Anyone have tips for how best to serve pulled pork or brisket, buffet style, to a large group of maybe 1-2 dozen people?
I've served pulled pork before in large serving dishes, but it cools off too quickly.
For my next large gathering where I'm serving Q, I'm thinking of buying either a slow cooker or a roaster oven like this one. I'm leaning toward a roaster oven because you can set the temps to a range from 150*-450*, so it seems more verstaile than a regular slow cooker. You can use a roaster oven to keep food hot during serving, you can use it as a slow cooker or as an oven. A disadvantage of slow cookers, as I see it, is that usually you can only set their temps to a generic "low," "medium" and "high," and I'd rather dial in an exact temperature.
Anyone have advice on how best to keep Q hot while serving buffet style? Does a slow cooker work just fine or would you recommend a roaster over or something else? Also, what size slow cooker or roaster oven would you recommend if you usually serve groups of about 1 dozen but occassionally serve up to two dozen people?
Also, I know for safety reasons that you're supposed to keep the meat at a holding temp of 160* when serving. Does that mean you need to set your roasting oven or slow cooker a little higher, maybe 175*, to maintain an internal meat temp of 160*?
And if anyone has any other advice for keeping meat hot during serving while making sure it doesn't get dried out, please share. For instance, I assume you should add apple juice or water to the bottom of the slow cooker or roaster oven to keep the meat moist. Is that right?
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