Buns?

[xaugievike]

Smoking a couple of pork shoulders for a gathering this weekend. I'm thinking I'm going to serve the pulled pork as sliders to try and spread the meat out a bit more. I'm paralyzed though at guesstimating how many buns I'd need. Anyone happen to have a formula/rule of thumb for guesstimating the bun quantity?

[au4stree]

Adults: men-2, women-1
Teenagers: boys-3, girls-0.5
kids: 1

Ive seen my teenage boys and friends demolish 3-4 each and not even blink. My experience is adult men typically do 2 and wives do 1. I’m kinda the exception, I opt for no bun, I just want the pork plain with sides. 🤷♂️

[jfmorris]

Second this. I've seen it as well.

Unfortunately, the folks who skip a bun are the problem. It's impossible to predict how much meat they will pile on the plate if serving themselves.

[LA Pork Butt]

My observation is that more people are skipping the buns and only taking the meat which will run up the amount of meat needed. You can thwart that by assembling the bun with meat and leaving it up to the guest as to what they put on the slider or choose to disassemble it.

[jfmorris]

Second this. Preassembling the sandwiches or just handing them a plate with bun and meat on it already is the only way to avoid folks grabbing more than their fair share of meat. If they want more, tell them seconds will be served after everyone has come through line at least once...

[Beefchop]

Good point. Low and no carb diets are popular.

[realdocBBQ]

For PP sliders, I bet my son could demolish a half dozen. Wife would do 1, I would do 2-3, depending on sides, if there were slaw on them, etc.

I might just guesstimate 2 per person, maybe 2.5 if your crowd is heavier on heartier male guests and teenage boys.

[jfmorris]

My experience matches LA Pork Butt - I always provide a big mess of buns along with pulled pork, slaw and BBQ sauce when I have a party. You can plan on 4-6 ounces of meat per bun, but you will have a lot in a buffet/potluck line that just skip the bun and pile the meat on their plate, upping the ante to 10-12 ounces or more sometimes. I had pulled pork AND brisket at a Christmas party, and watched as one of the first LADIES in line grabbed 4-5 big slices of brisket, with only 20-30 slices of that meat available for 30-40 people. Some people are just greedy/glutinous, and don't think of others when fixing their plates.

What gets my goat more is when I see folks who piled up their plates with food others would have liked, and then throw away uneaten brisket/wings/whatever.

Ok, I gotta cool down now. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it back last December.

Anyway, you are best served if YOU are prepping all the sandwiches for portion control, i.e. someone is dishing it out and just don't allow self service at all when it comes to the food. That way folks get a bun with 4-5 ounces of meat on it, take it or leave it.

[STEbbq]

I would assume 2 per adult/teenager and one per kid. I would also prep the sliders with meat beforehand as otherwise you will run into issues over meat consumption/folks not following social cues.

[DaveD]

And there's no harm in having more buns on the day than you end up needing... leftover delivery vehicles!

[Murdy]

When you say sliders, I think White Castle. Are you talking about a dinner roll-sized bun (for example, about the size of a King's Hawaiian roll?) or something more the size of a small, albeit full-sized, hamburger bun?

[xaugievike]

yes on the kings Hawaiian. that is the plan.

[Murdy]

In that case, I think I'd go up a bit from what people are saying. I could see an adult male eating 3 -- depending on what else you are serving.

[HawkerXP]

I like to preassemble like said above. They don't want the bun? They can pick off the meat.