Fearless Party Plan


 
T

Thom Tomlinson

TVWBB Member
I'm cooking for a party of 150 beer drinking, dart throwing, Q loving guys and gals next Saturday. I could use a little feedback on my plan. Its not that I think something to death, its just that a plan is a good thing to help overcome those last minute challenges.

The Menu:
Appetizers:
Baba ghanoush w/grilled crustini
Cedar plank salmon (15 lbs)

Sides:
Hickory Smoked Baked Beans
Potatoes (not my domain for this party, whew)

Main:
50 chickens
64 lbs of butt (8 at apx. 8 lbs each)
64 lbs brisket (8 at apx. 8 lbs each)
Dessert:
again not my domain for this gig.

The Tools (Toys I've selected or have for this event):
WSM of course
2x7 charcoal grill with crank up grate
3x5 gas pig cooker with rack for wood chunks
4 burner gas grill (not a Weber - the host bought it new a month ago at Lowes, I fear this will be a Chargrill)
Warmer (its a big commercial job at the restaurant where I will be cooking)

The Working Plan:
Thursday/Friday - Smoke the briskets in shifts on Thursday and Friday per Clay B's procedure on p.174 pg BBQ USA. I've tested this technique and it works dang good. I'll use the pig cooker on Saturday to bring the temp up before slicing.
Saturday - Cook the eggplant and salmon over chunk fuel on the 2x7. After finishing the appetizers I will cook the chicken on the 2x7 with apple and alder wood and chunk charcoal.
I'll use the gas grill and a smoke box to cook the baked beans.

The butts are driving me crazy. I do not want to cook overnight - the food will be served at 1PM. I've never cooked butts on one of these before and am unsure of the cook time. I could plan for a whole pig, but does anyone have any ideas on cook time for the butts on such a contraption?

If anyone has ideas that will help I'd love to hear them.

And before anyone says it, I know this is a ton of food for 150 people; but, this gang can pack it away!
 
That much food is WAY out of my league
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The most I've ever cooked for is 12.

I would think that, as with any cooking, the key is good prep! But I'm sure you know that already...
 
Hey Tom

You might try over on the texasbbqrub.com forum.I beleive a lot of them cook for large parties they might be able to help yu on your game plan.
Hope This helps
Jeff
 
Wow, that sounds like a great feast. Make sure you have a foodsaver ready for leftovers cause I bet you have plenty. My motto is leftovers are OK.
 
Chef Thom,

I am impressed! You obviously deserve the title "Chef" if you can cook for that many people. I applaud you!

Ray
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff rector:
Hey Tom

You might try over on the texasbbqrub.com forum.I beleive a lot of them cook for large parties they might be able to help yu on your game plan.
Hope This helps
Jeff </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, this weekend "Dirty Ron" on that board is cooking 500 lbs of pork butts for church picnic. Unless it's a typo......

Loren
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check out their forum. If he's doing 500 lbs he can certainly answer my question.

I'll keep everyone posted on the smoking sessions.
 
I know that we all like to err on the side of too much food, but for 150 big eaters I think you have to much food.

So you figured cooked weights you'll be looking at

50 chickens (2 lbs of cooked meat a piece?) = 100 lbs.

Lets just cut the butt and briskett raw weights in half for edible meat weight. Gives you another 64 lbs (32 lbs each).

So just for the main course you have 164 lbs of meat.

I'm not a chef by any means and could be completely wrong here, but I have a feeling your cooking enough for well over 200 people.

Not that cutting the amount you have by 20% is going to make cooking it any easier
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Make sure you get some pictures and post them, cuz I'd LOVE to see it (next best thing to being there and getting some).
 
Again, thanks for the feedback.

I picked up the pork and brisket today. The butts are frozen. The briskets, like the ones I tested a few weeks ago, are going to require some trim work. The last batch took about 20 minutes per brisket. There are six briskets and four huge butts (looks like the whole shoulder).

I'll try to get pictures of each phase posted posted on my website. I've seen my smoker with four briskets - staked grates on beer cans - but the 2x7 grill filled with half chickens will be a real site!

In other updates, the host restaurant decided (after I had been telling him for two months) that its too much food (da!). We're now doing 35 chickens. Not much of a change.

He admitted there was probably more meat than we need for the party. He said we could split any unused brisket and Q. The way we plan to serve the food that will certainly work. We're slicing the brisket just before serving and the Q will all be chopped and resting in holding pans.

Gotta love this gig! Smokin', grillin', and Q'n for three days - get paid and get food! ;-)
 
Forgot to check back in with results. We had two butts left! The salmon must have jumped off the cedar into their mouths it went so fast. They devoured the brisket as fast as it hit the table. The birds were gone before I left the scene. In the end, two butts that never left the kitchen and one half pan of beans was all that remained.
 
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