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

usmctanker242 said:
So I got bent over pretty aggressively yesterday at a vending event... brutal! I was doing an event where the organizer said it was supposed to be 3000+ Marines at the event (some kind of suicide awareness event), so I smoked up 145 Lbs of pork butts to try and serve and many people as possible. God damned event was a washout and they had about 125 people come through that event in the 4 hours I was setup to serve lunch. The woman running the event came out and gave us $10 of "token money" because she felt so bad for us being out there and having nobody to serve. I served about 25Lbs of Pulled Pork and that was it...so I've got over 100Lbs of pulled pork in my refrigerator right now.

I hate serving "left-over" meat, but I kept all the pork butts whole, and they reheat very well. All in I lost a couple of hundred bucks on the event, but I should be able to recoup all that money on Friday with my next event. On a positive note my new smoker kicked ass and took names...took about 30Lbs of charcoal cooking between 215-235° for roughly 12 hours to get all the meat nice and tender.
Click to expand...

That sucks but everything is still intact so you can reuse it. It'll taste just fine!

I just checked out the BBQ Brethren forum, and they were talking about holding meats in a CVAP for like 12 hours at 140-150. Franklin BBQ does this when briskets finish at night, served the next morning. As long as it's covered and maintained, you're good!

Also, my buddy told me to watch Chef (Netflix, with Jon Favreau), the last two episodes of the first season. It's with Aaron Franklin. The first episode was his story, which was cool. He started with one smoker in a parking lot, making two briskets per day, then added another smoker, then another, until they have this army of smokers, serving about 110 briskets per day. Then they got into brisket trimming, and while I knew most of it, I certainly learned a bit about his method of trimming. It was enlightening. Oh, and the best part was his serving method regarding hand placement.
 
DesignedFailure said:
If I do it again I am going longer on the smoker as they were not as tender as I would like them.


I am not a commercial bbq guy like you and Mass but that doesn't sound bad 30lb for 12 hrs. Now is that with wood as well or just straight charcoal?
Click to expand...

It's a charcoal smoker but I mingle small wood splits into the charcoal, so I get a clean burn. The smoker is built by a company called Spicewine Ironworks and I'm really loving it right now.

I bought the smoker used and these are the photos provided by the seller. One of the great things is that it's insulated, so I don't have to worry about people (or kids) coming on the back side of my trailer and burning themselves by touching the outer wall of the smoker. Even at 250° the outer walls are cool to the touch.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=ZEVxck9YejZyVDBtLU9sQkhTMklkZzJzdDFZMDRR
 
MASShole said:
That sucks but everything is still intact so you can reuse it. It'll taste just fine!

I just checked out the BBQ Brethren forum, and they were talking about holding meats in a CVAP for like 12 hours at 140-150. Franklin BBQ does this when briskets finish at night, served the next morning. As long as it's covered and maintained, you're good!

Also, my buddy told me to watch Chef (Netflix, with Jon Favreau), the last two episodes of the first season. It's with Aaron Franklin. The first episode was his story, which was cool. He started with one smoker in a parking lot, making two briskets per day, then added another smoker, then another, until they have this army of smokers, serving about 110 briskets per day. Then they got into brisket trimming, and while I knew most of it, I certainly learned a bit about his method of trimming. It was enlightening. Oh, and the best part was his serving method regarding hand placement.
Click to expand...

I'll check out those episodes...thanks for the heads up. Aaron Franklin took part in a university event called "Brisket Camp" a few years ago. They videotaped his demonstration of trimming a brisket. It's about a 20 minute video and one of the comments was pure gold...something to the effect of "Legend has it that Aaron Franklin is still trimming that brisket to this very day." LMAO



Personally I trim pretty aggressively because in my experience I get a better bark when there isn't a ton of fat sitting on top of the meat. Last year a guy came out to check out my Johnson Smokers offset cooker because he was interested in getting a Johnson cooker. We got to talking and he said he never trims anything off a brisket...just pulls it from the cryovac and adds salt / pepper and throws it on the smoker. He spent about 10 minutes trying to convince me that this was the best way to cook brisket, and went on about his profit margins. I understand that concept but you're not going to get many return customers when you're serving them nothing but unrendered fat. I had a similar discussion on Reddit's r/BBQ subreddit a while ago. A guy posted pics of some Texas restaurant BBQ, and the brisket was nothing but unrendered fat with about 1/4" of actual meat. I commented about how I'd be pissed about getting so much inedible meat, and the responses to my comment were pure gold : "noob" , "you don't know shit about BBQ" , "fat is flavor" , and some more generic denigrating comments.

Since this thread has slowly been turning into a "fine dining" thread I'll post that Reddit thread for shits and giggles. My comment was downvoted so aggressively that it's not even part of the discussion anymore. LMAO


Looking at that brisket what do you all think about it? Looks like a single slice that appears to be exceptionally dry, and then the rest of the slices are nothing but unrendered fat with some bark.
 
usmctanker242 said:
I'll check out those episodes...thanks for the heads up. Aaron Franklin took part in a university event called "Brisket Camp" a few years ago. They videotaped his demonstration of trimming a brisket. It's about a 20 minute video and one of the comments was pure gold...something to the effect of "Legend has it that Aaron Franklin is still trimming that brisket to this very day." LMAO

Click to expand...

LOL, yeah, he's a perfectionist. He said in his Master Class videos that when he was younger he was so OCD about temperature that he kept his fire in a 3-degree range. Now that he's older and more relaxed it's a 5-degree range. He laughs when he says this because he knows he's a bit sick in the head.

I keeps it shorter and more to the point in this video (trimming starts at 1:37):
 
Franklin is a weird cat...get him outside of his restaurant and he's a very shy and socially anxious person. I think he's super chill at his own place where he's "in control" but holy crap he's a strange person when there's a crowd around. He was invited to the NBBQA (National BBQ (and Grilling) Association) in 2017 to accept a BBQ award. He showed up, said something close to "Thanks for the award...bye," and walked off the stage. 10 seconds or less and he was out of there. The next day they held a massive BBQ event and he was there all day, but he hid in the back almost the entire time and was very reluctant to mingle with anybody who wasn't an invited Pitmaster. He spent about 2 hours talking to Sam Jones, Billy Durney, and a few of the other guys and he really worked hard to stay hidden the whole time.

Myron Mixon, on the other hand, was an absolute attention whore and he reveled in the attention he got. Super nice dude, and so was his whole family, but the crowd treated him like he was a rock star and Myron absolutely loved it. haha
 
MASShole said:
I'd say you should pull them closer to 160 or 165 to get a bit more connective tissue to render, just past the stall. Otherwise, it's fun to play!
Click to expand...

Trust me I am next time. Still came out good. I might be odd but I am not a fan of fall off the bone ribs I like a bit of bite to them. Like I said never did this before so was playing on the side of caution.

Next time only thing I am changing is letting them hit the smoker for a bit longer and get to a higher temp. 140 is not enough like you mentioned 160-165 will probably be the sweet spot. Every thing else I am keeping the same rub, peanut oil temp, and season flour all that will be the same.
 
usmctanker242 said:
It's a charcoal smoker but I mingle small wood splits into the charcoal, so I get a clean burn. The smoker is built by a company called Spicewine Ironworks and I'm really loving it right now.

I bought the smoker used and these are the photos provided by the seller. One of the great things is that it's insulated, so I don't have to worry about people (or kids) coming on the back side of my trailer and burning themselves by touching the outer wall of the smoker. Even at 250° the outer walls are cool to the touch.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=ZEVxck9YejZyVDBtLU9sQkhTMklkZzJzdDFZMDRR
Click to expand...

It would be cool to have that but for me I have no use for it. For what I do my 48" offset barrel texas style smoker is more than plenty for me. That is even over kill for me but it was custom made and I got it for a great price I think.
 
usmctanker242 said:
Franklin is a weird cat...get him outside of his restaurant and he's a very shy and socially anxious person. I think he's super chill at his own place where he's "in control" but holy crap he's a strange person when there's a crowd around. He was invited to the NBBQA (National BBQ (and Grilling) Association) in 2017 to accept a BBQ award. He showed up, said something close to "Thanks for the award...bye," and walked off the stage. 10 seconds or less and he was out of there. The next day they held a massive BBQ event and he was there all day, but he hid in the back almost the entire time and was very reluctant to mingle with anybody who wasn't an invited Pitmaster. He spent about 2 hours talking to Sam Jones, Billy Durney, and a few of the other guys and he really worked hard to stay hidden the whole time.

Myron Mixon, on the other hand, was an absolute attention whore and he reveled in the attention he got. Super nice dude, and so was his whole family, but the crowd treated him like he was a rock star and Myron absolutely loved it. haha
Click to expand...

Could it be Franklin is not fond of crowds and likes the behind the scene better than the lime light so to speak?
 
DesignedFailure said:
It would be cool to have that but for me I have no use for it. For what I do my 48" offset barrel texas style smoker is more than plenty for me. That is even over kill for me but it was custom made and I got it for a great price I think.
Click to expand...

I started out with a Weber Kettle and it has always been evolving. I never thought about doing BBQ for a living, and instead it was something to do when I had down time from school. I ended up getting a kamado and loved it, and then when I graduated college my parents bought me a Yoder offset smoker and I was hooked. Granted, that smoker was a piece of shit due to a drafting issue, but if there was no wind outside it did make some good grub. After I graduated I felt "lost," not sure how else to put it, but I had no desire to chase a job in the field in which I got my degree. My wife was awesome in allowing me a bit of space and time to figure things out, and she suggested I try out a BBQ food truck. Once I got that far I knew I needed a bigger smoker and bought a 24x60 reverse flow smoker from Johnson Smokers. It was a fantastic smoker, but it only had about 13 square feet of cooking space, and it limited me to about 6 briskets, or about 8 butts at a time. That worked well when I first opened my business, but I was running out of food within an hour, so I needed more. I tried a pellet smoker from Rec-Tec which had about 17 square feet of cooking space, but it ended up not working out as the computer system had some problems which they couldn't address. I was also using a cooker I bought from the guys who did my food trailer, and it's a front offset "hog style" smoker with (2) 3'x4' cooking racks. It's another great cooker, but I needed something with more capacity and I was ready for a cooker that would allow me to sleep.

I totally understand what you're saying about your smoking being plenty. Outside of the pellet cooker I've pretty much loved all of my cookers and they have a fond place in my heart. Right now I'm fully in love with my cabinet smoker and thoroughly impressed with how well it's performing. It has given me my life back in the sense that I'm not chained to a cooker all night long, and I can hang out with my wife. I can also sleep straight through the night knowing that the fan system is keeping temps right where I want them.
 
usmctanker242 said:
I'll check out those episodes...thanks for the heads up. Aaron Franklin took part in a university event called "Brisket Camp" a few years ago. They videotaped his demonstration of trimming a brisket. It's about a 20 minute video and one of the comments was pure gold...something to the effect of "Legend has it that Aaron Franklin is still trimming that brisket to this very day." LMAO



Personally I trim pretty aggressively because in my experience I get a better bark when there isn't a ton of fat sitting on top of the meat. Last year a guy came out to check out my Johnson Smokers offset cooker because he was interested in getting a Johnson cooker. We got to talking and he said he never trims anything off a brisket...just pulls it from the cryovac and adds salt / pepper and throws it on the smoker. He spent about 10 minutes trying to convince me that this was the best way to cook brisket, and went on about his profit margins. I understand that concept but you're not going to get many return customers when you're serving them nothing but unrendered fat. I had a similar discussion on Reddit's r/BBQ subreddit a while ago. A guy posted pics of some Texas restaurant BBQ, and the brisket was nothing but unrendered fat with about 1/4" of actual meat. I commented about how I'd be pissed about getting so much inedible meat, and the responses to my comment were pure gold : "noob" , "you don't know shit about BBQ" , "fat is flavor" , and some more generic denigrating comments.

Since this thread has slowly been turning into a "fine dining" thread I'll post that Reddit thread for shits and giggles. My comment was downvoted so aggressively that it's not even part of the discussion anymore. LMAO


Looking at that brisket what do you all think about it? Looks like a single slice that appears to be exceptionally dry, and then the rest of the slices are nothing but unrendered fat with some bark.
Click to expand...


First thing I thought of when I saw that brisket was "dry", then looked at the other pieces and thought "lots of fat". Gross.
 
DesignedFailure said:
Trust me I am next time. Still came out good. I might be odd but I am not a fan of fall off the bone ribs I like a bit of bite to them. Like I said never did this before so was playing on the side of caution.

.
Click to expand...

That's how ribs should be. Home cooks like fall off the bone. BBQ afficionados like bite. You should be able to bite it and not pull the bone out.
 
MASShole said:
That's how ribs should be. Home cooks like fall off the bone. BBQ afficionados like bite. You should be able to bite it and not pull the bone out.
Click to expand...

I think we are on the same page could be wrong, have been before. I aim for something just past a very tender pork chop, yet not at cat food stage where it just falls apart.
 
DesignedFailure said:
I think we are on the same page could be wrong, have been before. I aim for something just past a very tender pork chop, yet not at cat food stage where it just falls apart.
Click to expand...

It's totally personal preference...when I do ribs I actually intentionally "overcook" about 30% of them because I have a lot of regular customers who prefer the ribs to be falling off the bone. I've actually kind of "trained" so many other people that ribs are better when they are as you're describing them with a slight tug, but super juicy and tasty.
 
MASShole said:
I only smoke my tofu, bro!
Click to expand...

vuist.jpg
 
usmctanker242 said:
It's totally personal preference...when I do ribs I actually intentionally "overcook" about 30% of them because I have a lot of regular customers who prefer the ribs to be falling off the bone. I've actually kind of "trained" so many other people that ribs are better when they are as you're describing them with a slight tug, but super juicy and tasty.
Click to expand...

Oh I get it and know its all preference, for the longest time I thought that was how you were suppose to cook ribs. So I can see why you would do some that way as that is what the customer wants and that is what makes you money.

Now saying this I sound like a hypocrite as if you ever fry your ribs. I think they would be better off over cooked and falling of the bone. I didn't think they lived up to the hype. I didn't count my self and just went with what the 5 other people thought. It was mixed 2 for it 2 no go and one who couldn't decide. Again all preference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,223
Messages
55,475,362
Members
174,786
Latest member
Biden's Diaper

Share this page

Back
Top