The OOEE To Master, First!

Why You'll Need to Start With Real Barbecue (People Expect it!)

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With any Outrageous Outdoor Eating Event (OOEE), the entertainer / host selects a theme. For instance, we recently tested out our Buccaneers’ Smorgasbord theme which is a fun journey to Port Royale, Jamaica during the golden years of pirating in the Caribbean from 1650 to the 1730’s. This theme has a set menu (Chicken, Ribs and Shrimp) and other fun add-on amenities from music to games and professional entertainment.

For your initial OOEE theming experience, I want you to create a theme which has, at the core, a “real” barbecuing food orientation, which means “low and slow” where smoke transforms tough cuts of meats into tender delicacies. Enter, the lowly, but great tasting, Boston Butt (the shoulder section of the butchered hog). It’s priced reasonably to feed large crowds and they will go wild, I promise you that if you employ “low & slow” cooking correctly.

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The Real BBQ / OOEE Theme

The possible themes for a real barbecue OOEE are many. But in my mind a country farming theme is a good fit as well as western farming/ ranching / cowboy and cowgirl types of themes. Other themes with a similar appeal include a music-oriented country hoe-down[1] or a country bluegrass theme[2].

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The Heat Sources

The ideal type of heat source for a real barbecue OOEE (i.e. the heat source used to cook the pork ribs, pork shoulder and the brisket of beef) is the slow smoker. This type of unit can be fired with wood, charcoal, natural or Liquid Propane (LP) gas, or electricity. I am partial to electric-fired slow smokers due to a number of reasons. The first reason is because you can set them and (almost) forget them for the long cooking durations that are required for the pork ribs, pork shoulder and beef brisket![3] Pork ribs require an approximate time of three (3) hours of smoking, a pork shoulder between twelve to thirteen (12-13) hours and a beef brisket about ten (10) hours.[4]