Cooking Pork Butt for 100+ people


 
M

Marty T.

TVWBB Member
In a state of temporary insanity, I volunteered to cook pork butts for an upcoming Cub Scout family picnic. Looks like we'll have around 100 to 120 people, about half of them kids, and I need to make enough meat for all of them.

The plan is to use a modified Renowned Mr. Brown recipe (much less pepper) and cook 4 butts at a time, in 2 or 3 sessions in my WSM with my newly-acquired Stoker to help keep an eye on things. I'll freeze the meat until the day of the picnic and then reheat it all in a big oven at church. Everyone will love my cooking and it'll be a great day. Or at least, that's the plan...

Hopefully it won't be a big deal, but I'm wondering what logistical details I should be concerned with that I haven't thought about?

I'm thinking of taking a few shortcuts in the cooking by wrapping the butts in Saran wrap and foil - I know I won't get quite the same flavor and bark, but the savings of 6 or 8 hours per cooking session is worth it in this case I think.


Have any of you cooked for a large group like this? What advice can you offer?

Thanks!
 
Marty, do you have access to any Weber kettles?
You can use a kettle for a pork butt. It will just take a little more monitoring than a WSM

My choice would be to load up the WSM but also 2-3 kettles at the same time.

John
 
I don't have access to anything but my WSM. So it'll be a series of cooks to get all the butts done. Fortunately pork butt freezes pretty well so I can spread the cooking sessions out over several days.

As to the Saran wrap, I first read about it on the Virtual Weber Bullet web site...
 
Wow, that's quite an undertaking. Perhaps you can borrow a Food Savor from someone or invest in one that you can use later for yourself.
 
I'd definitely cook them hotter than usual.

If I had to do 10-12 butts with only one smoker, I'd be cooking at 300+. You'll probably cut your cook time near half.

You might think about using your oven too (start the butts in the smoker, and transfer them to the oven for finishing).
 
I did a 4-pack of butts followed by a pair of turkeys, low and slow two summers back....

Was for my brothers-in-law's (Yes, plural) graduation party. We had a good 100+ people there.

Let me just warn you - consider how much OTHER food is going to be there.

I had more smoke meat than I could handle, and it took several people to team up and pull it all small so that it was viable for the littler kids (something to think about...)

Would I do it again? Hell yes!
But I'd think more about the volume, if I were you...

You're talking 10 Butts at about 8 pounds average... that like 12 onces per person for 100 people!!!
How many kids do you think are going to pack away 12 ounces?
(Not all the Adults I know would...)



Marty, as you don't have your location listed yet, tell us all where to show up to help you 'clean up' afterwards... LOL!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

You're talking 10 Butts at about 8 pounds average... that like 12 onces per person for 100 people!!!
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

80 lbs of precooked butts will likely yield just under half the precooked weight. Figure a little less than 40 lbs of net cooked butt....which would be 160, 4 oz servings, and 80, 8 oz servings.

I cooked 39 lbs of untrimmed butts a couple of weeks ago, and the total yield was around 18 lbs.
 
Thanks for the reply! Definitely something to think about -- this will be the only meat course available at the picnic, though each family is supposed to bring a side dish.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">You're talking 10 Butts at about 8 pounds average... that like 12 onces per person for 100 people!!! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think you're forgetting about the poor yield from pork butt -- I may start with an 8 lb butt out of the cryovac but end up with 3 to 4 lbs of edible meat after cooking.

10 butts, 4 lbs yield each would be enough for about 100 people at 6 oz per person. The kids will eat a lot less of course and some folks not at all.

Once we get a firm head count, I'll figure 5 oz per adult and 3 or 4 oz per kid (theses are 1st-5th grade Cub Scouts; they don't eat too much) and assume a 40% yield. If we have leftovers, everybody gets to take some with them!

I'll buy the butts by the case at Sam's Club - #$1.13/lb in case quantity, 10 butts per case. Extras will go in my freezer!

BTW - I'm in the Kansas City area. That's about as specific as I can be till the picnic is over!
 
10 is what I'd do--2 5-butt cooks. If time was an issue I'd simply cook them hotter--without foiling.

An effort should be made to cool the meat quickly when it's pulled to avoid food safety issues. (See the last paragraph here for service time/temp limits.) The butts can be pulled one at a time, leaving the others to rest in the coolor, starting 1-2 hours after pulling them from the cooker. This gives you plenty of time to pull and cool the meat of each while the others remain hot, and enough leeway should you be interrupted during the process and/or need to take a break.

The other logistical issue that comes to mind is hot-holding. After reheating in water are you planning on dumping into Crockpots or chafers?
 
Get a Weber kettle. You should be able to pick up a used one for real cheap.

I'd also consider doing 1-2 fewer butts and cooking a lot of hot dogs. Many kids will go for the hot dogs over the pork butt.

John
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
The other logistical issue that comes to mind is hot-holding. After reheating in water are you planning on dumping into Crockpots or chafers? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the suggestions - we've got sterno-powered chafing dishes for serving so keeping things warm ought not to be a problem.

I'll make sure to get the meat in the fridge quickly after pulling.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
10 is what I'd do--2 5-butt cooks. If time was an issue I'd simply cook them hotter--without foiling. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This appears to be the best bet. Only two cooks and the Stoker will just make it seamless.

The hardest part is post-cook...I pulled 2 butts for a party by myself and was done...doing 10? Get help.
 
Marty, I would bet that someone in the cub scout group or your sphere of influence has a Weber kettle.

I asked a friend (who bought a gaser) to borrow his kettle a couple of months back and he just gave it to me. It ended up being a sought after Bar B Kettle which I now also use for smoking ribs, chicken, and high heat briskets and chuck roasts.

I would think with the addition of two kettles you can cook 8-10 butts in one shot and grill the hot dogs and maybe hot links or sausages on one of the kettles right before meal time.

John
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The hardest part is post-cook...I pulled 2 butts for a party by myself and was done.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I'm actually not a big fan of finely pulled pork. A bit too stringy and singular in look and texture for me.

I pull out the bone and separate the muscles along their natural lines. I trim some bark off of each muscle, run my knife over it a few times so that have a mix of fine, medium, and slightly larger bark pieces then push them off the the board's side.

Starting with one hunk of muscle, I'll chop crosswise a bit against the grain, varying the widths of the cuts, then turn the muscle so the knife is running with the grain and 'pull' the pork with the knife into some shreds, then turn and cut/chop crosswise again. At the end with the bark I'll chop into small but varying sized 'nuggets' of meat/bark. This all gets scooped into a bowl as I go, splashed with finishing sauce and briefly stirred. I repeat with the other muscles, splashing with sauce and stirring, stir in the bark I'd originally chopped, adjust salt, if necessary, then onto the next butt.

I like the contrasts is visual textures and the varying 'chew' qualities with the mix of pulled, finely and less finely chopped, nuggets of bark/meat, and minced and chopped bark. If this sounds at all appealing try it sometime and see what you think. If you're at all quick with a knife one butt takes 5-7 minutes.
 
I bought those bear claws someone recommended on this sight.

I had to pull 4 large butts recently, and they took at most a few minutes each.

Leaves you with all kinds of textures.
 
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