Minneapolis Caterer?

civil eggineer

I cooked a couple of butts for a church member to serve at his son's confirmation party recently. His sister from Minneapolis was there and blown away by the flavor. She wants to know if I would supply pulled pork for 350 people at an upcoming graduation party! She has visited various caterers and vendors in her area but said none of them were near as good as mine. I was very gratefull my efforts were well appreciated but have a medium egg and no interests in trying to tackle this request.

Any ideas, venders, caterers, eggheads, in that area that may be interested or recommended that I could pass along?

Ripnem

My wheels are spinning...I have thought very hard about doing some grad parties. I am just minutes from Mpls. The only bump in the road for me would be the logistics of becoming a legal or legit caterer. Not really sure what all that would entail. I would be interested in talking to her about it.

Making great butts would be the easy part.

Ripnem

Just sent you a follow up e-mail.

Grandpas Grub

No suggestions. Just thinking that would take close to 150# of butt.

GG

civil eggineer

That's what I figured also. Cooking 20 butts is a tall order. I assume some would have to be frozen then reheated but it is never quite as good. I guess 4 large eggs might be able to churn this order out fresh.

Grandpas Grub

I used to really wonder about reheating pulled pork. I kept reading to add Coke or Dr. Pepper and had always thought that really doesn't work.

I decided to give it a try. I had 4# of boston butt pulled. I added 20 oz of Coke and began to heat.

Pulled and cooled.



This was easily re-heated/reduced off egg. The taste & texture was fantastic.



My goal with this is to come up with a TexMex salad and I forgot to take after pictures. It turned out to be really excellent in the salad as well as it would make great burrito's and Pulled Pork sandwiches. The neighbors went nuts over the sandwiches.

I am going to do it again this week and when done I will get some details up.

GG

Grandpas Grub

The point of the above is something like this would be simple to cook pre-event the reheat in some of those larger server/cookers. Using less coke would bring the flavor and moisture back to what came off the egg originally.

You could do a simple test. Get 3 or 4 pounds of Boston Butt, cook and put in the fridge or even freezer. Thaw out or pull from the fridge add about 6 oz of coke (more if needed) and reheat on or off egg. On egg will give more smoke - a double smoke of sorts. On the oven or in a crock pot would work too.

It the test turns out acceptable to you then doing on a large scale would be a matter of adding moisture and reheating before the event. Keeping warm for serving is simple, just some manpower.

GG

Ripnem

I'm goiing to do just that GG. I have 2 ready to smoke and will be starting them tonight. I was thinking 3 people per pound would do for a grad party. Considering that many of the youngsters would be visiting a few parties on any givin Sat/Sun in grad party season. Also a smaller lunch sized bun should get you 4 sammys per pound.

Whats your take on that?

I'm heading out for a bit, will check back in a couple hours.

Wheels are really spinnin

Grandpas Grub

I have no idea how to guess servings for large groups. I only can go on the 2.4 rule below.

:laugh: teens are just empty stomach's and hollow legs. You know how this stuff tastes, the only thing that will stop them is armed gards or if they can't wiggle any longer. If your gathering is the first you are done for!

You are going to have to address the food handling side of all this (governments). However, all that aside...

A general formula is take the number of people and divide by 2.4 for the pounds of meat to cook. Celtic Wolf also has a more involved formula on his site. the 2.4 works out pretty close.

Smaller buns, potato rolls or small hard rolls (probably better) would be great. The name sliders is a nice way of saying smaller portions. However, as good as this is going to taste that would encourage folks taking two or more. That would also depend on the sides you come up with.

If you like the test results, I really think you can pull this off, that is if that is something you want to do.

GG

emilluca

Don't underestimate the BBQ sauce if you use some. It will almost double the servings. Pork will "swell up" and go farther.
E
I would prepare and use a vacuum bag system to keep it ready and then heat in boiling water with the product in the bag. I have kept pork that has been pulled for 21 days in vac bags with no problem. If you don't own a vac system WalMart has good prices on them and sure helps keep all the great food from the egg.

E

civil eggineer

I do believe vacuum bagging goes a long way towards maintaining that just cooked flavor. I use the ziploc hand pump and bags and think they do a fantastic job with very little investment.

civil eggineer

Ripnem: I received your email and forwarded it to the mother.

Personally, I would be nervous of feeding this large of a group and someone getting sick. Once you get paid for supplying food, you become a legal target. Even though the risk is slight, a food born illness hospitol bill can be huge.

Ripnem

Brand spankin new foodsaver at my house. I truly believe they are disposable and just can't go more than a few years if used regularly. When you consider the costs in things like fishing and hunting, the vacpac system is priceless. I am throwing a couple pounds of pulled pork now that I made a few weeks back, so I'll know more soon. I will contact Celtic Wolf on his knowledge of the logistical legal issues that would go with a catering gig.

Hey Tim, should I expect a call from this gal your refering to? I am very serious about this.

Thanks,

Ripnem

Oh, didn't see this reply.

I have become fairly comfortable with risk, as I've been a self employed general contractor for 8 years now and although the two are very different, insurance still works the same. Thanks Tim.

So do you do any Pheasant hunting?