Catering for 125 people, looking for some advice

[soul-q]

Thanks hardcookin, I appreciate the information. I'm planning on brining it all overnight as well in two large cambros. Doing it this way with the boneless/skinless will give me a much closer total weight vs start weight since I won't have the bones in there as well. Plus I have never use my big butcher knife but now I get to!

Man, smokin in the rain sounds miserable. We are actually getting massive rainfalls here right now but luckily it's ending late tonight and then expecting sunny days through next week.

 

[jokensmoken]

Last summer doing an event for about 70 people I had very good success holding my 2nd brisket and pork shoulder for well over 5 hours in about 70°-75° temps.
I don't have a Cambridge and simply use large towel lined coolers I pre warmed with 150° water heated on the side burner of my grill and deep fry burner. I would think you'd get even better results with an actual Cambridge.
And as marctrees pointed out, something un-smoked should be considered...It wasn't a problem perse but I did have a few folks ask " isn't there anything that wasn't smoked"...Something that hadn't occured to me as most of my other get togethers or parties were understood to be smoked BBQ and attended primarily by folks that knew that.
Good luck with the event...
Walt

 

[soul-q]

Hey Walt, thanks for the info. It'll be slightly cooler here during the day, it will drop to about 50 the night before but I'm used to that weather here and my results have so far been great. I am considering doing the eggplant roasted or grilled instead or maybe smoking half the eggplant and roasting the rest so there is some non-smoked foods.

My pork is the smokiest but my brisket is a mild smoke flavor due to how I ration it's cold bract with the smoke. I'm really excited about the chicken actually, I'm going to cook them closer to regular oven temps but in the smoke so they should have a mild smoke flavor as well.

I have done one other event for this company, last minute, so only time for pork butt and pork ribs, fed about 25-30, and they adored it. They did pick the menu and this time around is also somewhat of a trial run for bigger events with them as they're budget for this was smaller than it should be so we have agreed to cost saving measures to make it work.

 

[jokensmoken]

Best of luck to you...I just had the promoters of the largest out door armature 4-4 hockey tournament in Michigan contact me this week...I was asked how realistic it was to combine the event with a "smoke fest" type BBQ event...Probably at least a year off but could be a blast as they've had well over 1000 in attendance the last several years...Far beyond my personal capability but not beyond our "smoking community's" capability.
Best of luck...Doing events is a blast and I've made many good friends...Not much money yet...But lots of friends.

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Soul-q we're having this years fattie contest (4th annual) in July. I don't know where your from but we're in Michigan so if your close stop by.

 

[jokensmoken]

I'm near A2 and would love to check it out...Fill me in...
Have smoker will travel.

 

[soul-q]

@jokensmoken  That sounds awesome, all it takes is one start to get things going. This will be my first large commercial event. I say large, but 125 people is not large compared to 1000+ !!

 

[soul-q]

@hillbillykstr -  I'm going to put that on my calendar and will try to make it. It's a bit of a jump for me as I'm either in Los Angeles or Georgia during the summers, but camping, beer, and a smoking contest makes me smile!

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Well your welcome soulq. Can camp at my place all weekend. I'll be up early Friday to start smoking Pork butts for Saturday.

 

[soul-q]

So the event went great, both briskets were consumed without any leftovers (as can be expected!).

The event was cut down to 105 people about 3-4 days prior to the actual day, can't remember exactly as I'm still tired and foggy in the head from all the cooking. I had a tray of pulled pork leftover, as well as a tray of chicken leftover.

I brined the chicken breasts for 30 minutes, then smoked them and the thighs at about 250-275 for an hour exactly. When they were done I chopped them and it was some of the best chicken I've ever had.

Thanks for all the help/advice on this!

 

[marctrees]

Excellent Success !!!!!!!  

You did SOOO many things good that contributed to the end result.

    Marc

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

Good deal soulq! Glad it worked out.

 

[hardcookin]

Thanks for the update! Now go take a long nap :biggrin:
Glad it all turned out good!