Need advice please - Pulled pork for many people

[pi guy]

I'm considering doing pulled pork for my son's graduation party in July. We're not positive how many people we'll be having, but estimating between 100-150. I have a few questions I'm hoping some of you may be able to answer...

1. About how many butts should I plan on for this amount of people?
2. Best practices for smoking ahead of time, so I'm not chained to the smoker all day, the day of the party?
3. Ideas for easy re-heating the day of, if I choose to smoke them day(s) ahead of time?
4. Suggestions for making life easy when trying to cook for this many at once?
5. I we choose to do this, we'd kind of like to also have another meat. Thinking chicken? Suggestions or ideas on how to do different meats and have them all serveable at the same time(ish)?

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

 

[Nefarious]

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

What smoker do you have?

 

[pi guy]

What smoker do you have?

Sorry, meant to include that. MES40 electric, so pain in the butt (pun intended) loading chips every 30-45 minutes, unless I use the AMNPS.

 

[jcam222]

I never like to run short so I’d plan on 1/3 lbs of FINISHED weight per guest. More if it’s the only meat and you have very few sides. Also perhaps more if you plan on people self serving. Going with 1/3 lbs. for 100 people assuming 60% yield which is typical I would do 85 lbs raw to yield 51 lbs finished meat. For 1/2 lbs 120 lbs raw to yield 75 lbs. I always cook pulled pork ahead. I cook a day or two ahead and and pull that day. I store in disposable foil pans. I ALWAYS do a full pan of pork or chicken broth below the butts to save the smokey au jus. Warming is simply in large toaster pans. I mix in some of that au jus and warm in the pans. You can serve some of the au jus on the side along with a vinegar finishing sauce. I like serving Chef Jimmy’s (RIP) version of finishing sauce with his version modding it to Lexington dip style. (Basically adds a little ketchup and extra sweetener) I have never had a complaint and people rave about the pork with the au jus. Remember too leftover isn’t all bad as people will beg for doggie bags and also it freezes well. Many uses for it.

 

[pi guy]

I never like to run short so I’d plan on 1/3 lbs of FINISHED weight per guest. More if it’s the only meat and you have very few sides. Also perhaps more if you plan on people self serving. Going with 1/3 lbs. for 100 people assuming 60% yield which is typical I would do 85 lbs raw to yield 51 lbs finished meat. For 1/2 lbs 120 lbs raw to yield 75 lbs. I always cook pulled pork ahead. I cook a day or two ahead and and pull that day. I store in disposable foil pans. I ALWAYS do a full pan of pork or chicken broth below the butts to save the smokey au jus. Warming is simply in large toaster pans. I mix in some of that au jus and warm in the pans. You can serve some of the au jus on the side along with a vinegar finishing sauce. I like serving Chef Jimmy’s (RIP) version of finishing sauce with his version modding it to Lexington dip style. (Basically adds a little ketchup and extra sweetener) I have never had a complaint and people rave about the pork with the au jus. Remember too leftover isn’t all bad as people will beg for doggie bags and also it freezes well. Many uses for it.

Wow, great information, thanks!! I think I'd be more apt to try this if we were having half the amount of people. I'm thinking I MAY be able to get 6 butts max in the MES40, so would need 3 straight days of smoking to be able to account for 150 people. I don't see that happening

And this doesn't include any other meats or smoked sides (love doing smoked deviled eggs, poppers and other appetizers or sides).

Hmm, I may have to rethink this. Or.....

New smoker?

 

[zwiller]

jcam222 Has you covered. I did the exact thing you are for daughter's grad party and was same size party. I smoked a butt about every other week or so until I had about 50lbs vac sealed in the freezer. Thawed a few days before the gig and used roaster ovens to reheat. Worked perfectly and man did I get GOOD smoking the same thing that many times. I tried something each time... CAUTION Do NOT attempt to load more than 2 butts in the MES40. Trust me.

 

[jcam222]

Wow, great information, thanks!! I think I'd be more apt to try this if we were having half the amount of people. I'm thinking I MAY be able to get 6 butts max in the MES40, so would need 3 straight days of smoking to be able to account for 150 people. I don't see that happening

And this doesn't include any other meats or smoked sides (love doing smoked deviled eggs, poppers and other appetizers or sides).

Hmm, I may have to rethink this. Or.....

New smoker?

Haha I like the way you think. It’s the perfect chance to sell the family on your needing a new one. As zwiller said you can start further in advance and freeze as you go if needed. Another piece of advice. Imo turbo butts is the way to go. Butts are so fatty and forgiving no need to go low and slow for a year lol. Crank that thing to 275F , once you wrap in a foil pan with a little liquid (again save that juice) crank it to 300 if it goes that high. You can do butts in around 6 hours. .

 

[pi guy]

jcam222 Has you covered. I did the exact thing you are for daughter's grad party and was same size party. I smoked a butt about every other week or so until I had about 50lbs vac sealed in the freezer. Thawed a few days before the gig and used roaster ovens to reheat. Worked perfectly and man did I get GOOD smoking the same thing that many times. I tried something each time... CAUTION Do NOT attempt to load more than 2 butts in the MES40. Trust me.

No more than 2 at a time? Ugh, that's not going to help things. Good to know they can be smoked and pulled that far in advance though. Thanks.

 

[thirdeye]

Cooking for 150 is not as big of a challenge as you think because butts are so forgiving. You just need plenty of time. I help with an annual event where we cook 10 or 12 butts, so they are injected around 4 pm and go on the cooker by 6pm. Around 7am the following day, they are ready to wrap. Our plan is to get them in the hot box by 10am because serving is between noon and 1pm. I'm a tick more conservative on yield than jcam222 but agree with cooking ahead and freezing if you don't have a large capacity pit. I tend to always do a wrapped finish when cooking ahead, and because of my long rest, I breakdown butts by hand into larger pieces than some call their pulled pork. This makes for a super tender and very moist product. The product is slightly sticky and easily hangs on a bun.


For reheating, I like a water bath in roasters. Then you simply open bags as needed in the serving line. The remainder will not only stay "food safe" but stay nice and moist even if the guests graze for several hours. TIP: have the meat at the end of the line.

I make my injection from smoked pork broth and Coca-Cola, so I reserve some to mix back into the de-fatted foil juices. Some of this goes into each bag. I do serve sauce, but it's at the end of the line, and I thin it out a little with apple juice.

 

[pi guy]

Thinking again that this may be our best option for this party. But I think I may do only about half the amount of pulled pork, and then also incorporate other mains, such as tacos, etc.

Does anyone have pictures of your serving line (where guests get their food)? I'm wondering what the best setup is. I really appreciate the tip of putting the meat at the end of the line.

 

[pineywoods]

Personally I'd do the pulled pork and maybe either pulled beef or meatloaf both of which can be done ahead of time and frozen then just re-heated day of. Or maybe do the pulled pork ahead of time and do hamburgers and hot dogs the day of. A helper to man the smoker or grill would make the day of cook easy and re-heating the pork is easy either in the oven, smoker, crock pots, or and SV unit

 

[Smokensalt]

Do all the pork before hand, like a couple days before. Anything goes wrong you have time to rectify. Catering grade food bins to store and loads of sauce to reheat.

One thing, for that many and such a spe isl occasion have you thought of a whole spit hog? Nothing wows more than a hog roast. Then frees you up to do other dishes on the day like whole/spatchcock chicken?

Sure there will be better and more useful replies but that's my 2c.

 

[normanaj]

Lots a great advice already.Pulled pork/beef can done ahead of time as already suggested.I've done both in my MES30 for my friends Memorial Day party a week in advance and then just reheated in a covered foil pan with some type of yummy liquid and bang.

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

Might be late to the party didn’t read all the posts. But anytime I cook PP a head of time I just use chef jimmyj (rip) finishing sauce mixed in with it and it tastes almost better then the day I pulled it off the smoker. I vacuum seal it and boil it in the bag to reheat!

 

[bauchjw]

No more than 2 at a time? Ugh, that's not going to help things. Good to know they can be smoked and pulled that far in advance though. Thanks.

jcam222 Im curious about your warning of no more than 2 at a time in MES40?. I used to regularly do 4 at a time that I’d rotate. Is this a safety concern or a thermal mass issue? I think for one thing I did years ago I did do 6. It took a while and I rotated them through my old stick burner, but it worked!

 

[jcam222]

jcam222 Im curious about your warning of no more than 2 at a time in MES40?. I used to regularly do 4 at a time that I’d rotate. Is this a safety concern or a thermal mass issue? I think for one thing I did years ago I did do 6. It took a while and I rotated them through my old stick burner, but it worked!

I believe that advice came from zwiller when he was quoting one of mine

 

[zwiller]

When I smoked 50lb PP for daughters grad party I kept notes. Did a butt each weekend or so. Got the idea to try 2 and posted here and the consensus was it would not add much time. I was averaging 15hrs per butt 275F on MES (30). When I ran 2 it took 26 hours and WAY off for me. OMG that was rough. I bet the 40 can handle 2 but doubt much more. If you search here there a threads of guys running a bunch and freaking out how long it was taking ( like 48hrs+ and just hitting the stall). Nowadays I split the butt in half and average 8 hours and MUCH better for my schedule and 2x bark. Big old stick burner would probably plow right through a bunch with no issues.

 

[bauchjw]

Marines vs Caliente Carnitas

I joined this Forum last fall to get advice on how to smoke a bunch of meat for my unit using my old horizontal offset. Since that post I have gained a wonderful amount of knowledge from the people here, purchased a bunch of new toys, and started to recruit new smoke fanatics here at the unit...

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Sorry jcam222 Jeff. I understand zwiller it takes a bit more time. I found this old thread where I did 5 and it took a bit over 20 hours, I think I did 6 at some point. Good memories and Foamheart (RIP) mentorship.

But the 40 worked well on the 5 in my opinion. I did 4 on my traeger last fall that took less than 12. I’d rather have a longer cook on 50 pounds personally than spread out over a long time. There is a bit of moving around, but definately manageable.

 

[zwiller]

WOW. 5 in a 40. That's impressive. I don't mind a little more time and agree with you once and done. Very disappointed running 2 took that long for me. Got me thinking...

 

[mmckinney331]

Might be late to the party didn’t read all the posts. But anytime I cook PP a head of time I just use chef jimmyj (rip) finishing sauce mixed in with it and it tastes almost better then the day I pulled it off the smoker. I vacuum seal it and boil it in the bag to reheat!

Do you put the finishing sauce in before you vacuum seal it?