Our cookers at work

[lakemirror]

Posted a note in the "low n slow" section about our annual Christmas bbq at work, thought I'd put vids of the cookers here instead, though.

We fed about 1000 people this year, up from 800 for the last few years.

Here are ribs on the cooker we call "Covert Ops". It is the first one we built, and has been modified several times. We are considering adding gas burners to this one as the next mod, though it will still be able to burn wood. The cooking surfaces are accessed from both sides. Each side has one large grate that slides out after opening the large sloping door above it. Fuel is added through access doors below the grates.



This one is called "Building 33", the largest of the four. It is not on wheels and must be moved with a forklift. It has several improvements over Covert Ops including being larger. It has three separate drawers on each side for loading meat, and you do not have to open the large sloping doors above to open the drawers.



Ribs coming off Building 33 and into styrofoam coolers lined with foil. Sauce is added and the meat sits in the coolers for about 5 hours before being served.



Chicken coming off of Building 33. We cook 1/2 chickens which we cut into quarters after cooking, drumsticks, breasts and thighs:



Sausage on Covert Ops. This is 1/2 the capacity of this grill as the other side is identical. This was about 5:30 in the morning, after the ribs and chicken were finished, so we were a little goofy by then hence the attempt at sausage sculpture:



A shovelful of hot oak coals from one of the burn barrels being loaded into one of the 6 access doors on Building 33. Fire in the hole!



Covert Ops in full smoke, burn barrel in background:



Building 33 in full smoke, my brother in law in the white shirt:



Finally, what it was all about. 1000 hungry folks for lunch. Most had finished eating by this point, you can hear the DJ calling ticket numbers for the door prizes and you can just barely see Father Christmas holding court in the rear of the warehouse building. A good time was had by all:

[All Weather Griller]

What a fantastic post!!!

Excellent

[MadCow]

Brilliant !!! The most people I've had to feed at a single sitting is 350 and that was hard enough ... looks like you did a great job!!

[British BBQ Society]

Thanks for the post, looks fantastic!