BaByQ - Baby Shower with BBQ, Burgers, & Beer! 35-50 folks


 
K

KyleC

New member
Morning folks!

I bought myself the 22.5 inch WSM last summer and have thoroughly enjoyed the purchase...along with many other people! This upcoming weekend will be my first smoke for a larger gathering and wanted to get a few opinions from others.

We have a baby shower set for 12:30 Saturday for 35-50 people. I was planning on going to Costco Thursday night and grabbing 3 packages of their pork shoulders (2/package, 6 shoulders in total) and dry rubbing them Thursday night. Typically each weighs around 8 lbs, so 48 lbs uncooked...~28 lbs cooked. That should be ~100+ servings if I've calculated correctly, so I think that amount should be enough. Now for the cooking, I've had good success with 1.5 hrs of cook time per 1lb. of shoulder, and since each will be ~8 lbs....I'm thinking anywhere between 12-14 hours of smoke time. Then for resting, my best bbq rests at least 2 hours. Backing into the start time, 12 noon completion, minus 2 hours for resting...10AM...minus 12-14 hours cook time....I'm at a start time of 8-10PM Friday night. Just to be safe...maybe start around 6PM?

Although I don't have a maverick thermometer, I was hoping I can still get enough shut-eye to not be a zombie during our baby shower. If its running steady at 11PM...I think I should be good for most of the night. Maybe set an alarm at 3AM and then again at 6-7AM just to be sure.

Is there anything you all would do different? For resting, I just wrap them in foil and throw them in a cooler...can they rest too long...4 hours if it finishes early? As far as keeping warm for the party, I was thinking just get some of those foil treys and have the heaters underneath.

Thanks for any opinions or advice!!!
 
I just did a 6 pork butt cook for a church bbq, had around 100 people and almost all of it was gone. For 40-50 I think 6 butts is a little over kill. I think if you did 4 you'll be fine. I ran the w/o water. At the start of the cook your lid temp will be around 25-30° off. It should indicate a lower reading then what's at the grate. If your doing 6 butts I'd start at around 4-5pm the night before. This last cook to around 18-19hrs. More time for more meat. Some butts will finish before others, so make sure to check them all. It will be difficult to get a good idea on where your temp will actually be at, so I say give your self plenty of time. That many butts in a cooler will hold for a long time. Way past 4hrs. I've held them for 6-10hrs before, and still hot when pulling. I pull them right before I serve them, taste way better fresh. I've done a few big cooks with pork butt, for 100-150+ people, let me know how it goes. Send me a p.m. if you like. And remember to take some pix!
 
Thanks for the response S.Six. 6 may be overkill, but I'd rather have too much rather than too little, and we have a vacuum sealer to ensure no BBQ is wasted!

I didn't realize you could rest for that long...6-10 hours is a long time! Were all of your pork shoulders in the 8 lb range? With your 18-19 cook time frame, does that include resting? I'd hope a 5PM start time is good, and they'd hopefully all be ready to be pulled out of the smoker by 7-8AM for resting.

I will certainly take some pictures if I have time.

For this cook I plan on having the usual Sweet Baby Ray's sauce and then want to try my hand at this recipe (Chef Juke's Raspberry -Chipotle Barbecue Sauce):

http://www.reddit.com/r/BBQ/comments/oyg9o/whats_your_killer_bbq_sauce_recipe/
 
Keep us posted on how this turns out, with pics! :)

I'm planning on doing Pork Butts for our Housewarming Party in a few weeks. I was planning on doing (4) 7-8lb Butts for 30-40 people.
 
Kyle,

I just did 4 butts for a retirement dinner a week or so ago, they were about the same size. I had right around 30lbs at the start. I ran about 14hrs at 230F pretty steadily before mine were done. I also foiled them after they hit 170F. Since you don't have a thermometer, I think it was after 10hrs. Doing that probably knocked off 2hrs. from the overall cook time from guesstimating. I let them rest around 1hr while I was transporting. Since I used both racks, I also swapped the top and bottom around half way so as to not overcook the one's on the bottom rack. It was an adventure for me, have fun. Good Luck

P.S. You probably won't sleep;) I know I had a hard time. I used a maverick, but still kept eyes on it all night.
 
KyleC said:
Thanks for the response S.Six. 6 may be overkill, but I'd rather have too much rather than too little, and we have a vacuum sealer to ensure no BBQ is wasted!

I didn't realize you could rest for that long...6-10 hours is a long time! Were all of your pork shoulders in the 8 lb range? With your 18-19 cook time frame, does that include resting? I'd hope a 5PM start time is good, and they'd hopefully all be ready to be pulled out of the smoker by 7-8AM for resting.

I will certainly take some pictures if I have time.

For this cook I plan on having the usual Sweet Baby Ray's sauce and then want to try my hand at this recipe (Chef Juke's Raspberry -Chipotle Barbecue Sauce):

http://www.reddit.com/r/BBQ/comments/oyg9o/whats_your_killer_bbq_sauce_recipe/
Click to expand...

They were from Sam's Club, and actually weren't very consistent in size. One was probably around 4lbs. Total time did not include holding in the cooler. My temps would run lower than normal sometimes, but I had time on my side.
 
I did a after wedding wedding party last month for about 50 people. I did four butts, averaged 8 - 9 pounds, just over 35 pounds of meat. At 275*ish on my WSM, all four were done in 9 hours. I pulled three of them and served them in my big crock pot. The fourth was held in reserved and not needed. I served them as sliders with buns and salsa, but we also had lots of sides.
 
I've not done a really big cook before. The biggest butt cook I did was 2 butts for probably 30 people (including kids) or so, but it was a pot-luck so there were other main dishes as well as plenty of sides and desserts. That said, I usually get my butts from Costco, and they are rarely consistent... even w/in the same cryovac package! Just a word of warning before expecting to get 6 butts about the same size.

The one thing that always catches me off guard when doing pulled pork is the time it takes to actually pull the pork. I often forget to account for that when I work back to a start time. So don't forget it's gonna take some time to pull all of that meat... especially if you're doing it alone. I'm reminded of an episode of My Family Recipe Rocks where a guy was doing pulled pork for a neighborhood block party (on his Weber kettles btw) and once they were cooked & rested he called in the women (his wife and some other ladies from the neighborhood) to do all of the pulling. Of course since it was for a block party (and everyone was anxiously waiting for his pork) they were more than happy help. I'm not suggesting you delegate the pulling, but the more people you have pulling, the faster it goes, the sooner you can eat!
 
Hey everyone, thanks for the responses! Everything turned out great for the party, but unfortunately I was so busy, I didn't get any pictures :( I know...that means it never happened!

I used the minion method and almost an entire bag of Kingsford Competition briquets w/ hickory and apple wood mixed in. I started smoking at 5:30PM, 3 6-8 lb shoulders on each rack, so 6 all together. I have seriously been amazed at how well the WSM holds temperature, it stayed between 225-235 for the entire night. I checked the meat at 3AM, 6AM (3 of the smaller ones were at 190, but I kept them on another hour) and then again at 8AM. By 8AM, the rest of the butts were 185-195+ and the temperature was 200 and declining so I pulled them. I put them all in a cooler and had them wrapped in foil and towels and let them rest until 12:30PM. We pulled 2 shoulders and had them sitting in pans over those food warmer cans ready to be devoured!

We ended up with 45 people show up and only went through those 2 shoulders! We had so many sides and my wife made me grill burgers for some that don't like pork, so there was a ton of food. So for the week following the party, I had BBQ for lunch and dinner every night, and we still have a ton vacuum sealed in the freezer.

The Chef Juke Raspberry Chipotle BBQ sauce I made was an adventure, but I really liked it too. I made too much of that as well (probably have 5 cups left in the fridge), but it was sweet with a good kick on the back end. I highly recommend that recipe to everyone!

The leftover frozen BBQ will come in handy for quick meals with this baby makes his appearance any day now!:D
 
Brian Johnson said:
Congrats on a good cook Kyle! For what it's worth, my wife and I love making tacos & enchiladas out of our left over bbq pork shoulders.
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian, there is this great local BBQ that has pork tacos but I've never done it at home. I will give it a try very soon!
 
KyleC said:
Thanks Brian, there is this great local BBQ that has pork tacos but I've never done it at home. I will give it a try very soon!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan! Just remember your pork is already seasoned, so go light on any additional "taco seasonings" you add. You don't want to overpower the bbq. The first time we made them, we just added a store bought taco seasoning packet and didn't even think about the fact that those packets are meant to be added to bland (rather unseasoned) meat. Now my wife makes a big batch of her own taco seasoning and we add it to taste while reheating the meat. We love it! And now I'm thinking I need to smoke up some shoulders for tacos soon.
 
Since my previous Baby-Q was such a success, I've been asked to do BBQ for my sister's baby shower this upcoming weekend. This time 70 folks at my parents place. Since the past big smoke, I've gotten a Maverick 733 and am eager to use it this go around, and hopefully sleep better!

We are going to get another 6 ~8 lb butts for 70 folks. I figure ~48 lbs uncooked will be ~30 lbs cooked, and if every eats 1/3 lb, there should still be some left over. Would you all agree?

I haven't figured out which I'm going to do...Chris Lilly's Six-time World Championship Pork Shoulder injection and rub or Renowned Mr. Brown recipe. Maybe Renowned Mr. Brown with Lilly's injection.

I was going to make the Chef Juke Raspberry BBQ sauce, any recommendations for a vinegar & mustard sauce?

I'll try to take pics this time! Thanks!
 
8 Butta between 6-7 lbs, all rubbed and ready for injection tonight. It'll be a tight fit but I think it will work. Party is at 4 PM tomorrow, thinking I want to shoot to have them resting by noon tomorrow to allow for a couple hours of cushion. Thinking about putting them on at 10PM tonight, at 14 hrs, 2 hrs per pound, that'd put me at noon.

What do you all think?

 
WOW, I wish I had the parties to cook that much meat for. The shoulders are on sale here for .89 a pound, KROGER. I need to pick up a few more before Tuesday.

If you only used two butts the last time and had half the people do you really need 8? I would think half of that would be fine maybe one more as an extra. Your times look good to me. Start your fire at 9 to give it an hour to be ready.
 
Got all the butts injected last night and had them going in the smoker at about 9:30PM. Took about 1.5 hours to get up to 200 due to the cold, rainy weather. Had the smoker around 240 nearly all night, the Maverick didn't alarm once! Got up at 8AM and it was at 220, so I opened the vents and added some new charcoal to get it up a bit. Now we are at 12 hours in and its at 248, meat is at 171. Its been between 160-170 for what seems like at least 3 hours. I hope ramping the temperature up will help speed it up a bit. My goal was to pull at 200 around noon, but it looks like I probably won't make that. I think I have to pull by 2PM to make sure its ready to be devoured by 4:30.

Any advice on if/when I should wrap? I'm thinking I might let the smoker creep up to 260ish to help speed it along, and I dont want to wrap if I dont have to.

Here's some pictures of progress so far:





 
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