Pic for attention.
Every year myself and a couple buddies smoke the meat and run the kitchen at a show with most money going to charities/missions. This year we smoked 8 briskets, 6 whole turkeys, 12 pork butts, and 20 lbs of sausage.
Due to time constraints and kitchen conflicts we start smoking Wednesday midday go all night and finish sometime Thursday afternoon. We then chop, slice, and shred all meats and refrigerate them to be reheated on Friday and Saturday.
We reheat the meat with the classic warmer trays where you put water underneath the pan.
Although we always sell out or close to it, and never have complaints. I feel the mest loses some quality being in the warmers for hours at a time.
I'm looking for better ways to reheat the meat and keep the quality good or is it possible to just keep the meat warm in an warming cabinet for 2 days? How do BBQ restaurants do it?
TLDR looking for best way to reheat large quantities of bbq.
by feelthemink
4 Comments
So long as the meat is kept above 140* it can be held that way for two days, but if it were me before I went that route, I’d try holding off on slicing and pulling until serving day. I think that’s where some of your quality is being lost.
so I own a food truck – and I don’t reheat.
We don’t have an oven – just a large smoker. To reheat is a ton of work between getting it down to temp/chopping it/storing it and getting it reheated back in time with quality. I’ve tried with entire briskets for the best results have been brisket in the freezer wrapped in paper and saran wrap until 40 degrees internal – then back in a oven at like 250 until 150 or so internal.
Food law around me says you have 4 hours to get it cooled to 40 degrees and 2 hours to reheat back to 165 but if you reheat it to say 150 and hold it there long enough it counts.
That being said – get a warming cabinent. If you finish everything the night before hold it through the night until the next day and serve. Do you second cook the next day and repeat. Never have to cool it down.
I normally cook ahead for big parties and vac seal is smaller portions. Sous vide for reheating to keep moisture and temperature controlled.
Here’s what I’ve done with huge success with the butts. It should work equally well with the other cuts. When you remove the meat, vacuum seal it. I have a vacuum chamber so this goes a bit easier for me, but you could make it work with an off the shelf unit like a foodsaver if you let it cool more to minimize moisture wicking. If the meat is still hot or warm, put the bags into a big cooler with an ice bath to chill. Then into the refrigerator.
To reheat, I use a big pot (basically a turkey fryer) and fill it with water that I bring to a boil then lower it to a simmer. The bags go into the water to reheat sous-vide. You can hold the meats this way without them drying out. As you need, pull a bag and prepare the meat for serving (pull the pork, slice the brisket, etc.) keeping them whole during the reheat is the best approach for me but if you wanted to save time you could pull or slice things before sealing.
This results in a served product that is for the most part exactly as it would be if you pulled the meat from resting in a cooler. You can scale this up by adding refrigeration and water baths basically to any size. Really helps with the logistics when you’re serving a crowd over a period of hours.