How Much Pulled Pork

dhulz

I am smoking some pulled pork for a wedding in August. Just looking for some ideas on how much to buy / cook. The couple are expecting around 100 guests. I was thinking about doing majority pulled pork and possibly a big brisket. Also i am thinking since there are 100 guest i would need to purchase the whole pork shoulder... Looking for some tips and advise !

NonaScott

I did 3 eight pound boneless butts for 50 people and had some left. Served it with pepperidge farms slider buns.

gmac

My mom does a lot of catering stuff around the village and she always plans 1/2 lb per person. Some will be over, some under but I would guess 50 lbs would get you close. 
Works pretty close to what Nonascott did above. 

northGAcock

You are going to get about a 46-48 % yield from the pre-cook weight on butts. If you figure 6 -7 ounces (yielded) per person, you should be golden. This assume you have no other protein, and an equal distribution of both male and female. You will have a handful who will not eat any meat. All the best with your cook and the wedding.

dhulz

Thanks for the tips everyone ! what are our thoughts on a whole pork shoulder compared to a butt ? if i am not mistaken i could not get a 15lb butt, therefore having to go with the whole shoulder. 

dldawes1

I have been figuring 1/2 lb/p (uncooked) . It has worked out fine for me.

My butts run between 7.5-9.5 lbs each. I just figure 8 lbs each when cooking for a large event. Thus, 16 people per butt....allows for some seconds !!!

gmac

dhulz said:

Thanks for the tips everyone ! what are our thoughts on a whole pork shoulder compared to a butt ? if i am not mistaken i could not get a 15lb butt, therefore having to go with the whole shoulder. 

I would expect it to take a bit longer but would be fine.  

SmokeyPitt

dhulz said:

Thanks for the tips everyone ! what are our thoughts on a whole pork shoulder compared to a butt ? if i am not mistaken i could not get a 15lb butt, therefore having to go with the whole shoulder. 

I think you may be better off just doing multiple butts instead of a whole shoulder.  I think two 8ish lb butts will yield a lot more finished product than a whole shoulder and take up a similar amount of space.  

DMW

Rule of thumb for an average mix of men, women, and children is number of eaters divided by 2.4 equals amount of raw pork to start with. So 100/2.4=41 2/3 lb. For an average size butt of 8lb, that would be 5.2 butts. I would go with 6 to be safe.

bettysnephew

I recently did 2 cooks for graduations. 6 butts each time on my XL. Both parties had over 100 guests (lots of hungry teens) and both had a just a little left over so the above 1/2 lb. precooked weight works well. 
Make sure you have a large enough drip pan that it will not overflow and cause a grease fire! BTDT and it sucked! I use an AR from CGS and put 3 on each rack. I could fit 2 more if needed.The top ones will generally finish first and I remove them and let rest before beginning to pull and place in roaster. By then the bottom rack butts are finished and ready to remove. I use a Kitchenaid mixer to pull the pork when dealing with these quantities, just don't let it run too long and make pork mush. Be sure to set the roaster above 150°F to keep out of the danger zone for food safety. I also pour 1/2 gallon of apple juice on pulled pork to keep moist. Hope this helps.

msloan

figure about 1/3 of a pound of cooked meat per guest.  I typically cook butts that range from 9-10 pounds and I usually wind up with about 5-5.5 pounds of cooked meat per butt.

so for 100 people I would figure you need about 33 pounds of cooked meat.  I would cook 6 nine pound or bigger butts and that should get you there.....cook 7 nine pounders if you want to for sure be safe.  

dhulz

Thanks for all the tips ! Ive done both brisket and pork butt before but never this amount. As for cooking time would you do 15 hrs for 5-6 10lb butts ? or would i have to up that time. 15 hours is based on 1.5 hrs per pound at approx 250. 

bettysnephew

I have converted to turbo for my cooks unless it must be ready for lunch in which case I start low and slow the night before using my Flame Boss and crank temp if needed to finish in the morning, as everyone sauces pulled pork on their sandwich anyway. The majority of the smoke flavor seems to go on in the earlier stages of the cook from my experience. I cook until meat reaches temp of 203+. Start early and use a roaster to keep it ready if doing a large cook like this. The apple juice will keep it moist if you don't keep the lid open. No FTC for me on this amount of protein.

BBQbutler

I have a spreadsheet from another forum. It's a Dropbox link 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvz009kaqv66g7j/BBQ%20Calc.xlsx?dl=0
It's pretty spot on for qty. 

KiterTodd

Good discussion.

I say you go with 4-5 big butts, 1-2 briskets, and some hot dogs or sausage.  You'll have plenty!

The sausage is just a big tray of something else that is easy to cook, but will also cause less pork/brisket "waste".   Any kind of sausage or hot dog.  Nothing you have to spend time marinating or grilling carefully, just something you can prepare quickly so all the stress/focus is with the pork/brisket.

When we have a large party and I'm smoking meat, my second is usually a grill full of hot dogs, or a couple trays of brats/kielbasa & kraut that I have grilled earlier.

Legume

I can't help you with the math, but as a rule, always cook too much pulled pork.  It's cheap, it freezes well, it's fantastic in leftovers of all kinds and it's pork.  If I need one, I cook two.

pork.

Grillmagic

DMW said:

Rule of thumb for an average mix of men, women, and children is number of eaters divided by 2.4 equals amount of raw pork to start with. So 100/2.4=41 2/3 lb. For an average size butt of 8lb, that would be 5.2 butts. I would go with 6 to be safe.

Great info here!