Food Safety Storage Question For 2 Day Event

[masque13]

hell fellow brethren!

this coming weekend we are doing 2 contests in one weekend. So we will have our normal load in on Friday, 1st contest will have turn ins on Saturday like always, then the 2nd contest will have turn ins on Sunday at normal times.

We are still old school and store all of our meats in coolers. My teammate sometimes thinks I go overboard trying to ensure maximum coldness on the meats etc. Im not saying he doesn't care, he does very much, but he just thinks I take it further than it needs to go.....lol....I probably do worry more than I should but I figure this is a pretty good subject to worry about

anyway, in thinking about the math on all of this I have some concerns and wanted to get some advice from you fine folks on here.

my comp meats other than chicken are currently thawing in the fridge now with the idea that they will be fully thawed on Thursday for us to trim and get them ready for the comps. My initial hope was to buy chicken Thursday afternoon and go from there.....here's what i'm thinking;

#1 trim both baskets on Thursday.......I don't really have many worries about storing the 2nd brisket until it's time to cook it on Sunday. Yes or no? I prefer to not trim at the contest site as we do not have a climatized area to trim in and it's gonna be hot at the contest....I don't want to expose the meats to those temps while trying to trim there.

#2 butts.....we plan to do 3 at each comp.....I have no worries for the first three for Saturday......do you guys see any concern for trimming out the 2nd 3 on Thursday that won't be cooked until Sunday morning?

#3 ribs......we're cooking 4 for racks for each contest.....once again, no worries for 1st comp. I don't know why but I don't have a lot of worries for them with the 2nd comp.....should I? I bought Smithfield ET's and they have a sticker on them that says "use or freeze by 7/21" which shocked me because of how far out that date was. That doesn't seem possible to me and I'm wondering if somebody placed the wrong sticker on there??? anyway, my thoughts have little to do with the sticker, just sharing what happened.

#4 chicken......this is where I get real nervous. we will likely do legs. I'm ok with trimming on Thursday and cooking the first batch on Saturday for the 1st contest. But I start getting nervous about buying chicken on Thursday and trimming it and then not cooking it until Sunday morning while trying to keep it cool in a cooler from Thursday night until Sunday morning in near 90 degree heat. If you guys agree, then what would be some feasible options?

***Lastly, I also worry about the disruption the meat inspection will cause to my perfectly packed cooler. my perfect setup is to keep both days meats in one cooler......when the meat inspection comes that will certainly provide a topsy turvy situation with the meat being no longer as packed as tight in the cooler after inspection....i've never done a 2 day event......do the reps check both meats for both days when you show up? or do they do the sunday contest inspection on Saturday afternoon? reason I am asking is because I may try to do 2 different coolers for the meats, 1 for each day.

I've read with multiple sources that storing raw pork you should cook within 3-4 day and 1-2 days with poultry. do you guys go by those standards?

thanks in advance for your help!!!!

 

[Bigwhipple]

We do the double in Shawnee, OK every year and pack both days into one cooler.

I trim on Tuesday (trash runs on Wednesday), vacuum seal everything and place in fridge until we pack the cooler.

We use a Yeti clone (Palm) and lay down a layer of ice, then the 2nd day's meats, another layer of ice, the 1st day's meats, then another layer of ice. By layering it like that, we do not disturb the 2nd day meats when the 1st day inspections happen.

It has worked well for us.

 

[Ron_L]

We’ve done a bunch of doubles, including two this year, one with 100 degree+ head indices and have never had an issue. I trim on Wednesday (trash pickup on Thursday). We don’t have Yeti (or clone) coolers, but a regular old Igloo :-D. I load it with three 20 pound bags of ice on Friday morning and replenish as needed on Saturday afternoon.

If your double is like ours, the reps will inspect all meat on Friday since they have no way of know which you will use for the first comp, and then reinspect the remaining meat on Saturday. As far as messing up your neatly packed cooler, wouldn’t that happen for a single comp as well? Just make it easy to get to the meat for the first inspection and then repack as best you can to keep everything cold.

If you are really concerned you can get an IR thermometer for under $50 and use that to check the cooler temp.

 

[masque13]

As far as messing up your neatly packed cooler, wouldn’t that happen for a single comp as well? Just make it easy to get to the meat for the first inspection and then repack as best you can to keep everything cold.

If you are really concerned you can get an IR thermometer for under $50 and use that to check the cooler temp.

yes it does mess up the packing....but since I am cooking that stuff a little later it doesnt bother me as much....lol'

the reason in my mind it bothers to think about now, is because I think I am already pushing the limit of holding the raw meat, especially chicken, from Thursday night until Sunday, instead of Saturday.

 

[Ron_L]

the reason in my mind it bothers to think about now, is because I think I am already pushing the limit of holding the raw meat, especially chicken, from Thursday night until Sunday, instead of Saturday.

You could always freeze the Sunday chicken and pack it into the cooler frozen. It will likely thaw before you need it. If not, you can that it on site.

 

[masque13]

yeh that is kind of where I am leaning at this point.....buy all the chicken on Thursday after work, trim and place the saturday chicken in the cooler like always and then freeze the sunday chicken overnight and throw in the cooler on friday morning and let it thaw out over the weekend.....if not completely thawed out sunday morning it should be close and i can finish it off with soaking it in some water since i will be cooking it shortly after it thaws.

either that or wait and buy some more chicken on saturday afternoon after the first comp is over, assuming I can find it.

 

[gettinbasted]

You’ll be fine. I’m buying today for a double this weekend.
Buy fresh meat and it will easily last 1-2 weeks.
The chicken I buy has a use by date on the case of about 2 weeks out from the pack date.
Reason #1 to know your butcher.

 

[Nordy]

Your teammate is right... quit worrying so much. Keep things cold. Trim whenever is convenient this week. That being said I always vaccum seal or package trimmed meat separately (except chicken)... that way one bad butt doesnt ruin them all...

 

[ewatts2003]

I trimmed everything on Wednesday night for a Saturday comp so it wouldn't be any different than you trimming on Thursday night for a Sunday comp.

As far as the cooler packing I figured out one thing over the weekend that I will change in future comps. I dumped 40 lbs of ice in the cooler, put the meats in, and put 40 lbs of ice on top. All fine and dandy until inspection is done and then it is impossible to get them back in the same spots. Next comp I will do the 40 lbs on the bottom again, but the ice on top I will keep in the bags instead of dumping out. When the inspection time comes pull the bags off, put the meats back in, put the bags back on top.

 

[masque13]

^ good ide!

 

[bpeyton89]

As others have said I think you're stressing over nothing. meat will stay plenty cold and fresh. Keep plenty of ice on it.

 

[ynotfehc]

As long as it is in ice, it is cold enough. No need to freeze anything, just make sure you dont run out of ice. There is a reason refrigerators used to be called iceboxes...Whenever I do a double, Im more worried if I packed enough beer, not ice.

 

[Mac Attack BBQ]

I've done many doubles. I treat my day 1 meats exactly as I do my day 2 meats. They get pulled from the freezer at the same time, both get trimmed at the same time, and occupy the same cooler. Ribs, brisket, and pork (for both days) are removed from the freezer the Saturday before and placed in the fridge and it is ready to trim on Friday; I trim at the contest, so my meat remains in the cryo until I crack it on Friday. Chicken is trimmed about 4 months in advance, vac sealed, and frozen. That is pulled out on Tuesday (again, both day's chicken) and is ready to go on Friday afternoon.

Never had an issue, and really never thought about it.

 

[masque13]

Thanks for the input everyone!