OT Scaling up the BBQ operation.

I've done fairly well with my BBQ team so far, we are planing on scaling up this year, have a new smoker/trailer we might have done by June, entered 2 more competitions. This turns out to be a bit of a logistical nightmare. My cousin is looking to sell his sauce, it might well be a core of our success. Selling BBQ sauce across state lines, in fact even with in them, is pretty tricky, big wad of cash and a lawyer aside. It's not legal for me to simply have him whip up a batch, and mail it off to whomever wants to buy it, in all reality, it's probably illegal to serve at an out-of-state, state fair.

My states "cottage food laws" don't permit "sauce", and prohibit internet sale (Trying to protect that week tomato broth they serve on the left side of the state?) . I might be able to find a work around for a while, by selling rub, (which is allowed) that comes with a free jar of sauce, labeled "not for human consumption" till things scale up further, but that's NOT the way to get your name out there.

To do this legally, it looks like I might have to form an LLC, and find a commercial kitchen for him to work in (is a bar kitchen good enough ) and if it scales up from there, where do you go? Let someone else cook it and put it in bottle for you, my cousin seems determined that he is going to hand bottle, batch label, and sign every bottle.

I've heard talk around hear about wishing you just had hot-dog cart, is it even worth trying to do this as more than hobby, I've never won more than I put into getting there and back, a blue ribbon is barely worth the gas. The risk of getting sued over a bad batch that got out, the entry fees and shear quantity you have to buy and produce at a "sanctioned event" damn near require sponsorships.

I can't imagine there isn't another machinist out there who's thought he had a good enough BBQ, or likes, to sell. What happened when you tried?

If you sell it you probably have to have it tested and label it for calories, fat, sugar etc.
Bill D.

I believe I read somewhere that nutritional information is all based on quantities of ingredients used (and the results of prior testing done on these ingredients) rather than testing of the final product.


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How about selling a sauce kit, bottle with your nice label, packet of dry spices, and instructions to add so much vinegar, water, etc?

I use a Weber Smokey Mountain and a Stoker.

I like KC style sauce, and when I use it my daughter makes it for me. KC style, i.e., with a tad of vinegar.

Well, I got a temporary website set up for the bbq team.

Home

I know it needs work, I'll get there, I'm a computer nerd. Great domain length though, if things don't work out, I could compete with bitly!

iMillJoe said:

Well, I got a temporary website set up for the bbq team.

Home

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Typo:

[FONT=tahoma, geneva, sans-serif]know should be known

That is somefine looking BBQ on the skewer, maybe KaBobBQ
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iMillJoe said:

To do this legally, it looks like I might have to form an LLC, and find a commercial kitchen for him to work in (is a bar kitchen good enough ) and if it scales up from there, where do you go? Let someone else cook it and put it in bottle for you, my cousin seems determined that he is going to hand bottle, batch label, and sign every bottle.

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All you need to make your certified sauce is one of these in your county or state. This facility is there for people like you who need an inspected commercial kitchen to make a value added food product for the marketplace. Theirs is so active it pays its own way without need for supplemental County funding.
Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center
Piedmont Food and Agricultural Processing Center
The Piedmont Food and Processing Center (PFAP), is a place for new & existing small food-businesses to get started and grow in North Carolina's Piedmont. PFAP's mission is to...
Improve the local agricultural economy by enabling farmers & entrepreneurs to start and grow agricultural product businesses. To achieve this PFAP attempts to provide...

• Access to a regulatory compliant production facility without major capital investment.
• Increased knowledge on how to launch and operate an agricultural products business.
• Enhanced access to the marketplace and industry resources.
• Industry knowledge, experience, and know-how.
• Opportunities to network and build collaborative relationships.

You have a recipe? It works? Whitfield Foods in Montgomery , Alabama can make it, package it and maybe help market it.

tdmidget said:

You have a recipe? It works? Whitfield Foods in Montgomery , Alabama can make it, package it and maybe help market it.

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IMHO, this is likely the best route. There are numerous packagers out there that will do the same thing.

If your brother insists on "signing every bottle", maybe instead you can convince him to include in his packaging a "slip" that is either attached to the bottle or included in the package somehow. This way he can sign every "slip" and still have a real ink-pen signature that gives it that "hand crafted, a real person handled this and took the care to sign it" appearance.

I envision a nice bottle, with a heavy card-stock slip with a message that says something to the affect of "Thank for buying Jim Bob's handcrafted WOWSER SAUCE, Sincerely, [Jim Bob's Signature]" The card can then be tied on with a piece of "rustic" looking twine to give an authentic "feel" to the sauce.

The tag wouldn't eve have to be tied on (that would likely add significant packing charges if you have the packer do it. Instead, your brother could just tie a loop of twine on the tags, send them to the packer and they simply just drop a loop of twine (with tag attached) over the neck of each bottle.

I know that all sounds like a lot of BS, but these days BS sells, and sales mean profit, profit means food on the table and a roof over your head.

Any ideas on how to best measure viscosity, at bottling temp?

iMillJoe said:

Any ideas on how to best measure viscosity, at bottling temp?

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They make viscosity cups for paint, but they don't read in centipoises. The cup manufacturer may be able to convert seconds to centipoises.

steve45 said:

They make viscosity cups for paint, but they don't read in centipoises. The cup manufacturer may be able to convert seconds to centipoises.

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In all my years, being as near a metrologist as machinist must become: That measurement, (and it annunciation) is a new one by me.

Is that word even legal to say on national TV?

Good luck. In Massachusetts home kitchens that want to sell their products start with the local Board of Health, then get referred up the chain to the state Department of Health. The Feds don't seem to care until interstate shipping becomes involved.

Out Town Board of Health is near-fascistic. A few attempts to start farmers' markets have foundered because of them. We have both Town and State Agricultural Commissions that try to help (Agricultural Commissions are not enforcement agencies, they try to assist farmers), but this state allows Towns to impose stricter requirements than the state demands. Which in this Town means only produce for sale, but nothing made from that produce-- you can sell strawberries, but not strawberry jam.

I agree with the above commenters about giving up some control and doing a deal with a larger company already in the business who knows the permit jungle.