Cooking for 50 any thoughts on quantities??

[Tom Raveret]

Next Saturday I'm cooking for a buddys 50th b-day and going to do a mixed bbq of sorts. He estimates 50 people showing up.

I'd like some ideas/insights on what you think of these quantities and how many shoulders you'd do.

I'm planning on using two WSM's and two weber kettles with rotisserie attachments.

Thsi is what i'm thinking of so far:

4 chickens done 2 each on the kettle rotisseries

6 racks spares cut down to st louis style plus the tips that come off them. (3 racks per smoker seems to be capacity after I add all the tips in)

2 or 4 shoulders??

I'm going to cook the shoulders on Wednesday or Thursday then pull and foodsaver that to reheat in his oven on Saturday but the quantity of shoulders has me asking do I need 2 or 4??


All being served/finished with blues hog

 

[LarryR]

Tom, Ed. C. and I did a cook very SIMILAR to this recently except we did thighs not whole chickens. The only thing I'd adjust would be the ribs. If you figure 1/4 rack servings (and there will be some who eat more than a 1/4 rack, trust me) you're only looking at 24 people getting ribs. Ribs were probably the hit of our event and if all 60 guests would have showed they would have cleaned them out and the late arrivers would have been out of luck. You can easily get 6 racks per WSM with plenty of room for the trimmings. Look at these PICTURES for a better idea.

Regarding butts, I think you're fine with two 8 to 9 lb. butts. I'd also recommend doing the butts prior to your event and vac. sealing to drop in hot water to reheat. If you go this route throw in a finishing sauce after you pull from the hot water to insure the pork isn't dry.

If you have any questions on "sides' quanity I'm happy to look-up what we did. Also, you can download this Mike Trump's BBQ Catering Worksheet this is what I used as a starting point then got feedback from everyone on this board.

Good luck with your cook. Ed and I had a great time and I'd highly recommend getting a bbq buddy to help you out. There's no way I could have done it without Ed's help.

Good luck and have fun!!!

 

[Tom Raveret]

Thanks Larry,

Lots of well thought out information in there. Great feed back thanks.

I've done 8 racks at a time in the smoker of back ribs but spares being larger take more space and I wasnt foiling. I was planning on using a slightly modified version of Dr BBQ (ray lampe's) tecnique for ribs with a foil with brown sugar, honey, apple juice. I think I could get away with 4 racks per smoker.

I don't have the higher capacity rib racks that you do but I'm going to wait until someone designs them for the New big WSM2009. Now that will handle a higher capacity of spares!!!