I did a big cook, mainly to take some orders from folks at work, and hopefully offset the cost of some meat for my family. lol. I did learn a few things, the time management wasn't so bad, I've done enough multi-meat cooks I have learned when/what to do a good bit on that. But I have learned I prolly needa charge more for some things! lol
I had 'orders' - ok, requests - for:
PULLED PORK - 11 lbs
PORK BELLY - 3 pieces
CHOPPED BRISKET - 8 lbs
WHOLE CHIKKIN - 1
RIBS (BB) - 1 rack
BOLOGNA CHUB - 3 lbs
Started off with a Prime brisket from Costco.
I knew I had 18 lbs, it actually didn't require a whole lot of trimming, I only trimmed 2.5 lbs off. so I ended up throwing on a 15lb chub. This took a long time, even when I wrapped with foil. Just rubbed with SPG. I got up late, was planning on starting the fire around 5AM, rolled over in bed at 6AM and thought, "Oh crap, we gonna do THIS today? Is that it?" Dangit. Managed to get the briskie on probably around... 0645.
Next was pork butt.
I had requests for 11 lbs, so I was sure doing 1 pack wasn't going to cut it, but I really didn't need ALL of this done. I did actually have ½ of one of these packs in the freezer from a previous cook 2 weeks ago, I think, but I didn't have time to thaw it, so I went ahead and bought 2 packs. Split one of them and put it back in the freezer. So I've got 2 of these boneless butts to use sometime. I wanted a little extra to have a few 1lb packs of pulled pork for home use, but not too many. I think we still have a couple sitting around I need to use - and since I don't really eat so much anymore, things don't get used a lot. Between my reduced diet and 2 teenagers moving away to college, we really don't cook much at all anymore.
Here's all the big clods on by around 0710.
Watched those for a couple hours, used a combination in this cook of my original Fireboard and 2 of my 3 FireSticks. I had one replaced because it wasn't connecting/reporting, now I have another that seems to be the same. This FireSticks are a little finicky, I am just not 100% happy with them. I keep coming back to the Fireboad. Keeping them charged, keeping them connected, GETTING them to connect and report, they don't shut down always when you put the probe back in the dock, I never know if they're charged, there's no way to distinguish which probe goes with which dock, unless you put a dab of colored paint or something - and that gets covered with soot/residue, so... I dunno. I'm just not overly super pleased. They're ok, but they're not like stellar. I will say, I think they are better at reading ambient temp than I thought, though. They take a while, during the first hour or two, they're not accurate, but as the meat surface temp heats up a bit, it stops interfering as much with the ambient readings.
Next was time for some pork belly. I had orders enough for a full belly, so I picked up a smaller one for myself, but only did half of it. The rest went back in the freezer.
Since my orders were for 3 pieces, I was originally going to cut it in thirds and cook them individually, but I decided to keep it whole and cut it after. I'm glad I did this, it helped with management, pulling, wrapping, etc.
Unfortunately, I've found when things get rolling, I don't get around to as many pictures - trying not to keep the door open TOO long, and having gloves on and greasy schmutz on the hands, etc. I just don't have a chances to grab so many pics.
I wrapped the pork butts and briskets in foil this time. I wish I'd waited LONGER to wrap, the bark on the pork butts was pretty much just a soft 'skin' when I pulled them. I will say, however, I was very VERY pleased with the moisture of the pulled pork. Definitely wrapping in foil made for a MUCH juicier pulled pork. I hadn't done this in quite some time - probably since this cook back in April when I think I did 6 of them for an event for our non-profit. I just think I need to wait quite a bit longer to wrap - I wrapped around 145-150ºF, which I KNEW was too early, but with my later start, and I knew I had 2 people wanting to come pick up tonight, I didn't want to get too far behind. I'm gonna try next time with the foil wrap again, but waiting to set up the bark quite a bit harder.
Also learned to DEFINITELY use 2 layers of foil. I always have in the past, yesterday I tried to conserve a bit, as my big roll is starting to run low (idiot, I didn't pick up another roll at Costco, being afraid my wife would roll her eyes because we didn't "need one yet", <sigh>). I learned when I pulled one of these and the foil split, pouring 200ºF fat on my hand, soaking through my mesh thermal glove and of course, KEEPING it on my hand. After doing the "drop the butt and get your glove off" dance, I wasn't sure how bad it was gonna be. Luckily, this morning, it isn't blistered and feels a bit better, so wasn't as bad as I thought. Not a huge amt, just about a nickel-sized spot at the ball/base of my left index. A little tender today, but not too bad.
DEFINITELY DOUBLE WRAPPING from now on.
I also wrapped the brisket in foil. Not sure if I've done this in the past or not, I can't remember. I have been using butcher paper quite a lot the last few years, or trying to go open and unwrapped all the way. I was actually pretty surprised that the bark on the brisket held up fairly well and was even still 'crispy'-ish on top once it was done. Also wrapped this early, like at 145-150 or so.
In the end it came out pretty decent. I need to be more aggressive with the salt on these things, and salt them a full day or more before. I keep finding myself adding salt when I'm cutting/pulling/chopping. What I'm using isn't penetrating, likely due to being afraid of using too much and not giving it a day or two to dry brine. I need to plan more in advance, essentially.
I also fired up the Yoder YS460 yesterday for the first time in a number of months, just to throw on a couple of racks of ribs. These went just about as well and stable as you can imagine with a pellet pooper.
Later, around 4PM or so, I threw on the sole chikkin one of the gals at work wanted. Spatchcocked, just S&P. Cooked on the upper rack, hotter and faster than the other stuff, took about 2h.
Final look at the brisket when I unwrapped it, it took just over 12 hours, even wrapped early in foil. It was a big boy. Tried to keep temps on it around 250ºF+. Pork butts, one came off around 9.5h, the other two at... oh, 11 and a little over 12, along with the brisket.
The brisket - the flat was still a little bit tight, I think I coulda gone a little slower and longer. Point was fantabulous, as always. But since I was chopping ALL of this, it didn't matter too much, really. Did try a little bit of a slice and it was decent - but again, needed more salt, I added some while chopping.
And chopping a whole packer brisket is a P.I.T.A.! Man! Like I said, I've learned I need to charge more for this stuff. lol. I see now why places are charging $25, $28 and $30 a pound for SLICED brisket. My yield was NOT nearly as much as I'd thought it was going to be. Not on the brisket.
Started as 18lbs, I only trimmed 2½lbs off. Of course, I trimmed some more fat off when it was done, pretty much the center portion that was between the point and flat muscles.
But overall, with the 18lb brisket, my yield of chopped meat was right at 9lbs. And I had orders for 8lbs, so... not a lot left over for me and the fam. <sigh>
Pulled pork, with around.... ooooh.... I'd guess 20lbs of starting product, I ended up with just about 15 1lb bags. So that's a much higher proportion of product, for sure.
So... pricing.
I sold some pulled pork a couple weeks ago, just like 5lbs of it, and I charged 'em $15/lb. I kinda felt like that mighta been a little excessive at then end of it all (looking at quart baggies with 1lb of meat in them), so this time I dropped my pulled pork prices to $12/lb. I think this works out ok, as I did end up with more yield - probably due to wrapping in foil and not paper - and the pork was juicier, thus weighed more in the bags, etc. So I think the $12/lb isn't too bad, and allows me a decent profit for my work. Heck, at this point, I'm thinking the pork is the way to go - Do 20 of those butts, all in one day, I'd make a pretty handy profit.
The brisket - I told my folks $15/lb. I think it's obvious this is too little for the work involved, the babysitting, the time and then the CHOPPING. Ugh. And the yield was much lower than the pork, right on 50% of purchased weight or so. So... an 18lb brisket cost me $81, I cooked it for 12 hours and ended up with 9lbs of finished product, at $15/lb, which is $135. 8 of that is spoken for, so actually, $120. So I am making $40. I'm not sure what to do about that. I just don't know that I feel comfortable charging $20/lb for chopped brisket, but I'd like to say $25/lb just to make it worth my effort. It was a lot more effort (mostly just all the chopping phase) than any single other item on the menu.
Honestly, the pulled pork was the way to go, from just a profit vs. cost/effort standpoint. The pork belly was pretty good, too, I sold 2½-3lb chunks for $25. Ribs, also $25/rack (only did one for sale). These are really easy, overall. The chicken, I told her $18, which I think in the end is probably pretty fair - I did a full spatchcock and removed most of the bones, including the lower ribcage and pelvis, the blade bones and wishbone. So I spent a good 15 minutes butchering and seasoning it up.
So I've learned a bit - I see if I am going to do this 'on the regular' I am definitely going to have to adjust some things. I can't count the times I've been told by someone I needed to open a restaurant or food truck - yeah, NO THANKS. But doing some cooking for large parties or doing some orders like this isn't too bad, as long as I don't undersell myself. People tend to say charge 3x your meat cost. Well, with pulled pork that works, I think. And at $12/lb I'm a little above that, but it worked out ok-ish I think. For brisket, if I charged 3x meat cost, that would be... $14.50/lb. Which is just about what I charged. But when you count the loss of trim, loss of moisture and chopping, etc., I will make $40 (ok $55 if you count my one leftover/holdback bag). I don't know that's really worth the effort, at least compared to the other items.
I'd love some feedback. I feel like going up in pricing is like... overselling myself. I don't think my food is THAT spectacular. I mean, it's good, and some is really good, but I also know I ain't paying $30/lb for cooked brisket, but I see restaurants doing it, and staying in business... so if I sell a bit lower, but not low enough to undercut myself... I just don't have much of a market. Just people at work at the moment - that might grow with word of mouth, I don't know. But I'm not sure I want it to be TOO busy. I don't think I want to give up EVERY Saturday and Sunday doing this stuff. But... honestly, with the crappy reimbursement and increased overhead at work, and with 2 kids to keep in spending money at college, I think I need all the help I can get. <sigh> At least this is something fun, and leaves me with food/meat left over.
Oh yeah... and I didn't eat. Just didn't feel like it, after sitting out in the heat and smoke all day long. That's a well-known issue for those of us used to smoking large amounts. But, that's ok, I ate breakfast, so I was good. Eggs and toast. Today I'll probably have some pulled pork or brisket sammiches.
I had 'orders' - ok, requests - for:
PULLED PORK - 11 lbs
PORK BELLY - 3 pieces
CHOPPED BRISKET - 8 lbs
WHOLE CHIKKIN - 1
RIBS (BB) - 1 rack
BOLOGNA CHUB - 3 lbs
Started off with a Prime brisket from Costco.
I knew I had 18 lbs, it actually didn't require a whole lot of trimming, I only trimmed 2.5 lbs off. so I ended up throwing on a 15lb chub. This took a long time, even when I wrapped with foil. Just rubbed with SPG. I got up late, was planning on starting the fire around 5AM, rolled over in bed at 6AM and thought, "Oh crap, we gonna do THIS today? Is that it?" Dangit. Managed to get the briskie on probably around... 0645.
Next was pork butt.
I had requests for 11 lbs, so I was sure doing 1 pack wasn't going to cut it, but I really didn't need ALL of this done. I did actually have ½ of one of these packs in the freezer from a previous cook 2 weeks ago, I think, but I didn't have time to thaw it, so I went ahead and bought 2 packs. Split one of them and put it back in the freezer. So I've got 2 of these boneless butts to use sometime. I wanted a little extra to have a few 1lb packs of pulled pork for home use, but not too many. I think we still have a couple sitting around I need to use - and since I don't really eat so much anymore, things don't get used a lot. Between my reduced diet and 2 teenagers moving away to college, we really don't cook much at all anymore.
Here's all the big clods on by around 0710.
Watched those for a couple hours, used a combination in this cook of my original Fireboard and 2 of my 3 FireSticks. I had one replaced because it wasn't connecting/reporting, now I have another that seems to be the same. This FireSticks are a little finicky, I am just not 100% happy with them. I keep coming back to the Fireboad. Keeping them charged, keeping them connected, GETTING them to connect and report, they don't shut down always when you put the probe back in the dock, I never know if they're charged, there's no way to distinguish which probe goes with which dock, unless you put a dab of colored paint or something - and that gets covered with soot/residue, so... I dunno. I'm just not overly super pleased. They're ok, but they're not like stellar. I will say, I think they are better at reading ambient temp than I thought, though. They take a while, during the first hour or two, they're not accurate, but as the meat surface temp heats up a bit, it stops interfering as much with the ambient readings.
Next was time for some pork belly. I had orders enough for a full belly, so I picked up a smaller one for myself, but only did half of it. The rest went back in the freezer.
Since my orders were for 3 pieces, I was originally going to cut it in thirds and cook them individually, but I decided to keep it whole and cut it after. I'm glad I did this, it helped with management, pulling, wrapping, etc.
Unfortunately, I've found when things get rolling, I don't get around to as many pictures - trying not to keep the door open TOO long, and having gloves on and greasy schmutz on the hands, etc. I just don't have a chances to grab so many pics.
I wrapped the pork butts and briskets in foil this time. I wish I'd waited LONGER to wrap, the bark on the pork butts was pretty much just a soft 'skin' when I pulled them. I will say, however, I was very VERY pleased with the moisture of the pulled pork. Definitely wrapping in foil made for a MUCH juicier pulled pork. I hadn't done this in quite some time - probably since this cook back in April when I think I did 6 of them for an event for our non-profit. I just think I need to wait quite a bit longer to wrap - I wrapped around 145-150ºF, which I KNEW was too early, but with my later start, and I knew I had 2 people wanting to come pick up tonight, I didn't want to get too far behind. I'm gonna try next time with the foil wrap again, but waiting to set up the bark quite a bit harder.
Also learned to DEFINITELY use 2 layers of foil. I always have in the past, yesterday I tried to conserve a bit, as my big roll is starting to run low (idiot, I didn't pick up another roll at Costco, being afraid my wife would roll her eyes because we didn't "need one yet", <sigh>). I learned when I pulled one of these and the foil split, pouring 200ºF fat on my hand, soaking through my mesh thermal glove and of course, KEEPING it on my hand. After doing the "drop the butt and get your glove off" dance, I wasn't sure how bad it was gonna be. Luckily, this morning, it isn't blistered and feels a bit better, so wasn't as bad as I thought. Not a huge amt, just about a nickel-sized spot at the ball/base of my left index. A little tender today, but not too bad.
DEFINITELY DOUBLE WRAPPING from now on.
I also wrapped the brisket in foil. Not sure if I've done this in the past or not, I can't remember. I have been using butcher paper quite a lot the last few years, or trying to go open and unwrapped all the way. I was actually pretty surprised that the bark on the brisket held up fairly well and was even still 'crispy'-ish on top once it was done. Also wrapped this early, like at 145-150 or so.
In the end it came out pretty decent. I need to be more aggressive with the salt on these things, and salt them a full day or more before. I keep finding myself adding salt when I'm cutting/pulling/chopping. What I'm using isn't penetrating, likely due to being afraid of using too much and not giving it a day or two to dry brine. I need to plan more in advance, essentially.
I also fired up the Yoder YS460 yesterday for the first time in a number of months, just to throw on a couple of racks of ribs. These went just about as well and stable as you can imagine with a pellet pooper.
Later, around 4PM or so, I threw on the sole chikkin one of the gals at work wanted. Spatchcocked, just S&P. Cooked on the upper rack, hotter and faster than the other stuff, took about 2h.
Final look at the brisket when I unwrapped it, it took just over 12 hours, even wrapped early in foil. It was a big boy. Tried to keep temps on it around 250ºF+. Pork butts, one came off around 9.5h, the other two at... oh, 11 and a little over 12, along with the brisket.
The brisket - the flat was still a little bit tight, I think I coulda gone a little slower and longer. Point was fantabulous, as always. But since I was chopping ALL of this, it didn't matter too much, really. Did try a little bit of a slice and it was decent - but again, needed more salt, I added some while chopping.
And chopping a whole packer brisket is a P.I.T.A.! Man! Like I said, I've learned I need to charge more for this stuff. lol. I see now why places are charging $25, $28 and $30 a pound for SLICED brisket. My yield was NOT nearly as much as I'd thought it was going to be. Not on the brisket.
Started as 18lbs, I only trimmed 2½lbs off. Of course, I trimmed some more fat off when it was done, pretty much the center portion that was between the point and flat muscles.
But overall, with the 18lb brisket, my yield of chopped meat was right at 9lbs. And I had orders for 8lbs, so... not a lot left over for me and the fam. <sigh>
Pulled pork, with around.... ooooh.... I'd guess 20lbs of starting product, I ended up with just about 15 1lb bags. So that's a much higher proportion of product, for sure.
So... pricing.
I sold some pulled pork a couple weeks ago, just like 5lbs of it, and I charged 'em $15/lb. I kinda felt like that mighta been a little excessive at then end of it all (looking at quart baggies with 1lb of meat in them), so this time I dropped my pulled pork prices to $12/lb. I think this works out ok, as I did end up with more yield - probably due to wrapping in foil and not paper - and the pork was juicier, thus weighed more in the bags, etc. So I think the $12/lb isn't too bad, and allows me a decent profit for my work. Heck, at this point, I'm thinking the pork is the way to go - Do 20 of those butts, all in one day, I'd make a pretty handy profit.
The brisket - I told my folks $15/lb. I think it's obvious this is too little for the work involved, the babysitting, the time and then the CHOPPING. Ugh. And the yield was much lower than the pork, right on 50% of purchased weight or so. So... an 18lb brisket cost me $81, I cooked it for 12 hours and ended up with 9lbs of finished product, at $15/lb, which is $135. 8 of that is spoken for, so actually, $120. So I am making $40. I'm not sure what to do about that. I just don't know that I feel comfortable charging $20/lb for chopped brisket, but I'd like to say $25/lb just to make it worth my effort. It was a lot more effort (mostly just all the chopping phase) than any single other item on the menu.
Honestly, the pulled pork was the way to go, from just a profit vs. cost/effort standpoint. The pork belly was pretty good, too, I sold 2½-3lb chunks for $25. Ribs, also $25/rack (only did one for sale). These are really easy, overall. The chicken, I told her $18, which I think in the end is probably pretty fair - I did a full spatchcock and removed most of the bones, including the lower ribcage and pelvis, the blade bones and wishbone. So I spent a good 15 minutes butchering and seasoning it up.
So I've learned a bit - I see if I am going to do this 'on the regular' I am definitely going to have to adjust some things. I can't count the times I've been told by someone I needed to open a restaurant or food truck - yeah, NO THANKS. But doing some cooking for large parties or doing some orders like this isn't too bad, as long as I don't undersell myself. People tend to say charge 3x your meat cost. Well, with pulled pork that works, I think. And at $12/lb I'm a little above that, but it worked out ok-ish I think. For brisket, if I charged 3x meat cost, that would be... $14.50/lb. Which is just about what I charged. But when you count the loss of trim, loss of moisture and chopping, etc., I will make $40 (ok $55 if you count my one leftover/holdback bag). I don't know that's really worth the effort, at least compared to the other items.
I'd love some feedback. I feel like going up in pricing is like... overselling myself. I don't think my food is THAT spectacular. I mean, it's good, and some is really good, but I also know I ain't paying $30/lb for cooked brisket, but I see restaurants doing it, and staying in business... so if I sell a bit lower, but not low enough to undercut myself... I just don't have much of a market. Just people at work at the moment - that might grow with word of mouth, I don't know. But I'm not sure I want it to be TOO busy. I don't think I want to give up EVERY Saturday and Sunday doing this stuff. But... honestly, with the crappy reimbursement and increased overhead at work, and with 2 kids to keep in spending money at college, I think I need all the help I can get. <sigh> At least this is something fun, and leaves me with food/meat left over.
Oh yeah... and I didn't eat. Just didn't feel like it, after sitting out in the heat and smoke all day long. That's a well-known issue for those of us used to smoking large amounts. But, that's ok, I ate breakfast, so I was good. Eggs and toast. Today I'll probably have some pulled pork or brisket sammiches.
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