Leftovers in BBQ restaurants

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KHulburt

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Hi all,

First post in the forum.

I am wondering about what restaurants do with leftover BBQ from the day before. I know that many work hard to estimate amounts needed for the day and then when they run out, they run out. Others save and reheat leftovers the next day (wouldn't people notice?).

Ultimately, I think the ideal would be estimating as best as possible and then having a set of recipes that use the day before leftovers as an ingredient. For example, using ribs in a nacho recipe the next day.

I'm going to be opening a restaurant and this is my burning question of the week.

Any thoughts? Any recipe ideas for leftover ribs, pulled pork, or brisket?
 
I'm not sure what the best answer from a restaurant owner's view but from a customer's view, if it's dry I won't be back.

I'm aware I'm eating yesterday's pork, you can't cook it per order. How you handle your meat post cook will make or break you.
 
As long as it isn't served in original "fresh" BBQ form, I likely won't care. Chopped beef/pork sammiches, chili, breakfast tacos, etc...
 
Good bbq restaurants will not serve day old bbq in their entrees. You can tell the difference between leftover bbq and fresh bbq.

What they do use the leftovers for is flavoring in beans, nachos/tacos, soups/stews, southwest eggrolls, grilled cheeses or other chalk board specials.
 
My dad managed a smokehouse back in the late 60's. He said the leftovers went into a Brunswick stew. And that was all the left overs, sides included. Even the french fries were ground down and added. The only thing new were canned tomatos and stock.
 
I wasn't familiar with Brunswick Stew, but I'm looking at recipes now and it seems like a great option. I also found a joint that makes scotch eggs from the leftover brisket...interesting idea as well.

I can't imagine serving day old BBQ as BBQ, but using it as an ingredient sounds reasonable.
 
at our place, brisket goes into chili, pork goes into tmrws bean, and chicken could possibly be used for tacos or a chicken chili. We cook daily, and usually run out. so we're not sitting on a lot of leftovers
 
+1 to all who are listing Brunswick stew as an option. I sure know plenty of BBQ judges who carry home meat from comps who do this. Also agree that using leftover pork in nachos, egg rolls, etc makes sense.
 
If someone knows what they are doing, I'd challenge anyone to try and tell the difference between "fresh" brisket and one that was cooked yesterday and reheated. Would do the same with ribs as well.

This might be sacrilegious to some, but often times, bbq/smoked food tastes BETTER the next day. Put the brisket, ribs or butts in a warm and moist environment and slowly bring them up to temp. Flavor profile will be there, texture and moistness will be spot on. For a restaurant, if you can swing the $$$$, get an Alto-Shaam or something similar.
 
If held right, you can serve meat from the day before. If you don't have too much leftover mix it with some "fresh" meat and it will be fine.
 
Running out is better business and better for the customer than serving leftovers.
 
Some restaurants, that will only serve fresh, donate leftovers to local charities, that get it to the needy.
 
How can you running out be better for the customer who has driven 30 miles to eat your food?
 
kds9547 said:
How can you running out be better for the customer who has driven 30 miles to eat your food?
Click to expand...

Nobody is in business for one customer. It sucks to be the guy who drove 30 miles to find out they're sold out, but if you're driving 30 miles and hitting a BBQ place well after a meal time, it's a risk you take.
 
Dave, you hit the nail on the head. When we're open(currently friday-sunday) we're cooking pretty much around the clock thursday night-sunday afternoon. If you're showing up at 7:30-8pm for bbq, you obviously don't know what type of place it is. we carried over some brisket from 2 weekends ago, and last weekend made an awesome chili out of it. Sure, it sucks to be that one guy who drove from far away for your food and not get any, but if it were me, i'd rather honestly be told we don't have anything left, then watch a guy scramble to throw something together in the walk in and drop it in the microwave.
 
kds9547 said:
How can you running out be better for the customer who has driven 30 miles to eat your food?
Click to expand...

I don't have a restaurant but I do cook in a farmer's market during the summer. Knock on wood....we sell out quite often. There are always people that don't get food. I simply tell them to cook proper BBQ takes a tremendous amount of time so when it runs out I can't just pop something in the smoker and have it done quickly. Every single person says the same thing...."oh, ok....we gotta get here earlier next week".

And sure enough...the following week they show up early.
 
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