cooking ahead of time

Hey guys. I have been hired by a kitchen to teach bbq to some people. They want me to bring two racks of ribs, but my issue is i have work the day of the class so i was gonna smoke them the night before. How would i store the cooked ribs in the fridge for optimum freshness and then the day of i will be at the kitchen an hour early. How should i heat them up without drying. I have done tons of cooking but not storing cooked food. Haha

Thanks

marubozo said:

How are you going to teach them anything if you just show up with a finished product?

Are you going to be serving the ribs to the class? IMO, ribs are the least forgiving when it comes to reheating, so if I was trying to impress a group of students with my BBQ, I'd try to avoid serving reheated ribs.

But that's just me.

Click to expand...

Really? dang, I knew pulled pork was pretty forgiving but i was not sure about ribs. the wife JUST said she would volunteer to cook them for me the day of. This will be her first un assisted cook. Go wife!! i was hoping to do them the night before but that seems impossible. haha. i hate when surprises come up liek this. haha


the class is on rubs, grill setup and preping the ribs for the cook. they wanted me to bring some samples of a finished product. they also wanted me to show how to make some basic sides and how to trim the ribs as well. its a basics course on getting people introduced to bbq. by the end of class they should have enough know how to build and maintain the fire, trim and smoke a set of ribs or pork butt and know the diff btween bbq and grilling. haha.

marubozo said:

That's cool you'll be teaching them about trimming and rubs and stuff. That's going to be quite helpful. But yeah, as for a reheated rack of ribs from the day before, that certainly wouldn't be showcasing your best stuff.

Like you said, a butt or even brisket, hell, throw it in a cooler and it will last for hours. Throw it in a CVAP and it would probably go overnight just fine. And there's enough mass and moisture that even reheating the next day wouldn't be the end of the world. But ribs, there's just not much to them and it doesn't take much to zap the moisture out of them, make them tough, etc. They will still have good flavor, but it won't compare to something that just came off the smoker in the moisture and tenderness category.

Click to expand...

thanks. it will be fun and i hope they learn alot. I thought that ribs would dry out and thst why i posted. needed a second opinion. i hope the UDS can be on its own sorta speak for 5 hours while im at work. The wife wants me to light it up and get it going and she will monitor temps. The UDS should chug just fine. haha. i hope.

thanks

one more question. the ribs should be done by 2 or 3PM. i have to be at the kitchen by 430PM. the class is at six. So the ribs will have a hour resting time before they get eatin. how do i transport them so they wont dry out? when i get to the kitchen, should i put them in an oven at 185 or will that dry them out? This is a basics course so if i had to re heat them in the oven with foil or liquid underneath them, they wont know.. hahaha

thnks

sorry for asking these, i have never ever had to transport ribs or save them for 3 hours.

Hmm, ok cool. I dont mind if bark suffers a we bit.. they are used to crock pot ribs, which imho, are tasty and are fun to eat but this is an intro to bbq class, however, i want them to keep me hired haha.