Trimming meat for large group cook

Pig_Farmer

Pig_Farmer

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So, I am cooking some briskets and butts for a friend of mine. He is having a graduation party for his son. My question is, for those of you that cook for the masses, do you trim prior to cooking or trim after the cook? I took me 5 hours yesterday to trim and inject all the meat. 4 briskets and 7 butts. I'm not the fastest with a knife. I am used to trimming comp style but I didn't go that far with these. My son works for Rudy's BBQ, and he was saying that they don't trim until they are slicing the meat. looking for thoughts and advice for next large cook. Thanks
 
Pig_Farmer said:
So, I am cooking some briskets and butts for a friend of mine. He is having a graduation party for his son. My question is, for those of you that cook for the masses, do you trim prior to cooking or trim after the cook? I took me 5 hours yesterday to trim and inject all the meat. 4 briskets and 7 butts. I'm not the fastest with a knife. I am used to trimming comp style but I didn't go that far with these. My son works for Rudy's BBQ, and he was saying that they don't trim until they are slicing the meat. looking for thoughts and advice for next large cook. Thanks
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Wouldn’t that take all the bark off? I’ve got a big cook coming up soon and I’ll trim and inject the day before.
 
Pre trim, after a while you get really good at it but it can take some time. I trimmed 25 briskets a few weeks ago and it was my first cooking of the year and it took me 90 minutes to trim them. I started off slow being that I had not done it all winter then by the time I got to #20 I was a knife wielding brisket ninja. Did 25 the following weekend in less time but did not time it.
 
I'll start a day early if it's a lot of brisket. I don't trim pork butts at all and smoke them with the fat cap up. If I feel like I need more bark on the butts I'll cut them in half and get more surface area for the rub. If I'm being overly picky I'll trim a brisket in about ten minutes. On a normal day it's usually five to seven minutes per brisket.

My knife skills are lousy too. I'm generally happy if I still have all my fingers after trimming.
 
medic92 said:
I'll start a day early if it's a lot of brisket. I don't trim pork butts at all and smoke them with the fat cap up. If I feel like I need more bark on the butts I'll cut them in half and get more surface area for the rub. If I'm being overly picky I'll trim a brisket in about ten minutes. On a normal day it's usually five to seven minutes per brisket.

My knife skills are lousy too. I'm generally happy if I still have all my fingers after trimming.
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Will you also inject? I was able to get them trimmed with out drawing blood, too. :clap2:
 
I trim and inject the day before if i have time. Whole process takes 5-7 mins per brisket for me the way I trim for service. Trimming for a comp takes a lot longer.
 
Sounds to me, that I'm just slow with the knife. But I only do large cooks like that 3 or 4 times a year. On the bright side, everyone loved the food. And may get some more work out of it.
 
medic92 said:
I'll start a day early if it's a lot of brisket. I don't trim pork butts at all and smoke them with the fat cap up. If I feel like I need more bark on the butts I'll cut them in half and get more surface area for the rub. If I'm being overly picky I'll trim a brisket in about ten minutes. On a normal day it's usually five to seven minutes per brisket.

My knife skills are lousy too. I'm generally happy if I still have all my fingers after trimming.
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I don't trim butts either. I trimmed 5 briskets last week and it took about 2 hours. That was with trimming the silver skin. It was also me being in my home kitchen and my wife not wanting to get brisket blood everywhere so I was being extra cautious!
 
enorris116 said:
I don't trim butts either. I trimmed 5 briskets last week and it took about 2 hours. That was with trimming the silver skin. It was also me being in my home kitchen and my wife not wanting to get brisket blood everywhere so I was being extra cautious!
Click to expand...

Trimming brisket is kind of like my "Zen quiet time". I just get to work with it and go off in my own little world. Suddenly I'll look down and everything's trimmed and ready to go. I actually enjoy it.
 
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