On Wednesday I had the privilege of cooking dinner for about 75 of the people from our church who handle the children's classes. Here is kind of a rough timeline of how it all came together:
Saturday - Did pretty much all the shopping and made the rub and sauces.
Sunday - Didn't do much on Sunday. Mostly just went through my schedule and recipes to make sure I had everything in order. I also got some red onions pickling.
Monday - Prepped the meat and got it dry brining. Also chopped up the collards and my wife made the biscuit dough to freeze.
Tuesday - This was the busiest day - Made the baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and got the meat on the smokers at around midnight. Also got the ham hocks braising for the collards.
Wednesday - finished up the meat, made cobblers (cherry and blackberry) and banana pudding, smoked the beans, headed to church and braised the collards and baked the biscuits there.
Overall I had 4 pork butts, 3 briskets (started around 14-15 lbs) 4 foil pans of beans, 4 pans of potato salad, 3 pans of coleslaw, 2 pans of collards, 100 biscuits, 6 pans of cobbler, and 4 pans of banana pudding. I could have used some bigger briskets as that ran out first. The quantities were just about right as there was about a pan of beans, potato salad, and pork left along with some smaller bowls of slaw and greens. I think there was 1 pan of cobbler and 1 pan of banana pudding left as well. Definitely would rather have leftovers than run out of food.
All in all it was a fun, busy few days. I could probably have had it all done a couple days quicker but I knew with Memorial Day being busy, my wife working on Monday night, her doing a farmer's market on Tuesday, and 4 kids to watch it was best to get things spaced out as much as I could. Fridge space was also a bit of a limitation.
Do any of you do large cooks like this? Any tips you have that make things go smoother?
Can't wait to do this again next year. And if you are a glutton for punishment and want to watch the whole process I filmed as much of it as I could. Didn't get much dessert action as that was pretty hectic trying to get all that finished up but think I have some good footage of the rest. Not expertly edited and some of the camera angles are wonky but...
Saturday - Did pretty much all the shopping and made the rub and sauces.
Sunday - Didn't do much on Sunday. Mostly just went through my schedule and recipes to make sure I had everything in order. I also got some red onions pickling.
Monday - Prepped the meat and got it dry brining. Also chopped up the collards and my wife made the biscuit dough to freeze.
Tuesday - This was the busiest day - Made the baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and got the meat on the smokers at around midnight. Also got the ham hocks braising for the collards.
Wednesday - finished up the meat, made cobblers (cherry and blackberry) and banana pudding, smoked the beans, headed to church and braised the collards and baked the biscuits there.
Overall I had 4 pork butts, 3 briskets (started around 14-15 lbs) 4 foil pans of beans, 4 pans of potato salad, 3 pans of coleslaw, 2 pans of collards, 100 biscuits, 6 pans of cobbler, and 4 pans of banana pudding. I could have used some bigger briskets as that ran out first. The quantities were just about right as there was about a pan of beans, potato salad, and pork left along with some smaller bowls of slaw and greens. I think there was 1 pan of cobbler and 1 pan of banana pudding left as well. Definitely would rather have leftovers than run out of food.
All in all it was a fun, busy few days. I could probably have had it all done a couple days quicker but I knew with Memorial Day being busy, my wife working on Monday night, her doing a farmer's market on Tuesday, and 4 kids to watch it was best to get things spaced out as much as I could. Fridge space was also a bit of a limitation.
Do any of you do large cooks like this? Any tips you have that make things go smoother?
Can't wait to do this again next year. And if you are a glutton for punishment and want to watch the whole process I filmed as much of it as I could. Didn't get much dessert action as that was pretty hectic trying to get all that finished up but think I have some good footage of the rest. Not expertly edited and some of the camera angles are wonky but...
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