Cooking for 250 - HELP!

[PBCDad]

Hey there boys and girls,

My wife's birthday is coming up in January, and instead of presents or a celebration, she has asked to get a group of people together to make dinner and then serve it at a homeless shelter. They house around 250 adult men.

She wants it to be a communal event getting the food ready, and she doesn't want me to just be working for days and then not have much for others to do, so my first instinct of figuring out how many pork shoulders I can cook at once (I think I could squeeze 12 in to all my smokers) won't work. At the same time, I want to use the knowledge I've gained here to be put to use, and give these guys a good meal - most of them are working all day and just can't afford housing, they aren't just standing on street corners. We do have access to our Church's commercial kitchen.

So I need some suggestions from you all, what would be a good, hearty meal that could be prepared in bulk with a shorter cook time, that people could help prepare? My thoughts so far include Baltimore Pit Beef sandwiches, Italian Beef Sammie's, some sort of chicken dish with minimal prep, or chili (although they probably get lots of chili and soups). There would also need to be lots of sides so we don't go bankrupt, so if you have suggestions for those, please send along as well.

[Donw]

Boy, you will need those volunteers!. I would tag Frozen Smoke, PaulstheRibList, texastweeter and any others you can think of who do big cooks for specific advice. You have a challenge here but you can do it for this good cause.

[Donw]

I would add that my biggest cook was for about 100 people, and I did Baltimore Pit Beef. It was fast and easy, but you should borrow several electric slicers from somewhere to get it on the plate fast.

[Ahumadora]

Anyone in the neighborhood with a big pit you can rent? Pulled pork sand whiches and reheat on the day is easiest.

[Donw]

Great advice. I borrowed the pit I used from the fire department here as it could handle lots of meat at one time.

[RonB]

How about this:

You cook the butts and have them ready early the day of the event.
Have the volunteers shred them and place in aluminum trays with lids and place over Sterno to keep warm. You may want to use one tray with water in it and place the meat tray in the water tray for a more gentle heat. (You might need a spacer to keep the food tray from settling to the bottom of the water tray.)
Have the volunteers prepare all the sides.
When it's time to serve, have a table, (or several tables), and have the volunteers serve the food. The victims - er guests - go down the line with plate in hand and tell the servers what they want.

This would let more people be involved, and volunteers could also go around with pitchers of whatever beverage to refill cups.

[CaptainMike]

I don't want to volunteer him without his consent, but ecowper lives in the Seattle area, maybe he can offer you some advice.

[RonB]

Some additional thoughts:

250 men means that you will need more protein than for 250 mixed men, women, and children. I'd guesstimate a minimum of 1/4 lb, but probably closer to 1/2 lb per person. The yield on butts should be ~ 50%, (other opinions please on yield and serving size).
That means that you will need any where from 62.5 lbs to 125 lbs of finished protein to be safe. Can you cook 12 10 lb butts at once? You might want to cook however many butts as you can and then cook a bunch of chickens after the butts come off. The "danger" is that some will take both pork and chicken. You may need to figure some way to control portion size - maybe an ice cream scoop?

You may want to go on facebook and/or craigs list and see if you can rent or borrow a large cooker for this event.

You will probably need to order the protein in advance. Tell them why you need it and see if they will give you a price break.

[Troutman]

I agree, do lots of sides like potato salad and baked beans. Fill them up with carbs, keeps the protein requirement in check.

[RonB]

Thanx EdF for your expert advice.

[EdF]

RonB "Some days the magic works; some days it don't"!

[bardsleyque]

PBCDad pm me I might be able to help

[PBCDad]

Awesome, thanks Bardsley! Typing up the PM now, I appreciate the willingness even if it doesn't work out to bring in a ringer like you

[PBCDad]

I have a Jambo that I think I could cram at least 9 Costco butts on plus a PBC for 2-3 and another one on the kettle if I needed to. However, my wife would prefer that I don't spend the entire weekend cooking. I volunteered the pulled pork idea and she vetoed it, so I'm looking for other ideas.

Donw, when you did your 100 person cook, what did you use for meat weight per person? I would expect a lot higher yield from a bottom or top round roast. I would expect to either have a couple electric meat slicers at the site to slice it fresh, or slice it in the kitchen ahead of time and take it all to the shelter sliced.

[Donw]

I went for 1/3 lb per person, but I loaded everyone up with sides. What I liked about the Pit Beef was almost no waste, and they don’t take long to cook. We sliced some before into pans and cambro’d to get things started, and refilled empty pans on rotation. I also cooked more just to handle second helpings.

[EdF]

Probably going to get a better yield from the cuts used for pit beef or Italian beef (just not that much to render). So that could work if you have the slicers. Maybe half of each?

[Frozen Smoke]

Good news is you have a couple of months to works this out. You can cook a lot of pork butts between now and then. Cook vacuum seal in bags,freeze begin to thaw a couple days ahead of time and then reheat at the site. I always go to pulled pork as one of the main entree's on big cooks. it's easy (but time consuming) can be done well in advance keeps very well and goes a long way. Is this buffet line with portions being served or do the guests help themselves to as much as they want? You could do the same with pulled beef. Then I would look to do some chickens on site if you have to actually cook on site. Chicken whether they are whole or in parts are a good fast cook.

I always make my beans as a side which also can be done in advance and rewarmed at the site. Then look to do some cold salads whether it's slaw or something else.

I find it's easier to do most things myself with one or two people helping me at the most and that's when it comes to set up and serving. Giving direction to 5 or more people who have never done any food service type work can be frustrating especially when it comes down to crunch time.

You know how many people you are dealing with so the amount of food needed is pretty easy to calculate unless it's a open buffet then you need to add a fudge factor of maybe up to 20% additional for working guys.

If you are reheating on site what will you use? Roasting pans? They work great but require a lot of power. You can plug one in per kitchen circuit usually so figure out what kind of power you have available. This became such a issue for me I bought a 3 bay propane fired steam table.

[PBCDad]

Now that's an idea. So you cook the butts, freeze, heat up and pull, or do you pull and then freeze?
To answer your questions, we would most likely serve so we can do some portion control, and I could probably get some crock pots volunteered for reheating, but would probably need one for each butt I'd think. No cooking onsite, but we could cook at the church the day of.
How many beans for 250?

[Frozen Smoke]

PBCDad I cook the butts and pull as I normally would and then vacuum seal and freeze. I usually freeze in 3 to 4lb bags. This way you don't have to open all the bags and can still refreeze what you didn't use at the event or leave as leftovers there. Pulled pork is that forgiving you can refreeze it at least once. I've never had a issue doing this. Serving is a good idea it's always a guessing game at a open buffet line which nearly all of the parties I cook for are.

As far as beans go I would make at least 3 maybe 4 #10 cans. I add a lot of stuff to my beans like onions, peppers and jalapeno's. Brown sugar molasses and ketchup. Pineapple or peach chunks as well. I also add pulled pork and or bacon into the beans so that stretches them even further. They are always a hit and I get asked about them all the time at events. I usually figure 6 to 8 ounces per serving per person but you could cut that back to even 4 if you're serving. There are 115 ounces in a #10 can.

Feel free to ask questions and I will give you my best guess!

[Livermoron]

Same here. Cook, pull, then vacuum seal. The pulled pork is still awesome reheated.

(thinking of pulling some out of the freezer now...)

[JGo37]

You can bring in a - such as 250 zucchini - and bushels of bell peppers and onions if you have a big griddle. I used to be the griddle man for the Scouts for a couple years when I was a kid and we cooked for that many. The volunteers prep and mix the veggies, the flippin' starts clockwise and by the time you make one run around the cook surface at least 20 servings are ready. As you pull off a serving your wing man is dumping a new in its place. Everyone gets hot off the griddle sides. It goes fast once started. You can top them over rice if you can make that much rice.

On a side note, when we did a breakfast, I could flip a pancake up into the exhaust fan and nail somebody outside with it, about 30' away. Kids will be kids... (who am I kiddin' I still think that was awesome!)

I think you guys are doing a great thing. VERY nice...

[JeffJ]

A HUGE pot of spaghetti sauce. You can go really cheap by going strictly marinara sauce - no meat (boring, but effective). It's quick to throw together. It requires a long simmer time, but that requires little work. It freezes great and can sit in the 'fridge for at least a week.

[Livermoron]

Also a good idea as a side dish...

[texastweeter]

butts, brisket, or chicken halves ate my go to for big events. good sides are beans, salad, and tater salad that dont take much to do. If you need some specifics, hit me up, i can show you some shortcuts. Sitting outside and cookung for a HUGE crowd right now myself. beans, coleslaw, brisket, white bread, puckles, onions, sauce, briskets, and brownies. oh, and sausage

[MBMorgan]

A huge pot of chili (with plenty of beans for texastweeter 's benefit ) ... popular, easy, filling, freezes well, and is relatively inexpensive.

[texastweeter]

I smell a troll... in Texas we call that goulash...

[MBMorgan]

texastweeter - 😎

[Dr ROK]

Like many have mentioned, freezing pulled pork in advance and reheating is the way I cater for large crowds. But, if that is not something you want to do, I also make what we call tastee meat. Kinda like a sloppy joe, but savory rather than sweet. Around here they are served with mustard and dill pickle chips. Only problem is beef is twice as expensive as pork butt. If you are interested in a tastee recipe let me know.

[texastweeter]

I am. Can you PM me. Im not a big fan of sweet, but I do live salty spicy. Dr ROK