Brisket and pork shoulder in the same cook


 
Gary London

Gary London

TVWBB Super Fan
I have a family celebration coming up in 2 weeks and need to cater for around 20 adults and 5 kids.

I want to cook brisket (I have a 6lb flat in the freezer) and a (boneless) pork shoulder in the 22.5" WSM. Total of 12lb of meat, uncooked

I only have the one Maverick ET732 to monitor meat temp, but I do have a Thermapen for ad-hoc checks.

Firstly, is 12lb of meat enough? Half of them will probably only have one sandwich but don't want to run out.

Secondly, how to cook?
Both on one level?
Monitor beef temp rather than pork?
Will beef take longer per lb to cook?
 
Doug Hanthorn has a website called The Naked Wiz. (http://www.nakedwhiz.com/ceramic.htm) It's a ceramic cooker website and it has a wealth of information on everything from charcoal reviews to recipes. Here's what he has to say about how much you need to feed a crowd. Secondly, I'd cook the brisket on top since you'll be pulling it off first. Temp the flat and after you pull it, put the probe in the pork.

How much meat do I need for a large crowd?

Here is how you can figure how much brisket or pulled pork you need to prepare to serve a large crowd. There are several things to consider:

For pulled pork or brisket, a typical sandwich (or serving) is 4 oz of cooked meat.
For adult males, you might want to plan on 2 servings per person.
For women and children, plan on one serving per person.
The average butt loses about 40% of its weight while cooking. Therefore a pound (16 ounces) of uncooked meat will yield 9.6 ounces of cooked meat. 9.6 ounces is 2.4 servings, so every pound of uncooked meat that you start with will yield 2.4 servings.

So, first figure out out many servings you need (2 servings per hungry eater, 1 serving per ordinary eater). Then divide the number of servings by 2.4 servings per pound of uncooked meat and you have the total number of pounds of uncooked meat you need. Here, then, is an example:

10 men and 10 women would require about 30 servings. (2 x 10 men = 20 servings, 1 x 10 women = 10 servings.) Divide 30 servings by 2.4 servings per pound of uncooked meat and you get 12.5 pounds of uncooked meat.

Or from a real-life example:

We were asked to cook pulled pork for a women's shelter. There were 37 women, but these were 37 hungry women (many took a second sandwich with them after dinner), so we figured 60 servings. 60 divided by 2.4 is 25 pounds of raw meat, which is just about what it took.
 
It might be my imagination, but I have found that the smaller the butt to begin with, the more shrinkage you tend to get. So a 40% loss rate on a big butt would in my experience be closer to 50% loss for two butts of half the weight of the larger one.

But I always try to oversupply rather than risk coming out short. If you end up with an extra pound or two left over, it won't be around for long! (Smoked butt also freezes fine, although I am less happy with the texture of frozen leftover brisket.)
 
Definitely oversupply on the meat, the leftovers will be good eats the next day.
In my experience if the brisket is good it will be the 1st meat choice for 80%+ of the people.
Since you are in the UK, and that is almost as far away from Texas as you can get, pork may be the desired meat choice for your crowd.
Give yourself plenty of time, as long as you don't slice/pull the meat it will hold for several hours in a cooler packed with towels to take up the empty space.
Good luck, please post pictures of the party.
 
Thanks again for this good advice.
Portion sizes are generally smaller this side of the pond but oversupply will be order of the day. Going to do a lot of wings as a filler too.
Good beef will almost always be preferred to pork but I suspect most of the guests will not have had authentic brisket and pulled pork.
 
Another question with regard to the wings.

The family get together is at 3pm. It's an hour drive from where I live.
I was thinking of cooking the wings early and taking them cold but could I cook them later and keep them hot in the same cool box as the brisket and pork butt?
I prefer wings hot rather than cold but I probably have to cook 30-40 wings.
 
Tonight is the night.

Butt from Turner and George. Taken the skin off, plus lumps of fat to leave this. Uncooked weight reduced by 2.5lb I reckon. 8lb left :(

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Brisket was rolled and bought from Costco and had to be frozen. Little bit of trimming, not much.

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Rubs are ready. Pepper and spice for the Brisket, sugar and spice for the pork. Smoker stacked with briqs, apple and cherry ready to go. I will spend a little time getting it low and stable before I put the meat on.
Using water in the pan.

I think I will give the Butt a couple of hours head start.
 
Well it was a long night last night and a hectic day today to finish cooking and deliver the food.
Fired up the WSM at 22:30 and got it stabilised at 250 before putting the pork butt in at midnight on the lower rack.
Stayed between 230 and 248. Only one bottom vent opened a crack. Must be leaking quite a bit I think.

Brisket in at 2am.

Only real problem rest of night was at 3.30am when temp dived to 217 so gave the coals a stir and chucked in a few part used briqs, topped up water and opened vents slightly.
Stabilised at 234. at 6:45 temp rose to 243 and hovered around that temp until 11:25.

Brisket seemed to have stalled at 172 from 6.45 and took until 11:25 to get to 196.
Checked pork with Thermapen and that was only at 174 so got a bit worried that i had to leave at 1pm.

Wrapped the brisket and the pork and put them both on top shelf.
Put Maverick food probe in the pork as brisket was pretty much done. Seemed a bit stiff though and worried I had dried it out too much. It had shrunk a fair amount.

Wrapping pushed the pork on and pretty much perfect timing it reached 203 at 12:37.

Grilled 6.5lb of chicken wings which had been marinaded overnight.

No time for photos of different stages I'm afraid but here are a couple of late ones.

Decent bark on both. Had to convince the uneducated that it is not burnt.

Happy with the pork. It pulled easily, bone came out clean.
I thought the Brisket was going to fail and be too dry. It actually passed the pull test, just about and was far better then I expected.
Pork seemed to be favourite, but good feedback on the brisket too. I had ramped down the pepper from my first attempt. There ended up being plenty with leftovers.

You can perhaps see the diamond anniversary napkin in one photo. My parents got a letter of congratulations from the Queen!
Pity she didn't come along for beef and pork sandwiches.
Overall quite happy with the results - wings were great too.

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That is one fine cook Gary. You bashed it mate!!

Nice touch from Lizzy II sending your Mum & Dad congratulations on their diamond anniversary. Congrats from here too. :)
 
Congratulations.
I cooked for my in-laws 50th anniversary and I was very nervous about it not being good enough for the occasion.
In the end everything was fine.
Hope you got to enjoy the party too.
 
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