Advise needed, may need a gun too!

[bigal]

The gun would be used to shoot myself in the head for getting into this.

I said I would smoke sliced brisket and pulled pork for 200+ people this fall(2007). All I have to do is the meat, and have it ready to serve(ie sliced and pulled ready to reheat)

Found out 1hr ago, thank you wife

! Here is what I'm think'n, usually do better in a hurry and on the spot.
1/4#/person of sliced brisket
1/4#/person of pulled pork
4oz/person of bbq sauce(of which I've made only a few times! need practice!!!)
weights of meat /person is of uncooked meat, not final product.

Forgot to add that the briskets will be packers, sliced w/point & flat together. Pulled pork will be Boston butts, or maybe shoulders.

I will be smoke'n on Traeger that holds 2 12# briskets.......and maybe one little smokey hot dog! If you would like to donate a LANG 60 W/WARMER(and I mean donate as in I get to keep it) I would appreciate it!

Everyone else brings sides and drinks.

Am I off? close? There will be men, women, and children. This is for a 4-H banquet. Maybe 1/3#/person on the meat? I don't want to run out. They will pay for the meat and supplies. I figure I'll throw in the spices for free and charge $1/head for pellets and my time. My kids are in 4-H, and it will be somewhat of a donation.........as far as the tax man knows it will be a BIG donation.

Any help appreciated. Let me know if I'm off/on or nuts. Thanks DumbAL

 

[pigcicles]

Nuts?! No... INSANE is closer... guess we'll see what the ol' TREAGER has. Will this be a smorgasboard or will they order and get their plates already made up? If the plates will be made and handed out then 1/4 to 1/3 lb should be fine... if they build their own then I would bet the number would be higher.. just my opinion though. Let us know how this saga unfolds for you. Good Luck TraegerMeister

Keep Smokin

 

[bigal]

Thanks Pig. They will build their own plates, buffet style, so I better figure closer to 1/2#/person for each meat. But then again that sounds like alot of meat. I would think 1/3#/person/meat would be enough, but then again we have some real pigs out here. They can smell a free meal from 20miles away! Damn rednecks/brothers!

maybe 7oz/meat/person. I don't want them to pay for too much extra meat.

If I win the lottery before then, I'll pay for everyone on this site to come down and help out. Show these w.KS people what REAL bbq is. I guess I need to buy a ticket first, go ahead and hold your breath, haven't seen anyone "blue" for a while now

. Guido & I have been on vacation from that for 2 weeks. Need to head to Chicago for another job soon, may stop by Theresa & Bud's, knock them off and take their smoker while I'm up there.

 

[goat]

BigAl, you have a group of kids that are big eaters, and most of them will be bringing their dads along with some moms. Given the low yield of briskets, I would figure 1/lb/person, uncooked. IMHO 1 brisket will feed 16 people. 1 gallon of sauce/100 people should be enough.

 

[tonto1117]

Lol.....nah..your not crazy, your bloody nuts

Only kidding Big Al, and if you lived closer I'd be there for ya

But you can do it, just do the butts/shoulders a couple days before and pull them. When you go to reheat them just add a bit of apple juice and toss. The briskets also can be done and finished in coolers for quite a few hours before the event time, just don't slice them to far in advance of meal time or they can dry out. Good Luck and let us know how it goes....and you know we love pics!!!!

 

[tonto1117]

Just saw this...lol, were not far from Chicago at all....stop on in Big Al,we would love to have you stay, although I might have to chain the Lang down.

 

[gypsyseagod]

you may want to check out a rental place (like prime equiptment rental) for renting a large pit. as far as the meat goes i don't know who is serving or what are going to be the sides, i would go w/ 1/2# cooked weight per person.

 

[bigal]

Ok, great advise! Using Goats 16 people/brisket I'll need 6 briskets, and 4 butts and 2gal of bbq sauce. Will probably donate 1 more brisket and 1 more butt, just in case. The lady I just talked to thought 75# total of meat would work, she said there is alot of kids, about 1/2.

I'm gonna be smoke'n this stuff in late August/early Sept, vac seal'n and freez'n fast. Won't be served till early Nov. I won't have time come middle of sept thru all of Oct dut to wheat planting and harvest. I think I'll be alright. I'll do it cheap this yr, next yr may be a tad higher.

To top it off I offered to make Dutches W. Beans! I needed an excuse to buy me a big a$$ dutch oven or 3! "Stupid is as stupid does". Life is NOT like a box of chocolates, more like a pasture of cow pies........you never know what you'll get on the bottom of your boot!

Thanks for the help, time to "make" money instead of spending.

 

[starsfaninco]

I got dibs on the Gun when you're done :)

 

[Dutch]

BigAl, Even if you are serving buffet style, you can still control the meat portions by a) placing the meats at the end of the buffet line and let the guests fill up their plates with all the other goodies first and/or b) put a person at the meat station to servre the the meat.

 

[dionysus]

Al,
I have posted this before on another thread but you may find it useful ....
I can't take credit for the attached spread sheet (I found it somewhere) but it is something I have used and have found to be pretty accurate. It is designed for catering but it will give you a very good idea of how much food you need. It looks complicated but really all you have to do is plug in the numbers, everything else is calculated for you. (the green cells are the ones you can change) ... Good luck with the party

 

[shellbellc]

My brother in law is a caterer and he always figures 1 1/2 samiches pp. Now being that there are a lot of kids you could adjust that to 1 sammie. I would still really consider having someone put the meat on the plate, ESPECIALLY with kids. They won't overload because they're hungry, they just don't know the difference. Once everyone has a go though you can abandon the station. This also give you the ability to see if you're starting to get low you can start making the sammiches smaller. Another something I would consider is if 100 of them are kids, wouldn't plain old hot dogs be a quicker easier solution?? They would probably be happier, most don't appreciate good Q at a young age.

 

[bigal]

Thanks for all the advise. I've talked w/the people in charge and they won't be able to have someone serve the meat. I may not even be able to be there myself due to harvest.

The person who usually did the meat was expensive and I guess it wasn't good. Some of the 4-h'ers even said if that person cooked again they wouldn't go, which is sad since the whole thing isn't for the food.

Anyway, they want brisket and pulled pork, so I will do that.

I'm gonna try out Dionysus' spreadsheet and see how far off I am. Want to give them an estimate asap so they can decide soon

Thanks Dionysus, it should help a bunch!