Timing

some places cook over- nite. some places cook for next day. i prefer the latter. imho, smoked meats are tastier after the have slept for a while in a nice cool place. so i cook wednesday's food on tuesday. simple.
a good friend of mine has a place with a rotiserie smoker which he loads at closing for the next day. personally, i just wouldn't sleep a wink, knowing i left a piece of equipment running....

where i work part time here is the way they do it.
pork collars- they go in frozen at 250 and cook to 155 internal
beef inside rounds- they go in defrosted at 275 and go to 140 internal
chicken and ribs- they go in at 275 but have pushed them at 300
turkey breast- presmoked jeenie-o's go into working line smoker at 225 for 90 mins and then backed down to 175 dial setting.
all meat is stored in the walk in overnite and reheated with the line smoker for the above 90 min times.
ok here is my opinion on this. the smokers are top of the line southern prides. the product would be much better if the temps were kept in the 200-225 range and left to smoke overnight. the yield would increase at least 5 to maybe 10%.
the problem is the help that is hired and that is certainly a function of the wage scale. i will say this the operation is successful with 3 resturants. ok all that being said here is what i do for MY weekend operation.
friday
9am-bring generators online and start prep
11am-picnics and brisket goes into the fec on smoke setting
3pm-fec goes to 180
5pm-fec goes to 225 and stays there
saturday
4am-normally at this time remote thermo shows 190 on picnics so out they come. at this time my cream gravy with brisket chunks go in
5.30am-brisket alarm goes off and out it comes
6am-peggy shows up with the truck.kill the gennies and load
7.15am-setup at the farmers market. fire the fec to 450 setting. set the sm150 cook temp to 200 for 60 mins and hold setting to 160.
7.45am-biscuits go into the fec for 20 mins. chicken goes in for about 45 mins.
8.30am-market is open
and this occurs every friday and saturday
but at least you have an idea of two totally different ways of doing things.
which is best???
only you can decide that.
but i will say i am like coffeebluff and my smoker never runs unattended so if you do it my way get a really good sleeping bag and an understanding wife
hope this helps some
jack
ps. another upside to my method is when you do competions you are already used to the time frames required and sleep deprivation presents no problems

"prisonchef313"
Any chance you could share your cream gravy and brisket chunk recipe ? It sounds delicious !

Thanks

bubbaq,
ok here goes
go to sam's club and get a #10 can of chefmate sausage gravy and a 36 count package of pillsbury biscuits (alternative is just make a a bechamel sauce and your own biscuits but this canned stuff is great)
take leftover beef brisket and cut it into 1/8" dice and add to the gravy. add salt and coarse ground black pepper and anything else you might like to the gravy.
i use a disposable 4" half pan for this.
i put it in the fec at 225 uncovered until 5.45 and then seal it up with aluminum foil for the towing.
pecan pellets seem to give the best taste with this although apple is nice also.
our current sales price on this is 4 bucks a serving and it is a good way to utilize leftovers.
jack
ps. almost forgot. it freezes well so if a #10 can is too big just take what you need and freeze the rest. the pillsbury biscuits come in a nice resealable pack so after a while you can just take what you need with you.
i know it sounds strange but we took it off our menu for 2 weeks and had to put it back on even in this heat down here

Thanks !!!
It sounds fantastic. Cannot wait to try it !

Thanks for the repsonses!

Coffeebluffbbq:
I guess I figured that it might "lose something" by sitting overnight & reheating. I guess you're saying the opposite is true.

Prisonchef313:
Thanks for your lengthy reply. I appreciate it. I could see the whole sleep deprivation thing for one time events (competitions/catering). But I couldn't see anyone wanting to do that day after day in a restaurant. I figured there must be an easier way. If I'm reading your response correctly, the restaurant you work at is similar to coffeebluff in that it cooks the meat, stores it in the walk in, then reheats in the line smoker. I guess that's the norm for restaurants and makes a whole lot more sense than someone tending the smoker overnight every night.

Thanks again,
Bob

fatbob,
if i ever am fortunate enough to own my own resturant here is what i would do (and i have given it much thought)
1- i would have an sm200 series in addition to the fec100 and sm150 that would come out of the competition rig.
2- both units would go under a hood system which utilized haylon as the fire suppressor agent as it is my understanding that haylon is safe for electronics.
3- briskets and butts (or in my case picnics just cause i like their taste better) would go in the sm units.
4- sm units would utilize bbqrs delight pellets in foil packs
5- i would set the sm to the settings that i found matched the product that comes out of my fec and i would go home at night.
6- fec would be used for biscuits and ribs and chicken and those would been done when i come in in the morning. reason for this is the 400+ that would be used for biscuits and chicken and then back and bleed off the temp down to 250 for the ribs.

and that's how i'd do her.

by the way thanks for your original question. it made me go back and reverify my notes and thoughts and i appreciate you for that
jack