that I could drag her down.

 

[MASShole]

Long Beach Island, NJ

Really it's Beach Haven,NJ.

It's an excellent spot. No BBQ on the island and vacationers are just trying to get rid of money. Prices on the island after Sandy hit have skyrocketed especially for food. The location gets excellent foot traffic as well.

Nice! Super pumped for you. Let us know how it goes. Are you going to get a custom smoker installed if you do it?

 

[usmctanker242]

Hey Everybody,

So I got my MEATER Bluetooth wireless thermometer (www.meater.com) a few days ago and finally got around to using it for the first time. I smoked a full packer brisket in my kamado as I really wanted to give it a good trial / workout.

-MEATER is a bit different than most probes so it can't be inserted into the top of the meat. This is because the ambient temp probe is on the end, so you'll want to insert the probe into the side of the meat. This was a bit strange for me but once I got the probe in it wasn't an issue.

-Overall the cook was about 12 hours and the MEATER maintained constant connection (with the exception of a few minutes once I wrapped in foil for the rest) the entire time. The battery held up just fine and I was pretty impressed in that sense.

-The App is easy to use but it's kind of goofy... it wants to estimate the time of a cook and initially I set it up for a brisket cook to 203° internal temp and it estimated a 2 hour cook at about 275°. haha As the cook went on the estimated time did adjust and within about 2 hours it was estimating about 8 more hours. So it did adjust quite well after a while. Something I noted was that I had the internal temp set to 203° but once it hit 195° it wanted me to "rest" the meat all the way up to 203°. haha Other than that I had no issues with the app and it was pretty easy to use overall.

-I used the Smoke as kind of a gauge to see how close the MEATER was in terms of ambient temp and while there was a small difference, for the most part I trust the MEATER's sensor. Initially I had the Smoke probe on the right side of the brisket and the MEATER on the left, but once I moved the Smoke to within 2" of the MEATER probe I found the temp differential was between 5-10°.

-Range : I had heard the range was super low, less than 10 feet from some of the "early reviews" but I had mine at about 25 feet for most of the afternoon and had no connection issues. Again, this is with a 5+ year old tablet so I wasn't expecting the Bluetooth to be so capable. The only time I lost connection was when I foiled over the chafing dish and left the meat to rest. It lost connection for about a minute or two, but then it regained and worked just fine for the entire rest. My only other experience with Bluetooth thermometers was the iGrill2 and while I loved it, it was losing connection every 10-15 minutes.

-Overall I have no real issues with the probe. I've made a small Imgur album showing my setup, but nothing major.



Final notes : Only thing I don't like about the app is the way that "estimated time" takes up probably 50% of the screen, while the ambient and internal temps are pretty small in comparison. This isn't a problem if you have your phone in your hand, but I was using my tablet and had it on charge about 10 feet away from me. I'm doing a pork butt tonight / tomorrow morning as well as a few chickens, so I'll be using both the Smoke and the MEATER again and keep running the MEATER through its paces. My offset smoker is at a welder getting a roof put on, but once I get it back I'll start doing some tests with it. I'm not so certain the range will be as good in the offset as it is in the kamado, but we'll see.
__________________

 

[Lone Coyote]

Hey Everybody,

So I got my MEATER Bluetooth wireless thermometer (www.meater.com) a few days ago and finally got around to using it for the first time. I smoked a full packer brisket in my kamado as I really wanted to give it a good trial / workout.

-MEATER is a bit different than most probes so it can't be inserted into the top of the meat. This is because the ambient temp probe is on the end, so you'll want to insert the probe into the side of the meat. This was a bit strange for me but once I got the probe in it wasn't an issue.

-Overall the cook was about 12 hours and the MEATER maintained constant connection (with the exception of a few minutes once I wrapped in foil for the rest) the entire time. The battery held up just fine and I was pretty impressed in that sense.

-The App is easy to use but it's kind of goofy... it wants to estimate the time of a cook and initially I set it up for a brisket cook to 203° internal temp and it estimated a 2 hour cook at about 275°. haha As the cook went on the estimated time did adjust and within about 2 hours it was estimating about 8 more hours. So it did adjust quite well after a while. Something I noted was that I had the internal temp set to 203° but once it hit 195° it wanted me to "rest" the meat all the way up to 203°. haha Other than that I had no issues with the app and it was pretty easy to use overall.

-I used the Smoke as kind of a gauge to see how close the MEATER was in terms of ambient temp and while there was a small difference, for the most part I trust the MEATER's sensor. Initially I had the Smoke probe on the right side of the brisket and the MEATER on the left, but once I moved the Smoke to within 2" of the MEATER probe I found the temp differential was between 5-10°.

-Range : I had heard the range was super low, less than 10 feet from some of the "early reviews" but I had mine at about 25 feet for most of the afternoon and had no connection issues. Again, this is with a 5+ year old tablet so I wasn't expecting the Bluetooth to be so capable. The only time I lost connection was when I foiled over the chafing dish and left the meat to rest. It lost connection for about a minute or two, but then it regained and worked just fine for the entire rest. My only other experience with Bluetooth thermometers was the iGrill2 and while I loved it, it was losing connection every 10-15 minutes.

-Overall I have no real issues with the probe. I've made a small Imgur album showing my setup, but nothing major.



Final notes : Only thing I don't like about the app is the way that "estimated time" takes up probably 50% of the screen, while the ambient and internal temps are pretty small in comparison. This isn't a problem if you have your phone in your hand, but I was using my tablet and had it on charge about 10 feet away from me. I'm doing a pork butt tonight / tomorrow morning as well as a few chickens, so I'll be using both the Smoke and the MEATER again and keep running the MEATER through its paces. My offset smoker is at a welder getting a roof put on, but once I get it back I'll start doing some tests with it. I'm not so certain the range will be as good in the offset as it is in the kamado, but we'll see.
__________________

I enjoy Thermo works products, I believe those guys have a nice thermometer for smokes.

I have given Thermo pops as gifts and haven't received any complaints, no need to get the pen. Save those bucks and get a couple of thick rib eyes

 

[Rob Battisti]

I've been making 3-5 sauces a week to really nail my recipe. Still not happy with all of my finished product BUT I just crushed a Carolina Gold mustard based sauce. Absolutely killer on pulled pork.

Anyone else into mustard based sauces Carolina style?

 

[Rob Battisti]

Nice! Super pumped for you. Let us know how it goes. Are you going to get a custom smoker installed if you do it?

Looking into commercial smokers such as the smoke daddy line. Going to look at the location again this weekend!