How much to buy? My first BIG cook...

[realdocBBQ]

I keep saying that - my first "big" cook. lol

Really, I guess I just cook for more and and more - each time I cook for a group larger than I have done in the past, it's "my first BIG cook". lol Cooking for 20 used to be "big", then I cooked for like 40 and thought that was crazy. Last week I TRIED cooking for 50-75 (still have leftovers), I've done a couple for 80-100 - just doing pulled pork for our annual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event and max out at preparing for 100.

Well, it's time for my NEXT FIRST BIG COOK. lol

This is the end-of-season Wednesday night family dinner at our church. I think they "usually" have around 120 they said. With this being the last of the season (they stop during summer due to all the vacations, ball games, activities, etc.), AND I am told with advertising it is going to be "catered" BBQ, we decided to plan for 150. This is going to be provided and served by my men's group - naturally I am cooking the meat, others are providing... well.... other stuff. Our local BBQ place is where most people get their so-called catered BBQ these days and I am just NOT impressed with their pulled pork. Very much reminds of the WalMart hot and fresh deli sandwiches with pulled pork. Or something - some kind of meat inside with a lot of sweet sauce and not really much substance or flavor - beyond the sauce. <sigh> NOT what I want to turn out at my church dinner!

Gonna do pulled pork. If I remember right, they say 1/2 lb precooked meat per person, for just like sammiches and chips, right? And can get away with less if you're doing plenty of sides? Well, we should be - I think besides chips, there're going to be beans, cole slaw, desserts... what else. Oh, potato salad. So... 1/2lb per person ought to be more than plenty (pre-cook weight).

Gotta head to Costco, so... that would only be like, 4 or 5 double packs of their boneless pork butts, figure 8-10 butts? They usually run 13-17lbs per double pack, I think, so 5 of those ought to be about... 75 lbs or so? That just doesn't seen to me like "that big" of a cook anymore. lol. I've done 5, or 6 (once 8) butts a number of times, so when I think - in my head - like, "I'm cooking for 150 people", I think this OUGHT to be a much bigger ordeal. But, doing 8-10 pork butts doesn't seem like anything overwhelming anymore. lol I guess I'm getting used to it, but also when you have the space, cooking 10 isn't REALLY that much bigger of a deal than cooking 2 or 3.

Oh, I think I'm going to do some big bologna chubs for kids and folks who don't want pork - or who want MORE than just pork. lol I dunno, 2, 3, 4 of those 5 poind chubs? Those are cheap and about the easiest thing in the world - even easier than pork butt, which is hard to imagine! lol

I guess I'm just... I dunno, a little perplexed. My buddies told me several months ago they wanted to do this, and I agreed, and this whole time I was thinking to myself this was gonna be a HUGE cook with a lot of work and blah blah blah - and now that it's here, and it's time to go buy the meat and I sat down and figured up the budget and put pen to paper and started planning the logistics - it just doesn't seem like that much to me!

Am I missing something??? I mean, "I'm cooking for 150 people" sounds like a massive undertaking, but... I honestly feel a little underwhelmed by it. I was actually hoping the guys would suggest I did briskets and like armadillo eggs and buncha other stuff, something that would CHALLENGE me and would feel like an accomplishment! lol. I guess once you keep doing this kinda thing more and more, it just seems like... it's not that big of a deal.

Seriously, do those of you who do big cooks feel this way sometimes? "Oh, yeah, I can knock out food for 200, no problem, it's easy." I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and suddenly I'm overwhelmed, overloaded and over my head - but I can't see it happening with only cooking 8-10 pork butts which are the easiest item in BBQ to cook, and about the hardest to screw up! And yet... lotsa BBQ places DO IT - screw it up, that is! lol

I really feel like I'm missing something here...

[Purc]

Do you have plenty of help to pull the pork?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51M-3xasrkL._AC_SX679_.jpg

https://a.co/d/eGJS8fU

This may help

[Evvy]

"Walk a mile in her shoes!" Thanks for doing this! 💕

Long ago a restauranteur told me to make the serving line up with sides first and protein last. This slows down the urge to fill the plate with the one item that every chef fears running low/out on.

[STEbbq]

First off, I think I should say it is an accomplishment to not be worried about cooking 8-10 butts at a time for service. Second, I think a lot of the stress with this type of cook is usually attached to the service (pulling the pork, keeping hot, plates etc.) and many times, people are doing the meat and sides too. Third, I’d suggest volunteering to do something you find challenging next time you have a big cook, so you can work those cooking muscles! Brisket, ribs, armadillo eggs etc.

[texastweeter]

I do big cooks (300-500) several times a year, and pre Chinese bat flu, did one at least that big about once a month. Most ppl say 1/3lb of finished product per sandwich. For pulled pork I shoot for 2/3lb raw product per person. That's pre trim and injection. This is assuming each person gets one sandwich.

[texastweeter]

Biggest cook I have done to date was 25 brisket, 13 pork shoulders, and 175lbs of sausage. Also are you making your own rub, injection, and sauce? Don't forget those ingredients.

[Donw]

How much help are they giving you? Our County Firemen’s Association has a monthly dinner which rotates among the 11 districts. Dinners are about 200+ people. Our biggest issue is always getting enough people to prep, carry, serve and finally to clean up. I know you will cook great food, but what happens next can make all the difference.

[Livermoron]

I've done large cooks before, but I'm thinking of adapting this recipe for my inaugural PBX cook...

https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2022/07/carolina-style-whole-hog-barbecue-pork.html

[RonB]

Besides the shredder above, a Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook will also shred a butt. And have fun.

[mrichie1229]

That is an interesting idea.

[mrteddyprincess]

+1 on this idea for big cooks.

[LA Pork Butt]

You have a forgiving piece of meat, and I assume you have the cooker to handle it. Start early and why sweat it!

[barelfly]

Knowing the cookers you have, that’s no problem for you! I used my smokin’it 3D for 2 full packers and my dad’s smaller smokin-it #2 for four pork butts for my daughters graduation party in 2019 - we had over 100 people. I had about 50lbs of meat pre-cook, so like you are planing, I think you are going to be good with the sides and such. Did 4 pork buts for my son’s graduation, smaller gathering. For you and those cookers, no sweat!

the big question - which cooker are you gonna use for this?

[realdocBBQ]

I should havbe plenty of help, between the guys, their wives and the kids. Plus I have 2 teenagers home from college I will be roping in as well.

As for cookers... I think I'm going to use my smaller offset. It will actually be a little crammed using that one, but shouldn't be too bad - 6 butts easy on the lower rack of main chamber, 2 butts in each rack of the upright. Then holding them in the Yoder pellet and the Camp Chef Smoke Vault 24" at 150ish all day until serving time.

Might actually be able to put all 10 butts on the lower shelf of the 80-gallon horizontal, but would likely require some rotating, as the ones closest to the firebox will be getting blasted a bit more.

[PGH_RAM]

Bumping this up.

I've been Shanghai'd into smoking some pork butts for our pastor's going away party. We're looking at 66 adults and 49 kids. Two other folks are cooking mains and sides, but they're going to be vegetarian. The social committee told me that I should plan on pulled pork for 50 people. The format will be tacos with all the trimmings, so I'm planning on rigging up a southwestern style rub or paste.

Since all I've got is my Weber 22" kettle, I'll be smoking, shredding, vacuum packing, and freezing the pork over the three days before the event. I plan to submerge the frozen vacuum bags in a few large pots of gently simmering water to heat them up day-of.

I have two questions, though:

1) Because the other two cooks are going vegetarian, should I try to convince the social committee to plan on more than 50 servings of pork?

2) I'll be getting boneless butts from Costco. The social committee wants to set up a soft taco bar for the pork. They'll have a variety of fixings. I usually plan on 3/4 pound pre-cooked weight per adult and 1/2 pound per child when planning on sandwiches. Does that ratio seem good for this project?

Thank you, Pit Gurus, for any guidance you can offer for my biggest cooking project to date!

[realdocBBQ]

Bumping this up.

I've been Shanghai'd into smoking some pork butts for our pastor's going away party. We're looking at 66 adults and 49 kids. Two other folks are cooking mains and sides, but they're going to be vegetarian. The social committee told me that I should plan on pulled pork for 50 people. The format will be tacos with all the trimmings, so I'm planning on rigging up a southwestern style rub or paste.

Since all I've got is my Weber 22" kettle, I'll be smoking, shredding, vacuum packing, and freezing the pork over the three days before the event. I plan to submerge the frozen vacuum bags in a few large pots of gently simmering water to heat them up day-of.

I have two questions, though:

1) Because the other two cooks are going vegetarian, should I try to convince the social committee to plan on more than 50 servings of pork?

2) I'll be getting boneless butts from Costco. The social committee wants to set up a soft taco bar for the pork. They'll have a variety of fixings. I usually plan on 3/4 pound pre-cooked weight per adult and 1/2 pound per child when planning on sandwiches. Does that ratio seem good for this project?

Thank you, Pit Gurus, for any guidance you can offer for my biggest cooking project to date!

Hey man! Glad to see this come back up!

I ended up with a ton of food. For that cook I ended up doing the 10 butts and 2 full size pork loins from Costco. We had WAY more food than we needed for 150 and I ended up sending home several completely wrapped butts that were never shredded with the guys. I also did some PPBE for the crew. We had a ton of sides and things, as well, so that accounted for a bunch. Luckily I had a lot of help, so I just did the shredding of the pork butts 2 at a time and slicing up the pork loin. It all went pretty smooth, except we didn't have near enough sauce, as they told me only to buy a couple of big bottles. I learned that most people who aren't into BBQ like many of us will use a lot more sauce than we might. We are more 'refined' in our tastes and want more of the meat and less of the sauce flavor - but those 'non-aficionado' folks like to cover their meat with sauce and miss out on the superb flavor of the meat we slave over.

I think for that cook we served 125-150 or so and had way more than we needed.

I'd plan on a half pound per person pre-cook weight, that has served me quite well and I've never run low. And with tacos, they may put other things on their tacos. Slaw, sauce, peppers, etc., most people might eat 2, big guys might eat 3 with sides and fixins, and if you figure 4 oz per taco, those are BIG tacos. Probably more like 2.5, max 3oz per taco.

So with 1/2 pound per person at 50 people, that's only 25 pounds pre-cook weight. I usually end up with about 60% yield after cooking for pork butts, never less than 50%. So even on the low end, that's... 12.5 lbs of cooked pulled pork, at and average of 3 oz per taco, that's about 200 tacos. That would be enough for 3 tacos per person for 65+ people. And I guarantee most aren't going to eat 3 tacos, 9 oz of cooked meat per person PLUS sides. Not a chance. A lot depends on the sides, and the demographic of the people you're cooking for, but 30 lbs of pork before cooking should give you more than enough, I would expect.

I'm planning on cooking for 100 or so for our next Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event in 10 days and I think I'm going to plan 6 pork butts, which would be around 45-50 pounds of precooked weight of pork. Every time I've done that, we've had plenty left over, and I try to do the sandwiches big and full, probably 4-5oz per sandwich, as we only have snack bags of chips and bottled water.

I'm also going to do a full packer brisket, wrap and hold at 150 and give it away whole at the event as a 'door prize'.

Someone's gonna be happy, I think!

Hope all that helps out a bit PGH_RAM!

[PGH_RAM]

realdocBBQ This was great--thanks for the advice!

[PGH_RAM]

"I learned that most people who aren't into BBQ like many of us will use a lot more sauce than we might. We are more 'refined' in our tastes and want more of the meat and less of the sauce flavor - but those 'non-aficionado' folks like to cover their meat with sauce and miss out on the superb flavor of the meat we slave over."

I will confess to my past sins. That was me until I started grilling and smoking for myself.

[realdocBBQ]

I'm hoping someone will hit me up for a gig for 250 or 300 people at some point - just to I have another excuse to fire up Big Bertha!

[Sweaty Paul]

Now that's a rig!

[PGH_RAM]

That's a real beaut!

[dpearce]

That's awesome! Plus you could literally use for your final resting place! Coffins are expensive...

[Jerod Broussard]

I would plan like realdocBBQfiguring about half the raw weight as people.

I'm potentially serving 500 next week and will have 250 pounds raw if they get that much sold. I get 50% yield from bone-in. You might want to plan for 60 and just roll with 30lbs. You will get a slightly higher yield than bone-in.

[Sweaty Paul]

Love watching this thread!