Cooking pull pork for 400 plates---Got some questions

[rwilli]

Just some assumptions I am making, would like some input from the crowd to see if I am on the right track:

1. I am figuring 3 sandwiches per pound of pulled pork.
2. With bone in shoulders, I am figuring about 20 percent loss with bone and some trimming/cooking.
3. I am figuring 180 lbs of bone in pork shoulders should do the job (180-20%=144lbs), 144lbs x 3 sandwiches per pound =432 sandwiches.

Am I in the ball park with these assumptions?

Thanks

 

[JJS]

I think your probably a bit light, we usually experience around 40% loss with bone in pork shoulder.
That would put you around 1/4# per person which is pretty light (unless it’s not good then you may have left overs lol).
I usually figured 1/2# per person plus sides and would have sub 10% leftover

 

[smokin peachey]

When I have done bone in pork butts I figure 50% loss. I always figure .6 x people so 400 x .6 would be 240lbs of butts. It also depends how many are adults vs children and how good it turns out. The amount of sides also can effect it. I always have extra and never have a problem selling it.

 

[Smokinribsbbq]

I do the same as peach. 50% loss with .6lb/person. We rarely have more than 3lb left over .

 

[Lookn4u]

Me too. 50% loss, but .5 per person. never ran out, came close a few times, but always worked out. Go with a smaller bun, larger than a slider, but smaller than a burger size. Bun size references are escaping me at the moment, but its easy enough to figure out.

 

[zwiller]

+1 50% yield and 1/2lb per person is the standard for single protein. 1/4lb per for 2 proteins.

 

[SmokinAl]

Here is a handy dandy calculator for figuring how much you will need.
Al

 

[rwilli]

I wanted to follow up on My first (and probably last) big cook.

First, Thanks to the advice from many of you, the cook went beautifully. I had plenty of meat, The meat came out great---had lots of compliments and 1 offer to help out on some professional cooks.----I declined that--To much like work.

Some lessons learned:

1. When cooking 25 butts, you end up with 25 x the mess, 25 time the grease.
2. When doing a large cook, don't forget about the extra stuff you will need---Dawn dish washing liquid, commercial roll of tinfoil, plenty of tins to put the food in etc.
3. Help is a hug benefit, when it is 9pm, time to take 6 or 8 butts off of the smoker and still let them rest and process them.
4. Have extra parts, I broke two thermometer probes during this cook--luckily, I had spares.
5. The Yoder 640 is just to small for a cook like this.
6. Although you can fit 8 butts on the yoder 640, it just seems to cook better with 6, and 6 butts are just easier to manage than 8.
7. This cook required about 120 pounds of pellets (I expected 60-80).

Probably more lessons learned, but those are the ones I can think of off of the top of my

--Again--I Thank all of you for your advice, It really helped me pull this off.

Bob

 

[hardcookin]

Thanks for the follow up. I always say every smoke is a learning experince.
As you mentioned BBQ is hard work, extra help is always welcome.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

[Ariene]

rwilli, your lessons are valuable. Thanks for sharing them. I have to follow if I want to get the best meat. You know, I'm trying to surprise my family with the best meals.

 

[forktender]

Awesome photos, thanks for sharing.

 

[UrsulaSneathen]

As for me I don't like pork

 

[VirgMart]

I have never cooked so much pull pork in my entire life. But your pieces of advice are priceless. I usually like cooking grill meat. So, when weekends, I try to look for new recipes to surprise my wife with some delicious meat. But before that, we measure meat, yes, even it would sound weird for someone. We bought a food scale on amazon, and before cooking or baking something, we weight everything. We are not on a strict diet, but we are trying not to overeat.