Cooking BBQ for a large group
I got your book today and read thru some of it. Im not sure how we are going to do it this year just yet. Problems are one we just have a commercial size grill we don’t have a smoker or anything like that. We are a non-profit city fire/rescue department and any money we do make off of this goes towards equipment or uniforms that the city will not pay for. We do not get to pick what kind of ribs we get the chamber of commerce sponsors this so they try and get the best price and wherever that may be is where the meat comes from. Each group gets 500 pounds of ribs and we start setting up that morning around 10 a.m. and have to have it ready to serve by 4;30 p.m. With 500 pounds and one commercial grill once they are cooked they go into either roasters or warmers. The first year when we got the meat it was suppose to be thawed and it was frozen and we were truly raw at it and the meat didn’t get done and was terrible. The 2nd year again most of the meat was frozen and we tried to use turkey fryers to boil them first then put them on the grill and again alot of them were not done all the way thru. Last year they were thawed and we boiled them the night before and then grilled them. I know in your book it talked about a glaze then bbq sauce but its the slow cooking that we really are not equipped to do with just a grill. To have them done by 4:30 is hard we are usually cooking till we are done which is usually around 7 p.m. The grill we use is a commercial charcoal grill but not really that big but its the only one we can find around here that we can use. If you have any helpful comments or suggestions please let me know and again thank you very much.
Marla
Napoleon Fire – Rescue
Comments
Marla:
I’ll tell you how to cook them, but first I have a few questions…
1) What kind of ribs are they… full racks of spareribs, St Louis cut spareribs, or baby backs (aka loin backs)?
2) What are the dimensions of your grill?
3) Is it just a grill with charcoal in the bottom where you grill over direct heat? No offset smokebox?
4) Important… what ribs are you being judged on? Are you judged by the people on all 500 lbs, or do you turn in only a few ribs in a box for judging?
Thanks,
Bill
Thanks Bill for getting back with me so quick
The ribs are full racks babyback ribs – at least that is what they call them. They usually get them from a local meat supply(basically whoever bids with the lowest bid is who we get the meat from) last year i think we paid right around $2 a pound. We have always in the past have had left overs basically as i have said because they just haven’t been that great. So we don’t make as much off of this as we could thats why this year we are really trying to go all out. We will be getting copies of the judges comments from last year but haven’t received them as of yet.
After we cook them and are ready to sell we sell them 3 rib sampler, half rack and full rack and then we also sell pulled pork.
The approximate dimensions of the grill is 6 feet long by 4 feet wide and it is just a charcoal grill over direct heat – No offset smokebox
As to judging last year was the first year we were judge by judges only – a panel of 6 judges the years before it was by judges and also by people. They have runners that come around and get 6 – 3 rib samplers from each group so how its going to be this year we haven’t been told yet. The judging has been different every year with different judges.
I hope this information helps because we need all the help we can get.
We are hoping to make enough this year to put towards a new what we call chase vehicle – its what us on call volunteers use to get to the scene of an accident or any emergency call. The city claims they can’t afford to help us out and the vehicle we are currently using is almost 12 years old and starting to fall apart. This rib fest is one of two main fund raisers we have so we are really hoping to sell out this year.
Again thank you so much for helping us out.
Marla
Marla:
OK… don’t know exactly what you mean by full racks of babybacks but I’ll assume it is NOT the full racks of spareribs which are much wider than baby backs or St Louis cut spares.
The reason I asked about the judging is because you could cook the judge’s ribs seperately and use all the proper techniques as stated in the book. You could use just a standard Weber kettle grill set up for offset smoking for this. Then just turn in the best ribs to the judges and give the other ribs to the people. They will both be good, but you will not be able to cook all 500 lbs competition quality.
Anyhow… here’s how to cook all those ribs in a manner that will be quick and light years ahead of what you did last year…
1) You’ll have to practice beforehand keeping your grill at 300 deg. Please tell me you at least have a lid on that grill otherwise this is going to be real hard. If you don’t have a lid, you’ll just have to grill them at 300 deg until they are done flipping them about every 15 minutes. It will be a lot harder that way and you will not be able to put as much meat on at one time. So the directions below assume you have a lid.
2) Just put enough coals in the bottom to keep it at 300 deg. Don’t use lighter fluid. Use a charcoal chimney with newspaper to start one or two chimneys and then sprinkle them on top of some unlit coals in the grill.
3) Each batch will take about 3-4 hours, so start ahead of time. You can store your finished ribs in a warm ice chest for many many hours. But remember – they will continue to cook in the ice chest, so add that time to your cooking time and maybe take the ribs off just a little bit early.
4) Apply a good rub to both sides of your ribs. You can use a store bought rub or make your own. Here’s a couple of recipes to start with. You don’t have to get fancy, but do include the main ingredients marked with a asterisk. Of course you’ll have to scale it up…
Basic Rub:
16 tsp brown sugar *
3 tsp salt *
1 tsp chili powder *
3 tsp sweet paprika *
½ tsp granulated garlic
½ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ tsp black pepper *
Rib Rub:
1 cup Granulated brown sugar
2 tsp white sugar
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp granulated onion
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Country Time Lemonade mix
5) Place your ribs on the grill bone side down. It’s Ok to overlap the ribs (about half way). You should be able to get 10 or more ribs in a column and 2-3 rows. Get as many as you can on there at once.
6) Close the lid and try not to open it again for 1.5 hours. You’ll need some ventilation of course or your fire will go out. Vents should be in the bottom of your grill and on the lid. Keep temp at 300 – add more coals as needed. You may want to practice this. Make sure the ribs are not burning on the bottom – you may need to flip more often.
7) After 1.5 hours, flip them over and turn them in such a way as to expose the parts covered by overlapping. Basically, you’ll be flipping and turning lengthwise.
9) When the meat starts pulling away from the bione ends, you know they are getting done. So take them off and throw them in the warm ice chest. 3 hours total cooking time per batch. If you don’t want them to cook much more in the chest, then crack it a bit and let the steam escape. Try to keep it at least 140 deg in the chest for safety reasons.
Start early and repeat 3-5 times.
Thanks,
Bill
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