I need some tips for "The Big Family Cook Out" on pulled pork

ChadEggHeadEst2014 · September 2014

Hi fellow egg heads. I got my Large Big Green egg in april and so far I love it. I have made some to die for sticky short ribs. Best BBQ Grilled Chicken ever. Pizza better than any pizza join I have ever been to. My most Favorite is puled pork I got the recipe down pat and my favorite BBQ restaurant sells their BBQ sauce. I have made puled pork 4 times and 2 of those times it turned out to be chopped pork. I am allowing myself 12 hours usually but last time I made a 6 lb pork butt it did not turn out as tender as I wanted it to be.

Anyway back to the topic. I have never cooked for this many people. I am taking my EGG to Tennessee to my family reunion. I am going to cook lunch for 40-50 people this Saturday. I was thinking of buying about 50 pounds of Boston pork butt's from sam's club that should be enough. After the cook they will weigh about 35 pounds right? I bought a 3 tear rack for this occasion but the butt's are going to be so fat I will only be able to use 2. I'm sure I can get away with 2 racks anyway. I am going to start smoking them 16 hours before the big event so I can make sure they are all done on time and I can double wrap them in heavy grade aluminum foil and throw them in the cooler to continue cooking. Then I can pull them apart at the party.

Any tips from someone that has done something like this before would be greatly appreciated thank you.

Texansurf · September 2014

I cook mine at 225-250 till the internal temp is 189, and then FTC for about 30 minutes I plan for an hour and half a pound but I watch the internal temp. With that many make sure the fire is going strong and that you have s good supply of the smoking chips or chunks already mixed in the lump.

As far a seasoning I start with Gulden's spicy brown mustard and then dust with Sweet-Butt of Mine and Jamaican Jerk Rub. The mix is about 50/50 and I sometimes add some more cayenne to taste. My cook is set up to use a vinegar sauce.

I take a small bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar, add

1 tbls cayenne

1 tbls course ground black pepper

2 cloves of fresh garlic or 1 tbls of garlic powder

After pulling I add a little bit of the sauce to add some heat, balance the sweet pork.

Best of Luck,

piney · September 2014

I do butts often ( being in NC thats standard bbq) you can do 3 at a time on a large just be sure and use a large drip pan. I coat with yellow mustard then rub with favorite rub, Bad Byrons Butt Rub works great, add apple juice to drip pan cook at 250 till 200 internal FTC. I have found at 200 they are very moist and tender and they will stay for up to 5 hrs if FTC properly.

tarheelmatt · September 2014

Personally, I don't think you need that much, but if you want a lot of leftovers then you should be good.

For 50 people you should only need about 30-35 lbs of product (if you have sides). That way you can buy three big butts to meet your needs instead of 4-5.

I do like @piney. Mustard, favorite rub, let set overnight, set egg to temp (I like higher temps personally 275°-325° depending on the size), pull at 195-205°. For chopped BBQ, pull earlier around 180-185°.

CarolinaCrazy · September 2014

I'd do them at slightly higher temperature than you might normally. Getting them done a little earlier, rather than later, is better for a crowd. You don't want 40-50 hungry people standing around. They will FTC for 6-8 hours no problem with that much mass in the cooler. I'd shoot for like 300˚ Dome. You'll have to consider when to start the cook based on that.

Use a BIG drip pan. you will accumulate a lot of fat and the last thing you want to have to do is unload the Egg mid cook with that much meat on.

hondabbq · September 2014

I did 5 butts last weekend on my LBGE. I have a home made rack that I can adjust in height. Strategically placed it can be done with lots of room for air flow. I had 3 on the bottom and 2 on the raised grid. Each weighed about 7-8 lbs.

scooter759 · September 2014

I agree with @tarheelmatt, two packages of butts from Sam's should do for fifty people with sides. Will be a little easier to configure on a large as well.

ChadEggHeadEst2014 · September 2014

Thanks for the advice guys. The way I like the most is the and I came up with my own based in bbq shows and reading other people recipes. The day before the smoke or at least 12 hours rub with mustard and lots my favorite rub called sweet Georgia heat by wicked que. Next day set the grill at 225 and add apple wood pre soaked in water indirect heat. I inject a mix of about a cup of apple cider vinegar with about a tablespoon or 2 of the rub all over the butt. I add a drip pan with about a inch of apple juice and 2 sticks of butter.

CarolinaCrazy said:

I'd do them at slightly higher temperature than you might normally. Getting them done a little earlier, rather than later, is better for a crowd. You don't want 40-50 hungry people standing around. They will FTC for 6-8 hours no problem with that much mass in the cooler. I'd shoot for like 300˚ Dome. You'll have to consider when to start the cook based on that.

Use a BIG drip pan. you will accumulate a lot of fat and the last thing you want to have to do is unload the Egg mid cook with that much meat on.

I am afraid 300 might get them done to fast. Have you ever done that with 5 butts? If so how long was your cook time.

hondabbq said:

I did 5 butts last weekend on my LBGE. I have a home made rack that I can adjust in height. Strategically placed it can be done with lots of room for air flow. I had 3 on the bottom and 2 on the raised grid. Each weighed about 7-8 lbs.

What was you temp and cook time hondabbq?

dldawes1 · September 2014

For 300F dome and 4 - average size 9# butts, cooking indirect, 9.5 hrs to reach IT 196F. I cooked 4 - 8-10# butts for our church picnic of about 80 people. Everything worked out great. I FTC'd right off the egg for about 5 hours before serving. The butts were almost too hot to pull apart after 5 hrs of FTC. I always have figured 1/4 lb per person. But.....I like to add some cushion....might want some snacks later !!! I don't know what the cooked weight ended up at.

GQuiz · September 2014

I agree with @piney on the rub and approach. I turbo mine. Grate temp of 330-360. I inject with Apple juice and foil at 160. I pull off Egg when internal temp clears 200. If you FTC in a good cooler, it will stay north of 160 for a good 6-7 hours.

tulocay · September 2014

I did a similar cook this past 4th of July. Had about 45 people and lots of side dishes to compliment the pulled pork.

I have a LBGE and 2 tier rack system. I had 5 butts in total. Each about 7-8 lbs. each. I put 3 on the bottom and 2 on the top rack. I loaded up the Rockwood to the top and had about 6-8 fist size chunks of hickory and apple scattered throughout. I cooked at 250 dome. I had plenty of time. At the 19 hour mark, I started getting a little nervous. The butts still read approx 185 I.T. I then triple wrapped each butt in HDAF and put them back on. Took them off between 21-23 hours. Put them in a cooler with warm towels and pulled approx 2 hours later. It took FOREVER, but they were the best butts I have cooked to date.

And thanks to Rockwood, I still had a little lump leftover after that long cook.

ChadEggHeadEst2014 · September 2014

Thanks for the comments fello eggheads. I think I will up temp to around 275. I did some scouting today at my sam's because I had to go there for work any way to see how much this is going to cost and found they have Boston pork butt's for $2.30 a lb and they are massive 16-18 lb and did not look like they cut up so hopefully I can find the same deal at the sam's club in Tennessee. I will buy 2 of the biggest butt's and I can get and just get them cut them into halves or threes. I leave tomorrow after lunch I am in GA by the way just a 3 hour drive. I am going to start taking apart the egg tonight clean it out and get it reedy to put in the truck tomorrow. Wish me luck.

tulocay said:

I did a similar cook this past 4th of July. Had about 45 people and lots of side dishes to compliment the pulled pork.

I have a LBGE and 2 tier rack system. I had 5 butts in total. Each about 7-8 lbs. each. I put 3 on the bottom and 2 on the top rack. I loaded up the Rockwood to the top and had about 6-8 fist size chunks of hickory and apple scattered throughout. I cooked at 250 dome. I had plenty of time. At the 19 hour mark, I started getting a little nervous. The butts still read approx 185 I.T. I then triple wrapped each butt in HDAF and put them back on. Took them off between 21-23 hours. Put them in a cooler with warm towels and pulled approx 2 hours later. It took FOREVER, but they were the best butts I have cooked to date.

And thanks to Rockwood, I still had a little lump leftover after that long cook.

I think 25 hour might be a little over the top. What do y'all think?

tarheelmatt · September 2014

The stall depends on the meat really. You can push the temp up to get though the stall. Not really a need to go at 250°.

ChadEggHeadEst2014 · September 2014

I am all confused now from all the grate advice lol. Most of us are Camping at the cabins in the park and we need leftovers for dinner and I am not speaking for the hole fam but I would eat bbq leftovers any day of the week and there is tones of thing's you can do with bbq leftovers. Some of my favorites are Hickory potatoes, Hickory fries, Hickory salad and Brunswick stew. I will just wing it at 250 and if stalls for more then 6 hours I can just up my temp. I am allowing myself 16 hours so if they don't get done in the 12 hours because that has happened to me in the past I was still have me of time. I am going to be taking plenty of step by step pictures and I will let y'all know how it turns out.

ChadEggHeadEst2014 · September 2014

Ok guys I think I found the best way to pack the my LBGE in the truck. I only took off the hinge that opens it. I made sure I saved the white tab that lock it together. I put all the inner parts in the truck first and put the egg body parts over that.

hrchdog · September 2014

Those massive butts at sam's are actually two butts in the cryovac package, they just look like one big one. I just finished smoking five of those packages for a total of ten butts. Did it in two shifts on my XL.

ChadEggHeadEst2014 · September 2014

hrchdog said:
Those massive butts at sam's are actually two butts in the cryovac package, they just look like one big one. I just finished smoking five of those packages for a total of ten butts. Did it in two shifts on my XL.

Ok thanks for the info I am headed to sam's club early tomorrow I am going rub them bad boys down and start smoking them around 5. I am surprised I get cell connection in tn mountains.

hrchdog · September 2014

So how is the cook going?

ChadEggHeadEst2014 · September 2014

Well every thing went better than planed. I forgot to take pictures as usual. Anyway I had about 60 very happy people They Loved it. I have only made about 4 pork butts since I got it in april and this was my best yet. The butts were 2 per a pack at sam's and I bought 2 packs each pack about 17lb. I cut them open and I found out the all had a big bone I did not know they came with bones. I rinse them off in cold water, mustered them and added a generous amount of my favorite rub wicked que sweet georgia heat. Let the sit in the fridge for a few hours. Started up my egg at around 5pm while waiting for it to get to 250 I pulled the butts out and put apple cider vinegar it was about 4 cups and i added about 6 table spoons of the rub. I then injected the buts with the ACV mix and pored the rest on top and let it sit for about 15 minutes. At 5:30 I tried to put 2 of the butts on the lower part of the tear rack and 2 on top when i went to close it i think it was hitting the gage on top so i ended up taking them back off and put 3 on the bottom and the largest one on top. After that I went to hang out with the family at the fire pit. The only bad thing is that my wireless dual thermometer did not reach so I was worried about the temp and went to check on it every hour and every thing was grate. I went to sleep about 11pm and my dual thermometer started beeping about 3.30 am telling me that the food has reached 200 degrees and I was very suppressed it got done that fast. I grabbed my instant read to check on them and they all 4 read about 170-180 witch I though was kind of strange because I check the 2 thermometers before I left in a pot of boiling water and they were with in 2 degrees of each other. Anyways I knew they were pretty much done so I closed the bottom to about 1/4" or 1/2" just enough to slowly bring down the temp. At 6:30 my mom was panic and woke me up and said I think your fire went out I went to check on it and I guess I closed it to much the egg temp was 110. After I open the vents and tried to get it back 30 minutes latter. I started to take them off the grill with the beer claws and into a pan the meet was sticking to the grill. I knew they were done and just had to try some that was the best pork butt I have ever made. I covered the pan with HGAF and put it in a 200 degree oven. Tell we were ready to go to the picnic pavilion. At 12:30 I took them out wrapped them in HGAF but forgot to double wrap them like people say then I through them in a cooler witch this is my first time transporting them so I am kind of skeptical of if that will keep them warm enough but it worked. At 1:45 I started to tare them apart with the claws and my fingers 3 of the butts was more then enough and we had a bunch left over. I left one in the cooler and put I still can't believe they turned out perfect the bark was perfect to. About 30 of us came back to the cabins and had pork for dinner. I brought the leftover butt home with me and I am going to have pork the rest of the week. I am so proud of my self and so was everyone else.

For Now on I am going to try to find pork butts with the bones in them.

tarheelmatt · September 2014

Man, that is tough to read all that. Butts generally have a bone in them, and that makes them better.

Congrats on your big cook!

I need some tips for "The Big Family Cook Out" on pulled pork

Comments

XL BGE; Schertz TX by way of Stow OH. #egghead4life

Categories