Brisket and pork shoulders

Vogs

I have between 20 & 25 people coming this weekend for a BBQ. I have got a 5 LB brisket and two 3.5 LB pork shoulders. I think I can fit all this on my egg. Having never cooked for this many people and having never cooked two types of meat at the same time I have several questions.[p]1. Does this sound like enough meat for this many people? There will be plenty of sides.[p]2. Do I have to adjust my cook times because I have several pieces of meat on the grill at the same time or should I cook each piece of meat the same way I normally would?[p]3. Any suggestions on cook times for both types of meat?[p]Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.[p]Vogs

Unknown

Vogs,[p]IMHO, the pork will be done sooner than the brisket. I would recommend using two polders, one for the brisket, one in the larger of the shoulders. That way you can eliminate some of the guesswork. If the brisket (from the weight, I assume it is market trimmed) has most of the fat cut off, use a good rub and put some bacon or salt pork on top or it will be dry. Also, for the brisket, consider wrapping it in foil after 175o, until 195 or so.[p]The quantity sounds good to me for 20-25 people, but I'm just guessing because I've never cooked for that many before.[p]Hope this helps,
Alan

Unknown

I've done this, and I put the pork over the beef so th pork fat basted the beef as it cooks

RAK

Vogs,
IMHO you don't have enough meat! On paper it may look good, but in reality you don't have enough. You will lose some in cooking and in waste. Also, once they get a taste of it they will want more!

Citizen Q

Vogs,
I'd get one more of each, that's probably enough meat for each person to get one or the other, but not enough for everybody to have a serving of brisket and pulled pork and you wouldn't want anybody walking away feeling gipped.[p]Are you cooking on a large? If so theres plenty of room in there if you do the brisket falt on the main grid and rig up a second raised grid for the shoulders. Maintain 200 degrees and everything should come out the same time after 20 to 22 hours without burning that direct cooked brisket. If you try to go with a higher temp/shorter cook you will need some heat deflection to keep the brisket bottom from charring up. Definitely monitor those temps with 2 polders though, one in the larger brisket and the other in the largest shoulder.
Good Luck and Good Q

Nature Boy

Vogs,
With all the meat you have in the plans, you will end up with maybe 7 pounds of finished meat after cooking, which is a bit light for 25 folks. The sides will help, but the meat is what people will want! I would try and get at least 20 pounds of uncooked meat for that group. Multiple pieces of meat take slightly longer than one chunk, but not significantly longer. Already good suggestions below on the setup. I don't like to cook under 250 (dome temp), as it takes forever to get anywhere. [p]Your chunks of meat are fairly small, and I am guessing 12 hours for the cook you describe.[p]Just some thoughts. Sounds like a blast of a time coming!
NB

Fireball

Vogs,
If you consider a 4 oz. serving per person, for 25 people you will need about 6.25 lbs of product. Using a 50% rate of weight loss during cooking the minimun to start with is about 12.5 pounds. If they are big eaters you may want to use 6 or 8 ozs per person. This comes from months of lurking on the KCBQ forum.
Fireball

Citizen Q

Fireball,
I find that rate of loss is extreme and limited to the WSM and the drum smokers. On ceramic, the loss is much lower more like 15-30% depending on what your cooking temp is, the lower the temp the lower the loss percentage.

Fireball

Citizen Q,
I have had between 40% to over 50% loss using my eggs. That is using uncooked weight compaired to ready to eat weight. I have found a greater loss when using bone in Boston Butts.
Fireball

Citizen Q

Fireball,
What temp do you cook at? I try to keep a dome of 200 for brisket and shoulders but I realize many people here advocate 250 which is above the boiling temp for water and steams off much of the water weight of the meat. The last flat I cooked was 6lbs with a moderate fatcap. 19 hours direct at 200 and 2 hours at 225 to 196 internal left me with a 4lb 12oz chunk according to the scale, roughly 21% shrinkage.

ColoradoCook

Vogs,[p]I'm a carnivorous bachelor who loves to cook up a brisket and portion it out for future meals. I recently did a 14# brisket that yielded ten 12oz portions that I vaccum packed and froze. So half of that brisket was waste. I would do that size brisket for your crowd, people will just devour the stuff. Whatever you don't eat makes awesome sammiches.[p]CC