timing to cook a bunch of different things on the same day.

[florent]

Hello,

I'm new here, I hope I have the right place to post...

So, I have a birthday party coming up and after wondering what to do, I setted on "a lamb" (long time ago, I had dreamed of having a big party for my 40th and roasting a lamb or a pig on a spit with a bunch of friends, then covid hit and we all had to revise our dreams)

by "a lamb", I mean:

• 2 shoulder, smoked based on this recipe
• 2 legs, based on this recipe
• some lollypops based on this recipe
• 2 rack of ribs based on this recipe

As a bonus, and to complicate things, I'm also doing smoked jackfruit for the vegetarian/vegan friends.

These are all recipes I already done (even in one long weekend, covid and the restrictions made me slightly crazy this year) so this is not the question, my problem is more on how to time this so that I can get everything done the most enjoyable way.

I'm cooking on a 18" smokey mountain cooker and a 22" kettle, I also could use my neighbor's Weber Q serie grill (not sure which model exactly) but I never cooked on it or really on gas so I'm not really sure (maybe the jackfruit :-) )

My issue is on timing. What i'm thinking is:

• shoulders on the smokey mountain
• legs on the kettle
• lollypops on the kettle maybe while I rest the legs, i can even serve them as appetizers
• Ribs: I'm not sure
• jackfruit wherever I find space

my issue with ribs is that I'd like to cook them on the smokey mountain, but they take much less time than the shoulders so what should I do: add them and smoke them halfway through cooking the shoulders? would I risk oversmoking the shoulders? Or should i just slow cook them and not add any smoke thinking that the smoker will be smokey enough? or should i put them on the kettle earlier and risk oversmoking them when i add the legs? cook them earlier and try to keep them warm?

What would you do in my place? this is a thing I always struggle a bit: how do you cook more than 1 thing at the same time... but here I'm taking it past what I usually do....

thanks for your ideas,
cheers,
Florent

[STEbbq]

I am not sure why you’d be concerned about over smoking. I’d add the ribs midway through the shoulder cook on the Smokey mountain so they get three hours in the smoke and ideally the shoulder and ribs are finished close to the same time. If not, hold the finished protein in a faux cambro until service.

if you are worried about one piece of meat finishing ahead of time, just wrap it in foil and towels when it is done and store in a cooler or heavily wrapped until service.

I would not leave the meat in the smoker past when it is done because the timing didn’t end up perfect as that would result in overcooked meat.

If it helps, maybe start the shoulders even earlier so you can allow 1-2 hours of resting wrapped when they are done and that may give you more flexibility to deliver the rest of the meat on time with the additional space.

[Jfrosty27]

I would buy another cooker! MCS! MCS! 😂🤣😳

[Troutman]

Yea exactly. Take this opportunity to get a bigger boat !!!

[florent]

can't do that twice in a row... gonna get in trouble or run out of space

[rickgregory]

I'm with STEbbq - wrap things that are done and stuff them in a pre-warmed cooler. If they'll need to be held for more than a few hours, put them in an oven (wrapped) if you have one that can stay at 170F or so.

[Ernest]

Smokey mountain can hold temps overnight, start cooking the leg and shoulder around midnight and go to sleep.
Meathead knows better, I have never smoked a leg in 2 hours. It has always cooked in 4-6 hour range.
Around 6 am get the ribs on there as well and let the WSM do what it do.
Get a cooler with a beach blanket. If the ribs or any of the meat is done early, wrap in parchment and beach towel, hold in cooler
The lollipops should be cooked last.

[florent]

I'm not planning on smoking the leg (or just a bit), the meat is too good to cook more than pink. It generally takes a bit more than 2h but it's more roasted than smoked.

[Ernest]

Time to invest in Sous Vide. That will solve the timing issues.

[STEbbq]

Agreed. Could be quite a nice deal here with all of the different meats. I recommend a Joule.

[Attjack]

For the jackfruit, I now use canned young green Jackfruit. You just trim the woody ends and you're good to go.

[florent]

That's also what I use. Jackfruit is kinda the least of my concern here, it's easy and hard to miss. Also I find that my vegetarian / vegans friends are already so happy they don't have to just get potato salad that they are very very forgiving

[bmillin]

I’d write it out on paper. Pick your target time for serving, give yourself a buffer on the low and slow dishes, figure out holding times and back into your start times from there.

[FireMan]

You did say you have cooked em all before, so, my question to you is how long did it take fer each item & go from there. Or, Ernest sorta mapped things out for you. It should not be much of a hill for a hill climber like you to scale. Take lots of pics & have fun.

[bbqLuv]

Plan your cook, cook your plan, take notes and pictures to post.
Ernest posted a cooking plan of attack.

Thank you in advance,
Happy Grilling to you

[florent]

Plan your cook, cook your plan, take notes and pictures to post.
Ernest posted a cooking plan of attack.

Thank you in advance,
Happy Grilling to you

Ok, I think I'm gonna follow your advice, I'll keep you posted on the results!

cheers!

[bbqLuv]

You are welcome. Look forward to your future post.