Hallett 2021 - MEGA Grub Thread.... ITTTTTTTTSSSSSSS TIIIIMMMMMEEEE!!!!

[Crumpacker]

Now that my car can move under its own power, count us in - 2 Crumpackers + 2 friends. Planning to bring chips, popper dip & some cash.

[Sook]

Update from redshift/team space racing. Showing up Friday morning with RV and 5 folks in total. Looking forward to the thrash!

- Josh

[Supercharged111]

Now that my car can move under its own power

You too? Gotta love the last minute.

[Fbody383]

Aight... all over but the cryin', I mean smokin'.

Good news - I expect there will be a little pulled pork left over on Friday night, no promises, first come first served. And, you might not like it anyway.

Bad news - Sean is unable to attend, so... but my son is coming as newly promoted Asst. Head Smoker Assistant, so there's that.

Because Hallett, and the "defection" of several of the stalwart AI/CMC to AMCM, we're trying a joint Saturday dinner with AMCM. Some different people, slightly different vibe... until the brisket is sliced and beer is flowing. Feel free to give any feedback on how it works out. Or doesn't work out in your eyes.

See you guys Thu/Fri and we'll see if we're missing anything. Travel safe.

[Fbody383]

I'm sure everybody will take one last look... come chat with me in passing Friday morning but I think, based on all our prior events, we'll be good to go for Saturday night.

Going just a little light on ribs for Midnight Ribs so we might ration early... but better than tossing a bunch out.

[marshall_mosty]

I will have my oldest and middle boy is tow, so for just my part of the Mosty clan we are 3!
Will be shopping for bottom shelf cookies tomorrow morning!

[TJohnson]

Hello everyone

Looking forward to meeting you all. I think I met a few of you at COTA

Bringing a few of us ai guys down from central.

Guess we will be the meat in the middle of the stock cars and CMC cars.

See you soon.

Ted Johnson
Central Region AI Director

[Fbody383]

tl;dr - food successful, some rando's got in line early, let's make it better, gimme your $0.02. Or $20, your call.

RECAP

2 smokers/45-ish lbs. of pellets
30+ ish lbs of brisket
10 racks of ribs
4-5 recipes of Rub 2.0
5-6 bottles of BBQ sauce
6lbs of beans
Chips and dips out the wazoo
Buffalo chicken dip
Smoked Mac & Cheese
Jalapeno poppers
Nanner puddin'
Guac
Fruits 'n veggies
buns/bread/tortillas
cups/plates/napkins/plastic ware
60+ ish folks or so I believe
Crumpacker dip
Some ice cream
Some cobbler
Bottom Shelf Cookies
Greeen beans?
Numerous cash contributors

See, I lost track of the spread because there was a ton of it. Another Hallett dining experience success - but, please provide feedback, positive or negative. If you feel like you need to do it anonymously, that will be interesting but DM me if you don't want it public. It's all very much appreciated. Sean and I like doing it and greatly enjoy the fellowship of friends and family over some "potentially average" BBQ.

CONS
Let's call it the "can we make it better:"

Head count

We struggle a little with making sure we get the amounts close. You guys know Sean couldn't make it, and I made a conscious decision to try to shoot a little closer to the RSVP number, erring to the side of potentially "too little." What I believe happened is that we had some drive-by customers in line ahead of our group regulars.

PROS
RSVP
Participation - I think nearly everybody, that was not an invited guest, brought something
Almost enough

Let me be blunt - this was a bit of an experiment given the movement of several of the guys into AMCM. I thought the best thing for this Hallett was to coordinate the two groups given the nature of the event, and knowing it was a bit of an experiment and why I think the feedback is helpful.

Let's work backward - Midnight Ribs(tm) crushed it! 10 racks and barely teeny scraps left; folks were scraping up the leftovers. We did miss the labeling so for the scorecard some were Sticky Sweet/Sweet Heat and some straight up Sticky Sweet. There was a motion and a second to review (perhaps) when we eat those things since we lose people being so late. Express your thoughts on moving it up a bit.

Brisket - we put them on around 4pm on Friday evening. The BBQ Math says roughly 1.2 hours/lb. then allow 4-5 hours for resting. For those of you playing at home, the resting is the second most important part; cooking to 205F is the most. STUPID BRISKET. So both were done right around 7am Saturday morning. You did the quick math - they were wrapped in foil/towels in a cooler in the sun all day, 11 hours, and still almost too hot to handle when we sliced them.

Brisket 1 rated B-; arguable the lean end came up a little dry.
Brisket 2 rated A; potentially a little better. It was stupid good.

NEXT YEAR

So what's next? Oh yeah, I/we expect to plan on doing it again in 2022; I mean the raceport is already paid for. I think we could have easily eaten ~5lbs more brisket. I think we could have eaten 1, maybe 2 more racks of ribs. It was a combo in timing that the cobblers were done when they were. But all that includes some drive-bys that I will say were unaccounted for. Equipment wise we can do 3 briskets/10 racks of ribs. If we swap smokers we can do 4 brisket/12 ribs pretty easily. We have to go to 3 smokers to get much beyond that.

I don't want to literally issue tickets/wristband - but it would create some numbers certainty. I don't mind having a little leftover, but we've stranded a lot of food in the past. Let me know what you guys, rooks and vets, think about this. Especially the new guys - how did this work out for you?

I did have the thought that we could just prep up a whole brisket for the Hallett workers and staff. At least then it's known ahead of time that they have a slab of meat to allocate how they want.

That's enough for now.

[fscott]

Thank you for putting this together. I'm sure it was a ton of work, and I appreciate it.

[rleng1]

Great job Dave and Son. Delicious. I reduced the beans from 10# to 6#.
We should do our best on rsvp, then factor in contingencies (drive-by’s and Hallett crew). If the contingency is necessary, we have leftovers. I was stuffed and I appreciate you opening it up to guests.