Having read another post asking about multi-rack cooking leads me to share my experience this week, that was unfortunately somewhat embarrassing and a not so desirable experience for the some of the eaters I feed every day. Smoked 40 chicken ¼’s using 3 of my cookers racks (I can fit 10 racks stacked). The oven temp averaged around 320F and monitored in the centre of the cooking chamber that in this cook was just below the bottom most rack. In hindsight I did not take into account and made the following schoolboy errors that I should not have.
1= The food had to be served at 1pm. I started the cook at 11am trusting I had more than enough time given when I cook spatchcock birds on multiple racks the birds are done within 80 minutes.
2= I packed the ¼’s to close to each other on the 3 racks.
3= I am aware of a fairly big temperature swing from bottom of cook chamber to the top and didn’t even consider taking this into account as the racks were all just above the centre part of the cooker and one on top of each other.
4= 20 minutes before serving time I did a temp test on the top rack of pieces as they were easy to get to and the IT was @ around 155F. I was happy that I had enough time to finish the cook. I DID NOT check any of the pieces on the lower racks.
5= Dishing time the pieces on the top rack were around 160 - 165.
6= Served the food without checking any of the 2 lower rack pieces IT.
Well there were a whole lot of not properly cooked pieces served. Those that returned with their undercooked pieces (some didn’t) I deep fried until done. Like I said it was heart-breaking.
Important lessons learnt that will prevent same happening again.
1= The top rack will always be hotter than those below and rotating them is needed.
2= The moisture that seeps to the pieces below cools the meat and will need more time to cook.
3= Always check doneness of product on all racks.
If I’ve missed anything else that I need to take into consideration please tell.
PS. I have very forgiving customers - they didn’t shoot me.
1= The food had to be served at 1pm. I started the cook at 11am trusting I had more than enough time given when I cook spatchcock birds on multiple racks the birds are done within 80 minutes.
2= I packed the ¼’s to close to each other on the 3 racks.
3= I am aware of a fairly big temperature swing from bottom of cook chamber to the top and didn’t even consider taking this into account as the racks were all just above the centre part of the cooker and one on top of each other.
4= 20 minutes before serving time I did a temp test on the top rack of pieces as they were easy to get to and the IT was @ around 155F. I was happy that I had enough time to finish the cook. I DID NOT check any of the pieces on the lower racks.
5= Dishing time the pieces on the top rack were around 160 - 165.
6= Served the food without checking any of the 2 lower rack pieces IT.
Well there were a whole lot of not properly cooked pieces served. Those that returned with their undercooked pieces (some didn’t) I deep fried until done. Like I said it was heart-breaking.
Important lessons learnt that will prevent same happening again.
1= The top rack will always be hotter than those below and rotating them is needed.
2= The moisture that seeps to the pieces below cools the meat and will need more time to cook.
3= Always check doneness of product on all racks.
If I’ve missed anything else that I need to take into consideration please tell.
PS. I have very forgiving customers - they didn’t shoot me.
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