Smoking and Holding Brisket for Farmer's Market

Hankerdaddy said:

I'm looking at taking my smoked brisket and ribs to the local farmers market. I was hoping to get some advice on how to hold the meat and what portions to sell. My initial thoughts were to do the briskets overnight and take them off the morning of the market and sell them sliced by the pound, in sandwiches and whole. With the ribs I would most likely just put them on the morning of and sell them by the rack. Does anyone have any input on this strategy and any ideas on holding the meat at a good temp (I was thinking of just holding them in a second smoker)?

Click to expand...

There are a ton of posts on here that discuss cooking off-site and holding meat for transport, but most of the advice can be distilled to some sort of coolering method: you should be able to hold the meat at temp for several hours either in a cambro or a cooler. In fact, it is desirable to rest the brisket before slicing. You wrap it in foil or butcher's paper and put it in a cooler that is filled with old blankets or towels to provide maximum insulation. A cambro does the same thing, but with grooves for stacking hotel pans or aluminum trays.

That said, I hope you have done the necessary research on selling food and you are properly permitted, insured, etc?

Make sure you hold that food at a temp of 140 or higher. Make sure you keep logs of holding temps and reheating temps. God help if someone says they got sick. Feeding the public is a different animal and always protect yourself. If you are going to do that often I would highly recommend some sort of insurance. If someone gets food poison they could take everything you have.