Amerique warming/resting

I have found that, with my Amerique, it takes a long time for the temp to drop back down to 140. These things are so darned well insulated! If I need to hold for a relatively short time, I'll open the door until the temp drops to about 130 and then close it until I'm ready to serve. Even then, the temp usually goes up to about 150 or more. I take the meat out when I'm ready and slice, pull, whatever, and serve pretty much immediately. If I'm going to need to hold it for more than about an hour, I'll wrap it in foil, then wrap it in one or two towels, then place it in a cooler. Finally, I'll fill the cooler with towels, rags, etc. until the cooler is completely full. I have kept meat for 6 hours that way and it is so hot it will burn your hands when you take it out. It also makes the meat more tender and juicy.

I have also smoked up to 1000 chicken halves for our church in several smokers that are much larger than the Amerique. When I do this, I cook the chicken without any rub, brining, marinade or sauce. I make up a vinegar based sauce that I dip the chicken into only after they are fully cooked, as I'm taking them off the smoker. I immediately put the halves into a cooler without foil or towels. However, I fill the coolers completely full of chicken. We can open the coolers as much as 10 hours later and burn our eyes if we're not careful. Our tiny little church ALWAYS sells out all 1000 dinners by 10:00am whenever we do this.

Hope this helps,

Zimm,

Here is my $.02 Cents:

I don't "Rest" Ribs. Resting is very important in some cooking methods such as roasting. A prime rib will benefit from sitting for 30 minutes to an hour after cooking. The heat from roasting forces the juices inward, and resting allows the moisture to redistribute in the cell structure.

Resting a brisket allows it to stay within the temperature range where collagen breaks down contributing to tenderness.

IMO - Spareribs benefit from 20 minutes of resting uncovered at room temperature to make them easier to slice.

The Amerique hold mode is set to 140 degrees because that is the minimum hold temp to stay off bacterial growth (40 degrees to 140 degrees is the danger zone).

I have an Amerique as well, please try this technique: Rub Spareribs, turn smoker to 250 degrees for 6 hours with a few pieces of hickory. Start checking Ribs at 4 hours to see how they are doing, St Louis cut takes about 5 hours, 5-6 lb Full Spares can take 6 - 7 hours. When you can tear in the middle, pull and let rest at room temp for 20 minutes, slice and enjoy!

Works for me, although there are a thousand ways to do it!

Have fun, eat well!

David

Zimm,you may be trying to cover too many topics,under one post.

For folks cooking a couple slabs of ribs,the concern is usually how to serve them warm.

As mentioned,there is not a prescribed "resting period".

Most folks prefer to serve ribs,as soon after cooking,as possible.

Water steams off the meat,somewhere over 212º,so you don't get a great amount of damage down around 140º-150º,until you eat dinner.

Next hundred products you cook,may vary by cooking temp,serving temp,size of product,fat content,time needed to hold,time needed to serve,labor available,time to prep/pull/slice/chop/plate-serving needs at that time.

What I'm saying is there is no one size fits all in bbq.

Thanks for all your input so far.

So it sounds like you don't need to let ribs rest at all? Just server straight from the smoker?

That is always the preference.