skay99

When you eat at a BBQ restaurant what is more important to you...tenderness or smoke flavor? I ask because a lot of BBQ joints in my area wrap their butts and briskets in foil and then hold them at temp in a warming cabinet. But it seems to me that the condensation created inside the foil waters down the smoke flavor in the meat but the meat is so tender and juicy. I'm just curious as to what others feel.

That was a very interesting article. I will certainly experiment with the cellophane while holding in a hot holding cabinet. I don't know how I feel about losing the crispy bark on the outside but having juicy/tender meat might be worth the tradeoff. I appreciate your response.

Thanks for the response. You confirmed what I had assumed but wanted someone to reassure me on. The whole reason I ask is because the bbq joint I worked at as a teenager only did a single smoke(overnight) and then served that stuff right out of the smoker all day and into the evening. Even as a teenager I realized that any meat that had sat for 10 hours after it was done was not a quality product. I felt sorry for the customers that ate at the restaurant after 6pm because the meat was just not as good as it was at 2pm. So my goal is to do two main smoking sessions for my longer cooking items like pork butt and brisket(one for lunch and one for dinner) and have the meats holding no longer then 5 hours. Any meat leftover gets put into beans and brunswick stew. So I'll pull from the smoker at approximatly 10am and 4pm.

I am opening a BBQ restaurant. What is the best equipment setup for holding meat(pork, brisket, chicken, ribs, etc.) once they have been taken out of the smoker? More specifically is it better to have two smokers(one for smoking and one from holding) or can I utilize a single smoker and a few hot holding cabinets? Is the heat in a hot holding cabinet going to dry out the meats any faster then a smoker would? Hot holding cabinets are much less expensive so thats why I am seeing if I can take that route. Unfortunatly I can't use just one smoker for both cooking and holding because as the lunch meats come out of the smoker the dinner meats need to go right in.