Clear Blue Smoke
I have had quite a week. The PTA had me cater their annual fund-raiser. Last year was not exactly a success, So they gave me and my kids a chance to provide the meal. We settled on a plate of brisket, sausage. rice, beans and potato salad for 450 people. Sorry but I did not get any pictures of us in action or any of the plates, but I did get a few of the briskets. I ran to Restaurant Depot Monday morning before school and picked up 267 lbs of superior Angus choice beef. The briskets looked excellent. I also got the fixings for 80 lbs of mexican rice, 75 lbs of ranchero beans and 150 lbs of potato salad. I also got the usual fixings to go along with the plate, jalapenos, onions. pickles, bbq sauce and ice tea.
I got the briskets back to school and showed the kids how to trim them up then we seasoned them with kosher salt, ground pepper and the Big Ron’s original after I did one I let the kids take over and do the rest. We wrapped them up and put them in the cooler for cooking the next day. Tuesday morning I got the pit to school about 4:30 and started the fire. The some of the kids got there about 6:30 and helped load the pit. I ran the fire a little hotter than usual and hotter than I like. We kept the pit somewhere between 275 and 300. The briskets were big and I did not want to spend the day and night up at school. Some of the smaller briskets were ready after about 9:00 hours, the others were ready about 2 hours later. We wrapped them up and put them in an ice bath to cool down, then into the frig. During the day when the pit was running we cooked the potatoes and diced them up. mixed them with my sauce and cooled them in ice baths and put them in the refrigerator. Wednesday we started off prepping the rice and slicing the briskets. The rice was browned and the onions and peppers were sautéed, seasonings were bagged and everything was placed in the cooler. We also prepped everything for the ranchero beans. This ended Wednesday and we were on schedule. Thursday started quickly, we got chaffing dishes ready all plates and cutlery packs, cups, sweet and unsweet tea was made. The beans went on at high noon, rice in th oven at 1:00, kiolbasa links went in the smoker at 3:oo. The briskets were wrapped in foil along with some broth and put in the oven for reheating. At 4:30 we started loading my cargo trailer and just after 5:00 we loaded the bus, headed to the Boggess Center for the Founders Day Banquette. After arriving we quickly unloaded and set up two serving lines on each side of the venue. We started serving at 6:15 and at 6:43 we had served everyone. Last year the place that catered it took over 2 hours to serve everyone, so they were extremely happy with us. Looks like we have a job for next year.
Fine looking briskets
Trimming up the first brisket
Adding the Big Ron's Original
The kids rubbing a brisket
Briskets loaded on the pit
Looking good and ready to come off
Texas Style Cuisine 