pulled pork sandwiches for 170 people

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kanadan

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 27, 2009
71
10
menifee ca
i need to give a quote for 170 pulled pork sandwiches. Anyone have any idea on an idea of how many sandwiches you can make per pound of pork shoulder. Im not to sure how much im going to lose in cooking and how big i should make them. pork runs around 1.90 a pound thanks guys
 
Figure your going to yield about 50% of raw weight. Most commercial guys I know figure 1/4 lb per sandwich.
 
I would buy approx 85 pounds of raw product. Pork loses 40% to 50% of weight during cooking and fat loss. If you figure your weight loss at a maximum of 50% then you will have 42.5 pounds of saleable meat or 680 ounces. Most folks use 1/4 pound or a 4 ounce serving per sandwich. 680 ounces divided by a 4 ounce serving will make 170 servings.

I keep a serving scale on hand---I have the crew practice making 4 ounce servings --so they get the feel of what 4 ounces is. I do not weigh each serving-just approx. After weighing a few servings your help should be able to make very close to accurate servings.

Cases of pork usually have 4 sleeves of pork and weigh about 60 pounds.
If you buy a case plus 2 sleeves it should give you approx 90 pounds for a 5 pound extra in case of errors.
 
I should clarify about the planner I posted a link to before. It predicts that with a brisket you will have a final yield of 60%. In other words, if you start with a 10 lb brisket, you will end up with 6 pounds. In the planner, you would tell it you want to serve three people with each pound of meat. It then tells you that you will need X number of pounds to serve Y number of people and if you tell it the cost you paid per pound, it will tell you the total cost to you and give an approximation of what to charge to cover all of your expenses.
 
Maybe it's the butts I get around here but I only experience maybe a 30% loss in cooking. You also need to consider what type of crowd are you cooking for? Lots of ladies and kids or the high school football team and a bunch of truck drivers. Is it a buffet line where everyone serves themselves or are you controlling servings.

Of course the bun is also a filler.

My procedure  is I always over cook and tell the client he keeps left overs. I never want to experience having 20 people standing in line with no food left.

I am actually cooking about 60lbs of pork butt tomorrow in advance for a wedding of about 200. I am also doing about 30 racks of ribs. Ribs will be done on site.  
 
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