What size cooker?

[CivilWarBBQ]

Originally Posted by fevoice

Most BBQ Caterers that I know, cook a few days ahead and either freeeze or refrigerate until serving day. They then re-thermalize the meat and deliver. Now some will take out their cookers on trailers and reheat on site, which gives the serving site that smoke aroma we all know and love. And as mentioned above it's a great form of marketing.

But when it arrives it needs to be hot. Unless you told the customer that they need to reheat. Then you need to deliver at a temp that is "safe".

I'm currently agonizing over wether to get an FEC-300 or 500 or an SPX-300 or an Ole Hickory Pit SSG mounted on a trailer. All I need to do after that is convince my lovely wife that spending/investing $13,000 - $16,000 in a BBQ pit is a good thing.

Blessings all!

Frank

Yes, what Frank says is dead on.

We do most of our production cooking for the restaurant and catering jobs on our Southern Pride, but when we need an on-site dog and pony show we take a trailer mounted stick burner. Pre-cooked, double foiled meat is carried in ice chests and reheated on the stick burner to serving temp. In addition to providing the smoke aroma and look people expect, it is also a very good way to minimize your waste in a vending environment because you only reheat what you need. Any unused product simply goes back with you. Since it never left the cooler there is no loss in quality.

[bam]

Meadow Creek

[tony76248]

As proud as we are of our respective cookers, they are not all perfect. They do cook well when they are not jam packed full of meat. I know mine has a crazy personality when the air flow is impeded.

I think possibly some of the best cookers for large catering jobs could be the ones with the rotisseries. I do not know which brands are actually the best, I just know that you have good circulation and equal temps which must give peace of mind when timing is an issue. Plus most of the ones I have seen have pretty good capacity. Anytime you have to get into the smoker and move the meat around to eliminate hotspots or cool spots, you are just doing unnessary work. Plus when the cooker is open you are adding to the cook time. Isn't it better to only open the smoker when the meat is ready?

If you go to a BBQ joint you will notice that the briskets are mostly all the same size. I know that one of my favorite ones here in TX will cook all the briskets for 10 hours at 200 degrees. Of course they have heat and moisture controls to ensure that the end product is very consistent.

[Divemaster]

Originally Posted by fevoice

Most BBQ Caterers that I know, cook a few days ahead and either freeeze or refrigerate until serving day. They then re-thermalize the meat and deliver. Now some will take out their cookers on trailers and reheat on site, which gives the serving site that smoke aroma we all know and love. And as mentioned above it's a great form of marketing.

I agree with Frank... If I can avoid taking out the Lang I do... If they insist, I charge extra for 'The Show'.

[beam boys bbq]

i have been told by many cooks figuer out what you need and then get the next size bigger that way you all ways have room that has all ways worked for me

i have the large spice wine i have never filled it up all the way yet
been close but not yet

york