This was for a daughter of a good friend of Hal's. Released from the Marines in Afghanistan to fight breast cancer.
Hal bought all the meat, and I helped him smoke it up and run pans in to the kids that were serving for the benefit.
They said plan for 250, so he bought twice as much meat. And 400 showed up!
16 pork butts, 36 racks of loin backs, and 35+ pounds of chicken parts in the freezer. Let's do it.
7AM Saturday morning, I get the chimneys started and back 'Blue October' out of his new home.
Some welding blankets for insulation. It was cool and VERY windy that morning.
Burning lump for BTUs, and the AMZN tube smoker for some flavor elements.
Many hours later..
We start pulling them off and getting them roughly pulled/chopped, then back into 2 and 3 pound foil packets.
We also prep 27 racks of ribs, stripping the membranes and slathering them up. No pics of that, as it was late and we were getting tired/grumpy.
Our mascot 'Moonpie' is ready to lead the charge!
Quick sleep, then up at 4-something to meet at the warehouse to load up. We roll in town (30 miles away) and get set up.
It's Veteran's Day, so we had to fly the colors..
We left Blue October at home to rest, and brought the Meat Monster.
Ribs are smoked, sliced into 2 bone portions, glazed and inside at this point. I should have got a picture as they were gorgeous.
We had 3 big steam table pans heaping full.. Good thing they had some ovens inside we could keep stuff warm in.
The crowds start rolling in. Serving time is 1PM sharp and we are steppin' and fetchin'..
By 1:30, the hall is packed and they are lining up around the perimeter and out the door.
2nd round of chicken is going. And a pile of hotdogs for the little kids. It's 2:30, and they've sold out of ribs already.
By 3PM, the ribs were gone, the white meat chicken was gone, as was 50 pound of pulled pork. We load up the trucks and get the h*ll out of dodge as a line of storms is coming. We left 20 pounds of pork with them for the live auction.
Big crowds and the benefit was a huge success.
A lot of work, but it was worth every ache and pain.
