Got a call last month from a caterer down near Beaumont who wanted to talk about potatoes. Specifically, he wanted to know if I thought he was crazy for building half his new menu around stuffed smoked potatoes instead of adding another brisket option.
I told him he wasn't crazy. I told him he might be onto something.
The Potato Thing Isn't Going Away
I've been watching menus shift for about three years now. The big proteins still anchor everything—brisket, pork shoulder, ribs—but the sides and the "extras" are where operators are finding margin. And stuffed potatoes, done right in a commercial smoker, are one of the better plays I've seen.
Here's why it works from an operational standpoint. You're looking at roughly $0.38 per pound for russets at food service pricing. Maybe $0.45 if you're buying the big bakers. Compare that to choice brisket running somewhere around $4.80 per pound right now, and you start to see the math.
A loaded smoked potato with pulled pork, cheese, and fixings can hit a menu at $12-14. Your food cost on that item sits around 22-24% if you're using trim pork from shoulders you're already smoking. That's better than most protein-forward plates.
But here's where most operators mess it up: they try to smoke potatoes like they smoke meat.
Potatoes want higher heat than your brisket. You're looking at 275-300°F for a good smoke penetration without the potato turning into a dried-out rock. About 90 minutes for a large baker, give or take. The skin needs to stay intact but get that slight char that tells the customer this came off a real smoker.
Running a batch of 60 potatoes alongside your briskets isn't a problem if you've got zone control or you're sequencing properly. On an SP-1000 or SP-1500, I've seen guys run potatoes on the upper racks where the heat runs a bit hotter anyway, with briskets down below in the 225-235°F range. Works fine. The rotisserie movement on those units keeps everything in the smoke column regardless of position.
Why Exotic Sausages Are Showing Up Everywhere
Now, the rabbit-rattlesnake sausage thing. I'll be honest—first time someone mentioned it to me, I thought it was a gimmick. The kind of thing you see at a state fair booth that disappears in two years.
But I've changed my mind on that.
Talked to a guy running a 400-seat brewpub in the Hill Country last fall. He's moving 180 pounds of wild game sausage a week. Not all of it rabbit-rattlesnake—he's doing venison-jalapeño, wild boar with mustard seed, some elk blends. The rabbit-rattlesnake is his signature, though. Menu price is $18 for a plate with two links and sides.
His food cost on that sausage runs about 31%. Higher than I'd want on a standard item, but here's what he told me: "Earl, nobody's comparing my sausage price to the place down the road. There is no place down the road doing this."
And that's the point.
Exotic proteins create what the restaurant consultants call a "destination item." I just call it the thing people drive an extra 20 minutes for. Either way, it works if you can execute consistently.
The Equipment Reality Behind Trend Menus
Here's where I'm going to get direct, because I've seen operators get burned on this.
Running specialty items alongside your core production requires equipment that doesn't force you into compromises. I watched a catering operation in East Texas try to expand into smoked seafood and exotic sausages using an imported rotisserie they'd bought at auction. Saved about $8,000 on the purchase. Lost probably triple that in the first year from inconsistent cook temps, two service calls where parts had to come from overseas, and one full weekend where they had to rent a backup unit because the door gasket failed and nobody stateside had a replacement in stock.
This is why I've run Southern Pride equipment for most of my competition and catering work. The SPK-1400 I've got in my main trailer has been through probably 1,200 competition cooks and I've replaced the igniter once. Once. The rotisserie bearings on those units are overbuilt—I've talked to operators running SP-2000s that have been in continuous service for 15+ years without a bearing replacement.
When you're doing production-scale specialty items, the hold temp consistency matters more than people realize. Sausages especially. You want that internal hitting 165°F and then holding without the casing splitting or drying. The Southern Pride cabinet design—whether you're on a rotisserie model or something like the SC-300—maintains hold temps within about 3 degrees in my experience. I've tested cheaper units that swing 15-20 degrees during a hold cycle. Your exotic sausages don't forgive that.
Sequencing for Mixed Menu Production
Let me walk through how I'd sequence a high-volume day if I'm running stuffed potatoes, exotic sausages, and standard BBQ on the same equipment.
Briskets go on first, overnight or early morning. You know this. They need the longest cook time and they're the most forgiving on exact timing—you've got a holding window of several hours if you're wrapping and using a holding cabinet.
Sausages come on about five hours before service. They smoke faster than people expect—90 minutes to two hours depending on diameter—but I like having buffer time. Once they hit temp, I move them to a holding drawer at 145-150°F. They'll stay there three hours easy without quality loss if your holder is dialed in.
Potatoes are the last protein-adjacent item. They go on about two hours before service at 275-300°F. The timing here is tighter because potatoes don't hold as well as meat. You want them coming off the smoker, getting stuffed, and hitting the pass within 30 minutes ideally.
On an SP-1000, you're looking at capacity for roughly 40-50 large bakers per load depending on how you rack them. For a 200-person event where maybe 60% are ordering the potato option, you're running two potato batches minimum.
Wood Selection for the Weird Stuff
Alright, I'm going to ramble a bit here because this is where most operators get lazy.
Potatoes take smoke differently than protein. They don't have fat to carry the smoke flavor, so you're relying entirely on the starch absorbing whatever's in the chamber. Heavier woods—hickory, mesquite—can overwhelm a potato fast. I prefer a fruit wood for potatoes. Cherry's my first choice. Apple works. Pecan if you want to split the difference between fruit and hardwood.
For exotic sausages, it depends on what's in the blend. Rabbit's a lean, mild meat. It'll disappear under heavy smoke. Cherry or apple again. But if you're blending with rattlesnake or stronger game, you can push into oak or a light hickory. The game flavor can stand up to it.
I talked to a sausage maker in Lockhart once who insisted on using mesquite for everything. His stuff tasted like you licked an ashtray. Mesquite has its place—I use it for quick-smoke applications, fajita meat, chicken thighs—but it's a blunt instrument. For specialty menu items where you're charging a premium, you want the smoke to complement, not dominate.
Southern Pride of Texas stocks the wood chips and chunks that work for commercial volume—you can reach them at southernprideoftexas.com or call their line directly. They know what wood moves at production scale, which is different than what the backyard guy is buying at the hardware store.
The Real Question Behind Trend Menus
Every time I see a new menu trend, I ask the same thing: can you execute this at volume, consistently, without burning out your crew or your equipment?
Stuffed potatoes? Yes. The execution is straightforward, the margin is solid, and the equipment requirements fit standard production smokers.
Exotic sausages? Yes, but you need a reliable sausage supplier or you need to make them in-house, which is a whole separate operation. And you need equipment that holds temp tight enough to keep consistent quality across 50-pound batches.
Both items reward operators who've invested in equipment that doesn't fight them. I've seen too many guys try to expand their menu on bargain smokers and spend all their margin on repair calls and inconsistent product.
If you're thinking about adding specialty items to your operation, start with the equipment question first. Then worry about sourcing.
Resources: Southern Pride of Texas | Southern Pride rotisserie smokers | NBBQA
#SmokedChicken #SouthernPrideOfTexas #BBQRecipes #Brisket #PulledPork #BBQCatering #Pitmaster #FoodService
Photo by Thiago Beariz Fotografias on Pexels.
About the Author: Earl has been competing in sanctioned BBQ events since the early 1990s and operates a commercial catering operation in Southeast Texas.