Smell Whats Cookin'

02/01/2025

Uggg. Opened walk-in cooler today and found it not working. 9 briskets at 180lbs total in the trash. Just checked it a couple days ago and was working fine. Time to buy one of the thermometer that will contact you when temp changes. My bad for not staying on top of it. Kick self in butt. This makes a grown man want to cry. Guess I will have to go buy a brisket for this week's cook.

01/23/2025

It has been quiet since the first of the year around here. Have had some below temps and snow. I have my trailer shut down cause of the cold. Don't need everything freezing up. I do have a small cook tomorrow for a family friend. We also have a couple coming up with new customers. Looking forward to doing them. Maybe it will warm up some and will get things fired up and going. Hope everyone is have a good year so far, even though it is flying by. Until next time can you Smell Whats Cookin'.

01/12/2025

Time to put this out there again. Pricing Brisket.

$4.18 a pound
15lbs brisket
Price for brisket $62.70
Trim Fat loose 6lbs
Now brisket weighs 9lbs
Cook brisket after shrinkage and weight loss now weighs in at
5.25lbs
Now take 62.70 Divided by 5.25lbs
That brisket now cost $11.94 a pound.
Take that times 3 that equals $35.82 a lb. is what I should charge to make ends meet at the end of the year. The first times is your cost of meat, The second times is your overhead cost of supplies to cook that brisket, and pay your help. The third times is what you hope to make for profit so you can restock your supplies.
You loose 65% of that brisket to trimming and shrinkage. If you want I can serve you lots of fat but I don't do that. I figure if you pay me for a sandwich I am going to serve you meat. I am just throwing this out there. If there is people in this area that would play $35.00 a pound for brisket or $12.00 for a brisket sandwich. I don't think there is in my area. But things have to change in order for me to keep going. With these prices going up. In order for us little guys to survive we going to have to raise prices. Let me know in the comments of what you customers say about this. Right now, I charge $25.00 a pound for brisket and that is just to break even. Thanks everyone. It's tough out there and I hope it gets better soon.

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01/10/2025

Ug, I can't believe I fell for this email I just received yesterday. It looked legit when I first read it. So I sent a quote to them and they replied back. Saying there decorator wouldn't accept payment so they was going to send me the money to pay the decorator. That is when I knew this wasn't a legit dealings. He also said he was a sailor and was going to have his buddy come by and pick it up. DING, DING, DIng, red flag goes up. I told the guy in my reply that I do not accept card payments either and I wasn't going to pay his decorator. Told him that was for him to do and that I also booked another event for the day of his and I wouldn't be able to do it. This is the first one I have fell for. I have received them before but knew they wasn't legit. Be careful out there everyone they are back at it again. All my Catering and vending buddies out there be on the alert for these things again.

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01/05/2025

Thought I would share this. This guy here is the one that taught me a thing or two about BBQ. His name is Kelly Wertz of 4 Legs Up BBQ. I went to a county fair bbq contest back a few years ago when I was starting out. We won the grand champion at that contest and the prize was a bbq class from 4 Legs Up BBQ. I learned a lot from this class. I might also add he is a former winner of The Jack. Which is the world championship of BBQ. He has won numerous awards at contest. I can say I beat him once at a contest in brisket. It happened right after I took his class. There was 56 other teams at it. The contest was Winter Q. That was a fun one for us. I was working out of a tent at that time. It took place in February and it was like 7 degrees that night. I want to say Thank You to him for sharing his knowledge with me. This award of being inducted into the BBQ Hall of Fame is well deserved. Congrats Kelly.

01/04/2025

There was a nice little crowd tonight. They said some of their people left early. They were from the eastern part of the state to beat the storm coming in tomorrow. Stanion Wholesale has a very nice new building. Told them they were going to get lost in it compared to their old building. Everyone was really happy with what I served them. We served brisket, pulled pork, cheesy potatoes and baked beans. They have some leftovers to eat tomorrow. We have some cold weather coming in now. This is probably my last gig for a bit. Don't need to freeze everything up in my trailer. Will drain everything tomorrow. Until next time can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

01/03/2025

Ok Stanion Wholesale Electric. Here is a look at what is coming to make your belly happy later. They are cooking along nicely. Can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

01/01/2025

I hope everyone had a great New Year last night. I fell asleep in my chair about 10:30 and got up and went to bed at 12:30. Just wanted to say THANK YOU to our customers for this past year. We picked up several new events last year. We had a few more catering jobs also. The pics are from a few of my memories this past year. I enjoyed every one of the events we did. We met so many new customers and also enjoyed all of our regular customers. We have a busy 2025 already. Looking forward to it. If you ever need some award winning BBQ and sides please reach out to us for a quote. Also follow this page to see where we will be at. Who knows we may be at a town close to you. I hope everyone has a great 2025. Keep yer nose to the wind cause you never know what you might Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/28/2024

Well I am jumping up and down. Went to Garden this morning to get supplies. Thought I was going to be off for a bit but that not happening. Got a phone call from a new customer and is going to do a catering job for them. These briskets out of 3 boxes average weight is 18lbs. The biggest one is 22lbs. Wished I had these for my Christmas cook. The new customer is going to be Stanion Wholesale. They have built them a new building and I am going to feed all the people that help made this possible for them. Excited about doing this. The neighborhood will be smelling again next Friday. Until then can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/25/2024

I want to say Thank You to everyone that ordered meats from me today. I hope I made it a little easier for you. This was my last cook for the year. I am out of everything now, including my hardwood charcoal. My plan is to get some items repaired on my trailer while I am off. Again Thank You everyone and hope you had a Merry Christmas. Until next time keep yer nose to the wind because you never know what you might Smell Whats Cookin'.

12/25/2024

Here is one of my prime ribs. Cooked to 127. Now time for it to sit on the counter and stabilize some. The residual cooking it is going to do. Have briskets done and pork butts. Waiting on hams now. Can you Smell Whats Cookin'.

12/25/2024

Early load on. 14 briskets and 4 pork butts. Later on tonight the other smoker gets fired up for prime ribs and hams. Michelle Lampe and Tony Lampe it will be heading your way now. Can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/24/2024

Busy last two nights after work. 14 brisket, 4 prime ribs, 4 pork butts, 2 hams and 2 pans of cheesy potatoes trimmed and seasoned. All this will be hitting the smoker Christmas eve evening. Some of the briskets had to trim different cause they were little 10lb ones. That is another post on those. Not going to change the way I cook them. Fingers crossed they come out good. I have too many people depending on me for their Christmas meals. If I don't get to post again, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/22/2024

Had a busy weekend again. Have things cleaned up for now. Getting ready to make a mess again. Have 16 briskets, 4 pork butts, 4 prime ribs and 2 hams to get ready for Tuesday nights cook for Christmas day. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/17/2024

Sorry I didn't get any pictures last night. I believe the Senior Center event last night was a success. How did I tell, there wasn't much talking going on while they were eating. I enjoyed the evening with all of them. Kind of off tonight but have to get things ready for tomorrow night's Spearville Library Christmas party. Looking forward to that one also. Then I will get one day of rest then at it again this weekend. Until next time can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/16/2024

Spearville Senior center the brisket has hot the smoke bath. See you in 9 hours. Can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/15/2024

Nice way to end the day of cooking and prepping for tomorrow. Can you Smell Whats Cookin' .

12/15/2024

Steaks done for catering job number 2. Was an awesome night to be doing this. Decent temp, no wind and a full moon out. I enjoyed doing this for Ford County State Bank again. Thank you. Will have smoker going tomorrow for some pork butts. Then again on Monday for the senior center Christmas party. Busy time of year. Can you Smell Whats Cookin' .