Bbq for a large crowd help

[NefariousTrashMan]

Well I done opened my mouth when I should not have and need your help. To start with the most I have cooked for at once was about 45 people. Our church is having a shin dig next month and I volunteered to cook for the meal
( thinking maybe 50ish people would show up) we have a small church. Well with the sign up sheet it’s looking like 120 maybe a few more will be showing up. I’m thinking pulled pork because it’s easy so probably 9 10lb butts. 14lbs Mac and cheese. 5 gallons baked beans and 12lbs coleslaw. I’m gonna serve with chafing dishes buffet style unless that’s a terrible idea. I have a Cambro like holder for 5 full pans to hold the sides. I’m wondering about holding the pork in a cooler and about how long I could hold in a cooler. That way I can figure out my timing. I have the equipment to smoke all of the meat just have never done this much food before. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Zach

 

[chilerelleno]

Figuring out what and how much to prepare is the easy part.

My main concern for such is safe food handling.
Mainly going from hot to cold, and cold to hot.
Holding hot / cold isn't much of a challenge as long as you have the coolers / cameras.

Holding hot, whole Butts in a cooler is pretty easy and last for an easy 3-5 hours if the the food is 170° or hotter, the hotter the better, when placed inside.
The cooler needs to be preheated with hot water or such, hot towels, heat packs and/or other material used to fill gaps in between food/cooler, and you keep open time to a minimum.

 

[NefariousTrashMan]

Figuring out what and how much to prepare is the easy part.

My main concern for such is safe food handling.
Mainly going from hot to cold, and cold to hot.
Holding hot / cold isn't much of a challenge as long as you have the coolers / cameras.

Holding hot, whole Butts in a cooler is pretty easy and last for an easy 3-5 hours if the the food is 170° or hotter, the hotter the better, when placed inside.
The cooler needs to be preheated with hot water or such, hot towels, heat packs and/or other material used to fill gaps in between food/cooler, and you keep open time to a minimum.

Ok I do have a large cooler that can hold the butts so if the event is at 6pm and I pulled the butts off when they are done 205ish usually at around 10am do you think they would hold til 5:30ish when I get them in the chafing pans? I planned on wrapping temp probes in with the meat in the cooler to make sure it does not drop below 140. I can always place and hold them in the oven or I have an electric smoker if I need to hold longer. I figure the sides I can cook and bake a few hours before and place in the holding box. I can also place probes if you think that would be wise with the sides. For the coleslaw I was planning on making the dressing and just mixing on site with a chaffing style set up with ice in the bottom pan. Do you think those ideas will work? Food safety is my concern as well no way do I want to get anyone sick.

 

[JckDanls 07]

That sounds like a plan to me... Yes... The butts will be fine in the cooler for 6-8 hours... All packed in tight and covered tight with towels/blanket (not your wifes favorite one as it will smell like smoke)... And never open the lid until your ready for them... The best thing about this method is the fat keeps rendering down during the cooler rest... Making the meat juicer and more tender...

Carry On ...

 

[BigW.]

I like your idea of holding in the oven or electric smoker. I think a cooler for + or - 7 hours may be pushing it.

 

[Abigail4476]

Well I done opened my mouth when I should not have and need your help. To start with the most I have cooked for at once was about 45 people. Our church is having a shin dig next month and I volunteered to cook for the meal
( thinking maybe 50ish people would show up) we have a small church. Well with the sign up sheet it’s looking like 120 maybe a few more will be showing up. I’m thinking pulled pork because it’s easy so probably 9 10lb butts. 14lbs Mac and cheese. 5 gallons baked beans and 12lbs coleslaw. I’m gonna serve with chafing dishes buffet style unless that’s a terrible idea. I have a Cambro like holder for 5 full pans to hold the sides. I’m wondering about holding the pork in a cooler and about how long I could hold in a cooler. That way I can figure out my timing. I have the equipment to smoke all of the meat just have never done this much food before. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Zach

Zach,

One trick I love for large catering jobs (also this is dependent on how you feel about presentation) is putting anything that doesn't have to be hot in individual containers for serving. It keeps you from needing to round up so generously on servings *just in case* and you can be a little more exact. So for your menu, for example, the coleslaw: I would use something like these containers, pre-portion the coleslaw, and then round up the number by about 25%. I would probably put out 150 serving cups. (But actually I wouldn't, because not everyone likes slaw)

You can do the same thing with any sauces you want to serve, using 2 oz. cups. 150 2 oz cups of sauce A, 150 cups of sauce B. Etc. The 2-oz cups are perfect for little slices of pickles and onions, too. I like to do a wedge of onion and a couple of sweet/spicy pickles in each one.

This takes a little of the stress out, since you don't have to worry about running out of food before everyone's been served, and also has some food/servings already handled ahead of the event.

On your Mac and cheese and baked beans, if your church has ovens you can use, I would have those prepped ahead of time in foil-covered disposable containers, and then put someone in charge of getting them into ovens at a certain time. I've learned that when you put a lot of items in an oven, it takes a lot longer for everything to heat up. I generally double oven-cooking time when the oven will be full. You can always put ovens on warm if your food gets done early. But definitely get a helper to handle any oven food so you can focus on meat unless you're smoking those items.

When serving straight from a pot, to alleviate the worry of running out, use a measuring cup as your serving spoon to make sure the right portion is being doled out. Then of course once everyone has been served, it's a free for all

As much prep in advance as possible is my biggest tip.

 

[1MoreFord]

..........................................( thinking maybe 50ish people would show up) we have a small church. Well with the sign up sheet it’s looking like 120 maybe a few more will be showing up. I’m thinking pulled pork because it’s easy so probably 9 10lb butts.............

I've always heard butts yield ~50%. That being the case you have ~a 6 oz serving planned but you said you are going to serve buffet size. I'd plan on at least an 8 oz serving since you have no control over portions. Better to have left over meat than run out. You should double check the sides portions too.

I used to have So Ezzy's bbq catering planner but seem to have lost it and every link I find to it now goes to a website that makes my anti-malware software go crazy or I would recommend using it.

 

[smokerjim]

You could make the pulled pork ahead of time and freeze or if it's just a few days keep cold in fridge and just reheat in pans.

 

[Abigail4476]

I've always heard butts yield ~50%. That being the case you have ~a 6 oz serving planned but you said you are going to serve buffet size. I'd plan on at least an 8 oz serving since you have no control over portions. Better to have left over meat than run out. You should double check the sides portions too.

I used to have So Ezzy's bbq catering planner but seem to have lost it and every link I find to it now goes to a website that makes my anti-malware software go crazy or I would recommend using it.

Man, I think my biggest fear is running out of food. I always make too much. lol

Must be some childhood trauma built into that. Don't ever want anyone leaving a table hungry.

I definitely agree on double checking the sides portions. I would even suggest maybe making up a single batch at home, and if you want 6 or 8 oz servings, scoop them out one at a time and see exactly how much your batch produces. 6 or 8 oz is usually more than enough for sides. (and I would then still inflate the amounts by 20-25%).

 

[NefariousTrashMan]

Zach,

One trick I love for large catering jobs (also this is dependent on how you feel about presentation) is putting anything that doesn't have to be hot in individual containers for serving. It keeps you from needing to round up so generously on servings *just in case* and you can be a little more exact. So for your menu, for example, the coleslaw: I would use something like these containers, pre-portion the coleslaw, and then round up the number by about 25%. I would probably put out 150 serving cups. (But actually I wouldn't, because not everyone likes slaw)

You can do the same thing with any sauces you want to serve, using 2 oz. cups. 150 2 oz cups of sauce A, 150 cups of sauce B. Etc. The 2-oz cups are perfect for little slices of pickles and onions, too. I like to do a wedge of onion and a couple of sweet/spicy pickles in each one.

This takes a little of the stress out, since you don't have to worry about running out of food before everyone's been served, and also has some food/servings already handled ahead of the event.

On your Mac and cheese and baked beans, if your church has ovens you can use, I would have those prepped ahead of time in foil-covered disposable containers, and then put someone in charge of getting them into ovens at a certain time. I've learned that when you put a lot of items in an oven, it takes a lot longer for everything to heat up. I generally double oven-cooking time when the oven will be full. You can always put ovens on warm if your food gets done early. But definitely get a helper to handle any oven food so you can focus on meat unless you're smoking those items.

When serving straight from a pot, to alleviate the worry of running out, use a measuring cup as your serving spoon to make sure the right portion is being doled out. Then of course once everyone has been served, it's a free for all

As much prep in advance as possible is my biggest tip.

Those are excellent ideas! Thank you

 

[NefariousTrashMan]

Man, I think my biggest fear is running out of food. I always make too much. lol

Must be some childhood trauma built into that. Don't ever want anyone leaving a table hungry.

I definitely agree on double checking the sides portions. I would even suggest maybe making up a single batch at home, and if you want 6 or 8 oz servings, scoop them out one at a time and see exactly how much your batch produces. 6 or 8 oz is usually more than enough for sides. (and I would then still inflate the amounts by 20-25%).

Yea I definitely do not want to run out of food that would be a major disappointment.

 

[bmudd14474]

If you have 120 people then you will need 40lbs of finished product if your doing 1/3lb per person. Being a church event with little kids and old ladies that may not eat as much that will be a little high but I like to have a little more. So 9 10lb butts will produce 45lbs lbs of cooked product. If your using boneless butt it will yield about 54lbs of pork which is way more than needed but again error on the side of caution.

As JckDanls 07 said you can hold in a cooler for 6-8hrs easy so make sure you start early that way you don't stress to get that done. I would mix and prep the beans and slaw the day before that way the spices meld nicely.

Can't wait to see this pan out for you and if you need more help let us know and feel free to PM me if needed.