Selling smoked ribs - found it wasn't worth my time

[Vic.]

As a bit of fun last night I done a basic calculation on selling spare ribs on my smoker. It can hold 8 racks (approx 80 ribs), cost me 50p/rib and even if I sold them at £1/rib, I would only be making 25p/rib......the other 25p/rib is taken in by fuel and spices....

I was wandering how you guys who sell smoked stuff at shows etc, manage to make a profit?

[All Weather Griller]

I have had similiar thoughts on Time vs Effort vs Overheads vs Profit and just never bothered. I think the key is in economies of scale and yield.

A buddy of mine told me:

"You can figure on getting a yield of about 75% on butts. So, 20 uncooked pounds will yield about 15 cooked pounds. With whole chickens you only yield about 25%. So 20 pounds of uncooked chicken will yield 5 pounds of cooked chicken. Just take all of the side dishes into consideration and then plan accordingly. If you have a lot of side dishes you only need 5-7 ounces of meat per person. 3 good sized racks of ribs will feed 8-12 people

For a wedding of 100 I'm actually cooking about 27 lbs. of pork and 80 lbs. of chicken. The wedding is for 100. This will yield about 6 1/2 oz. per person."

[Vic.]

organised events like weddings etc seem to be the way to go, unless you charge higher prices to the general public at holiday events, etc.

I was only calculating ribs and theres not much profit from them.....need to invent a rib burger, but watch your teeth on the bone:lol:

[adm]

As a bit of fun last night I done a basic calculation on selling spare ribs on my smoker. It can hold 8 racks (approx 80 ribs), cost me 50p/rib and even if I sold them at £1/rib, I would only be making 25p/rib......the other 25p/rib is taken in by fuel and spices....

I was wandering how you guys who sell smoked stuff at shows etc, manage to make a profit?

How come the ribs cost you 50p each? That's a hellish expensive price for them......even Waitrose sell racks of ribs for about £2 a go - and they are cheaper than that from my local butcher.

Half a rack should be 6 ribs (or 7 from the smaller end) and I'd guess you could sell that for a fiver - so you should be able to turn a £4 profit on a half rack before you take time, effort, sides, fuel and equipment amortisation into account.

[Vic.]

I thought I was getting a reasonable price adm, these are meaty spares, around £2.80/kilo

[joker smoker]

none of the ribs that I've ever seen in supermarkets at around £2 a rack are worth cooking. you're just using up your rubs and fuel to cook and season a bunch of bones.

[Vic.]

A buddy of mine told me:

"You can figure on getting a yield of about 75% on butts. So, 20 uncooked pounds will yield about 15 cooked pounds. With whole chickens you only yield about 25%. So 20 pounds of uncooked chicken will yield 5 pounds of cooked chicken. Just take all of the side dishes into consideration and then plan accordingly. If you have a lot of side dishes you only need 5-7 ounces of meat per person. 3 good sized racks of ribs will feed 8-12 people

The filler, sides, baps and especialy the pork butt has to be on the menu. I would need to treat it like a chinese restaurant, 'starters, mains, etc'

[crphillips]

I bought my first ribs last week or so. 2 full racks of pork ribs from a quality local butcher with plenty of meat on them. Around 12 ribs per rack. £5.

[Vic.]

I bought my first ribs last week or so. 2 full racks of pork ribs from a quality local butcher with plenty of meat on them. Around 12 ribs per rack. £5.

I pay around £5.50 for meaty spares.......considering the last few are small I evened it up at 10/rack, 'cause if you throw in an extra rib to the customers they'll come back to you

[adm]

I thought I was getting a reasonable price adm, these are meaty spares, around £2.80/kilo

My missus came back from Waitrose on Saturday with four surprise racks of baby backs which averaged out about £2.20 a rack. They were surprisingly good - so much so that I'll stick them on the regular Ocado order. Plenty of meat for BBs and nice and fresh too. Too much packaging though - plastic wrapped and then vac packed on top.

Personally, I normally get untrimmed (and very meaty) spares from my local butcher. I've known him for 30 years or so, so I don't know what he charges me per kilo, but they're no more than a couple of quid a rack. Maybe he's just doing me a favour (as I do spend an awful lot of money there...) and if I wanted them in commercial volumes the price would go up.

I'd have thought for selling them commercially though, you'd want baby backs - it seems to me that that's what the general public would prefer for convenience sake (and probably thinks of when they think "ribs"). I like the untrimmed spares myself, but I can see that all the cartilage and extra fat might put joe public off.