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Barbecue Catering Tips - How To Prevent Sauce Messes

If you want to own an extremely successful business, then maybe you should think about a catering establishment.  Catering businesses are hired for all types of events, like weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and graduation parties.  Your catering business should stand out from the competition though, and offering barbeque is one way to do this.  Barbeque is typically one of the five most popular types of American food, especially in the southern states.  You do not want your guests to become messy when they eat your catering fare though.  The following tips will help to make sure that your events do not turn into a greasy and sauce filled nightmare.

Go For a Kansas City Style

Barbecue meat comes in a variety of styles, and typically most of the southern states have their own types of barbecue that they enjoy.  You can specialize your catering business by choosing a specific type of barbecue meat to offer, and Kansas City style is your best option.  Not only does this type of barbecue feature all kinds of meats like pork, chicken, turkey, beef, and sometimes even fish, but sauce is often placed on the meat after it is cooked.  Many Kansas City style barbecue restaurants provide patrons with a bottle of sauce on each table.  This means that guests at your events can add small amounts of barbecue sauce themselves and keep messes to a minimum.

Preparing the Barbecue

If you want to cook Kansas City style barbecue, then you will need to place a dry rub on the meat before you cook it.  To create your rub, mix together brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper.  These are the most common ingredients to create a rub.  Experiment with the measurements, but make sure that brown sugar makes up the majority of the rub base.  Also, be cautious with the chili powder and cayenne pepper, because these ingredients can make the rub quite spicy.

Once the rub is created, completely coat the outside of your meat with a thick layer of the spice mixture.  Kansas City barbecue is typically smoked, so you will need a smoker to partially cook your meat before catering events.  Charcoal smokers are the easiest to use, so think about buying a large trailer mounted smoker or a cabinet or barrel type of device.  Low heat is best when smoking, and make sure to smoke the meat somewhere between five and ten hours before the catering event so the meat is nice and tender.  Finish up cooking and warming the meat at the event on an outside grill.

Offer Wet Wipes

Even if you offer Kansas City type barbecue meats, some guests may go overboard on their own with the barbecue sauce.  To make sure that hands can be cleaned thoroughly and quickly, offer the guests disposable, wet hand wipes.  These sanitizing and cleaning wipes can be purchased in small single use packages, but forego these types of products.  Instead, look for wipes in large sealable packages.  This way, individuals can easily grab a wipe without struggling to open a small package with barbecue stained hands.  Place one large container on each table, or set several packages on your catering food table.  

When you do buy the hand wipes for guest use, just make sure to find varieties that are alcohol free.  Alcohol can dry out and irritate the skin.  Fragrance free options are best too, because some people are allergic to fragrances and direct contact can cause a rash.

You can find a great deal of success with your own catering business, and finding a niche market can make your business even more profitable. Barbecue catering is a wonderful idea, but you need to make sure that guests at the events do not end up wearing the barbecue sauce.


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