vending Ribs

adstu said:

Ok, I have a rib fest coming up soon. they estimate around 2-3 thousand people to show up for this event. I use a Jambo pit and as you know they are not designed for catering. It usually takes me 4 hrs to smoke ribs. My question is how to smoke enough ribs for this event. My thought is to smoke them ahead of time for 2 hrs, then wrap for an hour, then freeze them. On the day of the event unthaw them, then foil and smoke for an hour. Does this sound right? or does anyone else have a better method? I normal smoke 2 hrs then wrap for 2hr. if I did that and freeze them, would that be better...... thanks

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Wouldn't that mean they would be frozen again??? :mrgreen:
(sorry I couldn't resist)

Never done anything like this (but I may have to find one and go!) but have to wonder about a few things.

1. How long will they take to thaw?
2. If being done on-site, will you have room to lay them out to thaw (ambient air or refrigeration)?
3. Are you doing all the ribs or will there be other vendors? Ribs for 2-3 thousand sounds like a ton of ribs? How many can you put on the Jambo at once? Also, is this a "graze all day" kind of event or do they all need to be ready within an hour? Or, put another way, will you need to have additional capacity to be ready at a given time?

My ignorance is showing here but something I wondered about.

As far as your process, I would probably do a "dry run" for the family ahead of time to see if the 2 hours, foil and freeze, then 2 hours foiled will get them done. I would want at least 30 minutes leeway just in case it takes a bit longer.

Lastly, how can I invite myself to a rib fest, lol!

My $.01 today.

Joe

Try this (on a small scale at home first, to make sure they are OK for texture taste & aroma):

Take the sausage approach: dry brine your ribs and add an appropriate amount of pink salt (0.0025% of meat, so if you have 1 kg of ribs, you'll want 2.5 grams of pink salt - please use metric when dealing with curing as it leads to fewer mistakes)

Once they're dry-brined (~24 hours ought to be enough) drain rinse and towel dry them, then let them sit uncovered for 12 hrs in the fridge, then cold smoke them using whatever wood you prefer - hickory, apple, cherry, etc. The nitrites and the smoke will both help to make sure you keep foodborne risks at a minimum. Now you just dump them in a bunch of gastronorms in the fridge until you're ready to cook, run your fire hot, they'll get plenty of smoke flavor from the cold smoke, they will have the 'smoke ring' that your ribfest pedants will complain about if they don't see it, and they will cook up quick and still be juicy thanks to the dry brine.

Please note I said DRY BRINE and not WET BRINE because wet brines are the devil's work

I have frozen full racks of ribs in the past, it does work, but I must say that after freezing and re-heating, they are NOT the best quality, and are not the ribs you would say are your best product. At a rib fest, and depending on who's eating them, it may not matter, some might even these are the best I have ever had. The quality can be better, but you have to be very careful as to the time re-heating them. Here's what I do ( I dont recommend doing it all the time, but there have been times when I have had a lot of ribs that didnt sell, and had to do something with them, other that donating them to a food bank.
Anyway, I have a Lang 60, and it cooks hot, I do my ribs 1 1/2 hrs, wrap for 1 hour, unwrap, sauce and set in the smoker for 10 minutes. When I have ribs left, I bring them home, cool in the 'fridge until the next morning, vac pack individually in Food Saver bags. Then freeze, when I am ready to use them again, thaw ( an it will take over night) not the day you need them, so allow time. Take them out of the food saver bags, wrap in foil, add a bit of apple juice & some of your sauce and put in the smoker to heat up. Be careful not to heat them too long or you will have mush. Like I said, it does work, but......