holding bbq for service

[ryangary]

I am thinking off buying a smoker to my restaurant and adding bbq to the menu. My question relates to holding bbq after it has been smoked and sliced(brisket),or pulled(pork), and ribs and pulled chicken. Is a hotbox the best way and how to avoid it from drying out, and how long will they hold. Also for ribs and half chicken is it best to grill or flash under a salamander. Any help appreciated.

[Suzanne]

I'm moving this to the Professional Chefs discussion, where someone who has already dealt with the issue can help you!

[cakerookie]

The secret to any good Barbecue is slow cooking, slower the better. We use to put the leftover pork in the cooler and re-heat it when we got ready to serve it agian. We cooked all our chicken and pork/hams over a gas fired pit. Hams usually took about 8 to 12 hours. We use half chickens and cooked them over the same gas fired pit. I think they took about 30 minutes to an hour depending on how many we put on the pit. We also cooked ribs the same way. Soaked them in a brine solution of salt water then put them on the pit to cook. We generally did not keep ribs long enough to have to store them for any length of time...I would grill the chicken.

[nowIamone]

I've got a Smoke Shack brand smoker. Althought we are primarily a steak house, the ribs are 20% of are dinner sales. We use a med. to lge size regular cut pork spare rib; season with a rub the night before and smoke at 225 for 3.5 hours. Then we hold them right in the smoker for up to 4 hours at 140. The smoker goes to this stage automatically. Works wonderfully, even if we have cut a slab, we return them in a pan to the smoker for holding. If we get backed up on product we simply reheat each serving in the micro at 50%. We serve four pcs per plate, taking a rib from the large end two from the center and a small rib or two. Serve the sauce on the side. Check with the manufacturer, see if they have a hold cycle on the unit.

[CrazyTATT]

This is a moment for the joys of the alto-sham, will not turn your smoked meat to crumble, and will hold all things right where you want em. Google beach bully virginia Beach. Afer all is said and done, it is the alto sham that is thier saving grace.

[foodpump]

Altoshaams with built-in smokers rock! That being said if you don't have the cash or power requirements for one of those puppies, you can hold the smoked goods in a Cambro. Cambros are great for this purpose, they don't dry out the meat like a heated and fan box does, perfect for moist meats and stuff like mashed potatoes. A Cambro is just a glorified thermos, airtight insulated box.

Smokers... I've seen all kinds. Very impressed with the Smoke shack model, but it is very expensive. I've worked with smokers made from high-school lockers, filing cabinets, basically any airtight box with a electric burner which a pan of wood chips rests on and slowly smolders.