Catering with Pork Butt - A Noob Question


 
R

Rob TN

New member
Hello all,
This is my first post here, and was hoping to get some sage advice. My sister in-law and her fiancee have asked me to cater their wedding in April; they want pulled pork BBQ and the "fixin's." I am trying to figure out how much meat I will need in order to feed 80 guests. I have an 18.5" WSM on the way, as we speak. I have some experience with a small offset smoker, but this will be my first bullet style cooker. When it arrives, I plan on seasoning it, and breaking it in; then will run a test recipe with one shoulder to get my flavors where I want them. I also plan on cooking the meat, the day before, and slowly reheating the day of the wedding, do you think I'd be sacrificing quality by doing it this way? If anyone can offer any advice on quantity of meat, about how long said quantity would take to cook, or any tips for a first time WSM user, it would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you so much in advance!
 
Lots of advice here on the WSM, try The Virtual Weber Bullet tab at the top of the page. As for how much pork, I figure 2/3 pound uncooked per person. If you have 30 people, buy 20 pounds. Good luck!
 
Welcome to the forum Rob. When my 18.5" WSM. was new to me I did 4 Boston Butts, avg wt about 8.5 lb. Normally that size butt took about 10 t o12 hrs. at 225° without water. On the big cook, also at 225°, the first came off at 18.5 hrs. and number 4 came off at 22 hrs. The full load did take more time than I expected and I'm sure cooking at a higher temp would reduce the amount of time. I was expecting a cook of 19 hrs figuring 2 hrs per lb.. Hope that helps your calculation. I pulled it and took it to a fishing club picnic the next day. We warmed the pans of pork on the clubs big grill. The folks really liked the taste. You can cook it all the way, store it overnight, and reheat and pull the day of the wedding. I don't think there's much of a change in flavor. Whatever way you do it.

On your cook expect to reload charcoal at least once. If I was doing it again I would run the cooker between 250 to 275° without water. Have fun with it.

Don't worry about seasoning the WSM. It's porcelain coated enamel and won't absorb the seasoning. Cook on it and it will build up a layer on the inside but it doesn't penetrate the porcelain.
 
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Assuming the 2/3 pound per person rule is correct, you are going to have to do 7 pork butts that are 8 lbs each. With a single smoker you might want to smoke each pork butt for a couple of hours (to get the smoke in the meat) and then finish them off in an oven. The real question is can you get a couple hours of smoke on each butt, refrigerate and then finish them the day of the wedding in the oven? Normally I would want to finish the port butt on the smoker but feeding 80 people with a single smoker suggests some oven time might be necessary.
 
I would err on high side of lbs and cook time.
Pork butt is cheap. Often get for 0.99/lb. . Keep eye out and buy and freeze ahead of time. Leave adequate thaw time (4 days in fridge) if do that.

I read Someone here cooked 8 at once in an 18". 4 each rack, standing up on end .

Ive no experience, other than large shrinkage of 50%. If it were me, id be planning about 1 lb uncooked per person. Possibly high if a bunch of kids around, but a couple big eaters offset that.

Even if have some left, vac seal and freeze in portions. Youll have good sandwiches on demand for a few months. Just microwave a couple minutes. Nothing lost. We eat several lbs cooked butt or brisket or ribs or turkey per week this way. It goes very fast.
 
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