BBQ for 50


 
R

Richard Diaz

TVWBB Pro
I've been asked to do pulled pork and spare ribs for 50 for an office bbq. The office is supplying 3 sides. How much pp and ribs should I serve per person. I'm 3 spares trimmed and 4 oz of pp. What are your thoughts?
 
It is always better to have too much than to run out of food for something like this.
You can always offer the leftovers a day or two later. I would double your portions here.
Bet they love your Q!
 
The pulled pork is easy as you can do that on the WSM. Ribs on the other hand take up a lot of space and don't offer the same value because of the amount of bone. Not sure how to pull that one off.
 
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Richard Diaz said:
I've been asked to do pulled pork and spare ribs for 50 for an office bbq. The office is supplying 3 sides. How much pp and ribs should I serve per person. I'm 3 spares trimmed and 4 oz of pp. What are your thoughts?
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I'm assuming the office is picking up the tab and it's a mix of 50/50 men/women. When our team vends the ribs are the biggest seller. It might be different in your area, but if it was me I would focus on ribs and have pulled pork as a secondary meat.

With that said, I estimate some people will eat 4 ribs and some 2 so I figure 3 per person is about average. Then I would go about 20% to 30% over. So in the end 15 racks of ribs yields about 150 ribs (St Louis cut). If it were ribs only I’d go about 4 ribs per person or about 20 racks. With Pulled Pork, 15 rib racks is good and I would go about four 8 lb butts or about 32 lbs raw. Then again if you have the space and want to ensure there are left overs go about six-8lb butts.

I just did an small office lunch yesterday, for 7 people. (4 women 3 men). Cooked 3 racks of ribs with 3-4 sides (salad, veggies, potato salad, garlic bread). There was a full rack+ left over. We could have fed about 10-12 people with the 3 rib racks.
 
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Thanks for the responses. I do tailgates every year for 60 but cook for 70. For last years tailgate I squeezed 17 racks of ribs and I did 5 butts, separate cooks. I want to make sure that I cook enough meat for this event. Taking into consideration 3 sides plus desert does 4 oz of pp and 3 spares sound to little or just right?

The group has requested 45 orders of ribs and 52 orders of pulled pork. At 3 bones per person I can get 4 servings which puts me at 12 but i plan on doing 15 racks, which I can fit on wsm.

As for the pp, if i go 5 oz per person that puts me at 260 oz cooked, I am accounting for a 50% reduction, which puts me at 520 oz uncooked or roughly 30 lbs of butts. I'm thinking going with 6 5 pounders so I can generate more bark. Any suggestions?
 
Richard, are forgetting how GREAT your pulled pork is??!!
c'mon man! Folks are gonna make sandwiches AND pile on more without bread or rolls just 'cuz it's AWESOME!
I'd go with at least six 7 to 8 pounders....

butt then, i'm hungry:D
 
Chad Bman said:
The pulled pork is easy as you can do that on the WSM. Ribs on the other hand take up a lot of space and don't offer the same value because of the amount of bone. Not sure how to pull that one off.
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I can fit 16 racks of baby backs on the 22WSM using 4 - 4 rib racks. 8 on top and 8 on the bottom. Just did this last month for a party at work.
 
JimmyE said:
I can fit 16 racks of baby backs on the 22WSM using 4 - 4 rib racks. 8 on top and 8 on the bottom. Just did this last month for a party at work.
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Not while cooking pork butts also. Which is what I was referring to when I said "Not sure how to pull that one off"
I've done pulled pork & beans for 75, but that was all I could fit.

Back to Richard's actual question --- I think his 15 racks of spares and 30lbs of butt sounds fine. I'd probably bump the butt poundage up a little bit if I had space. With 3 sides & dessert, you shouldn't run out. But as Jim said, people will pile on sans bread because it's so good. :D
 
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