HELP! How many butts?


 
J

J. DeMatteis

TVWBB Member
Me and my big mouth!
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I volunteered my services and WSM to make pulled pork for a friend's open house for her new office. She plans on having it for two days (sat & sun) for about 3 hours each afternoon (12pm - 3pm). She's planning on having (roughly) 50 people each day. There will be chips & macaroni salad (which I also said I'd make......remember, big mouth!) and pops. There's also going to be little hors d'oevures, like you get at Sam's in the frozen section, that she'll bake off each day. So, how much meat am I going to have to smoke? I'm thinking 6 butts?? I'd prefer to have leftovers.

Thank goodness she's taking care of the dessert. A chocolate fountain!
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It's in a couple of weeks, so I've got time to prepare. I'm going to cook the meat the day before the first open house and then reheat in crockpots.
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The average adult will consume between ¼ and ½ pound of meat. Split the difference and figure on a third pound per person. Net yield on pork butt is 50-60% of uncooked weight. 30 pounds cooked equates to 50-60 lbs uncooked. If in doubt, cook more-- it freezes well.
 
My rough assumption is 8-10 adults can be fed per 7 lb butt. Thats assuming "average" sized sandwiches with sides. This is not totally off of what Doug suggested.

A group of teenage guys, 1/2 of which are on the football team will consume more food than you cook
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I like to go with the 1/3 - 1/2 lb per person per sandwich, but I will always work off the larger number and end up with leftovers than the smaller and be eaten out of house and home.

The other quickly asked questions are about her numbers... is the 50 a firm figure or could it be way under the number likely to attend on any one day?

Also it doesn't take all that long to throw another foil tray in the oven with some sauce on the meat and covered with saran wrap to reheat pulled pork, so if you pull the pork into foil trays, add either some commercial bbq sauce or home made or just a sprits of apple juice then, tightly seal with saran wrap, if you need more pulled pork you can pop another tray in an oven set to 225° and it will be heated through in 45 minutes or so.

I like to do my estimates as 25% above known, just in case, so if there is expected to be 50 then I think 62 - 63 @ 1/2 lb / person / sandwich = 32 lbs pulled pork / day (top limit) & 62 - 63 @ 1/3 lb / person / sandwich = 21 lbs pulled pork (bottom limit).

For the bottom limit and a 50% pull rate (but with the 25% over estimate included) you would need about 40 lbs of uncooked pork or roughly 6 butts around 6 1/2 lbs each, which just happens to be about as much pork as you can fit in an unmodified WSM at one time. If you get a better pull rate of 60% then you will still be only 4lbs (or about 1/2 of a tray) more pulled pork than at 50%.

The other thoughts to remember is that most folks eat around the 12 – 1:30 time frame (on a work day) so you really need to concentrate your productivity there if this is being done during the work day. If it is being done in a more social setting folks will often not start to eat until they have been there 20 to 30 minutes, done more of an informal meet and greet and be relaxed enough to want to eat.

You can overcome the reluctance to eat by the aroma of pulled pork wafting around, but also by being prepared to grab someone to start the ball rolling (you can always offer yourself as the sacrificial victim at this time and take the first plate).

The other thing to think on is the weather…looking at the 10 day for Cincinnati you are going to be in the low to mid 50°s so can you keep a stream of folks 50 strong, warm and dry as you feed them? Do you need to suggest that she gives different clients staggered times between 12 and 2:30 to arrive so that there will be a steady flow of folks arriving, eating and then leaving (not that they have to leave), but if the are encouraged to come for an open timed lunch on a working day, groups arriving 15 to 20 minutes apart make reheating more, less of a chore. Of course the opposite can hold true, in that if everyone is arriving by say 12:30 at the latest, and food will be served from 12:35 or 12:40 onwards, you can work it this way too if you prefer.
 
If you are a costcos member, or know of any other place to get them, boneless has a higher yield. Feed more people with the same amount of space being used for the cook.

Make sure you have some cooking twine to tie them up from the hack job they sometimes do.
 
Although, unless this is being billed as a lunch function I don't imagine the food needs anywhere near that high. I've done many an open house where food is offered. In an early afternoon scenario on a weekend (where people tend to eat breakfast later and often have dinner plans), and where food isn't receiving top billing (thus, many people will have eaten two meals prior to arrival), I cook 25-50% less than I would for an actual lunch affair. Though I charge a flat fee for my service (cost of food is extra) I do not want the client to shell out unnecessarily, nor do I want to cook unnecessarily. In circumstances where the guest count might be way off (or if the clients simply wants extra) then I'll suggest cooking more and having it cold but ready to heat (as Chris suggests) and let the client know I'll be happy to FoodSaver for their freezer should the food be unneeded.

The other thing I do for these types of functions is scale everthing down: smaller plates (like 8" plus small dessert plates for apps and dessert), smaller rolls if I'm doing sandwiches, smaller serving containers, etc. This makes a plate of food less imposing and easier to deal with as well, especially if people will mostly be eating standing up.
 
Okay, that's alot of info to digest. That's why I like this site, lots of people with lots of different viewpoints!

After reading & thinking about it, I'm thinking about using the 10 people/butt figure.

Her 50/day figure is no way firm. It could be 20, it could be 300. Tendnecy for these things (she usually holds a dinner for her clients at the country club) is about 80 - 100 people show after 350 invitiations have been sent. And it's usually RSVP, this one's not.

Keeping in mind that there will be macaroni salad & chips along with the pork and hor d'ourves and drinks and dessert. It's being billed as a "picnic" and there will be some tables but not so much as a place to sit but as a staging area for your plate of food.

Now a PLUS is that I misunderstood the times and it's being held from 3:00pm - 6:00pm instead of noon - 3:00pm, so I figure people won't be eating as heavy at that time of day (especially on Sat. & Sun.).

So, using the 10/butt figure and Kevin's 25-50% less figures & the fact of the mac. salad and other goodies, I'm thinking 6 butts total (3 per day). If I use the Kroger "sandwich" buns (instead of the "Jumbos" buns that I personally use for pulled pork sammys) that would work, wouldn't it?

She's buying all the food, I'm just preparing it. But I don't want her to have to "over buy" food. She's buying styrofoam plates so the size will be like what Kevin suggested and clean up a breeze. Of course, if there's left overs........

I'm both a Sam's & Cosco member, but will probably go with Sam's. I've never liked the boneless at Costco, especially at $1.99/lb. I called and it's $1.36/lb for Cryovac bone-in butt.

I'm thinking of buying/cooking half this Friday and freeze it, then buy/cook the other half next Fri. Not sure of doing 6 butts at a time on my WSM. Any thoughts on this?
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If I freeze it, should I pull it first?

6 butts? 8 butts? 6 butts, right?
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Me and my big mouth!
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Now just taking your last question first I would split the difference and do seven (7) butts total, four (4) cooked the Friday just before the weekend, 3 cooked on the Saturday of the weekend.

My reasoning would be like this, the 3 - 6:00 pm is either a late lunch or a very early diner, most people will probably have something light for lunch, and something light and late for diner.

If you cook on the Friday before and cook 4 butts you will be able to cook with the Minion method and cook them all day, but by having 4 cooked for the Saturday, (using the smaller is better you can then feed 40 + on Saturday), you can keep what ever doesn't get used Saturday in the fridge overnight without taking up lots of space, and if more folks turn up the Saturday (which is when they will do round here) there is a strong church and family tradition and poorer turnouts on Sundays, (by having 3 more fresh cooked on Saturday) you will have a better idea of the accuracy of your estimates, and if you had to throw a couple in overnight Saturday – Sunday morning, you would still have time.

I like pulled pork even when defrosted, but if you give me the choice between pork cooked and pulled yesterday, and defrosted (even if only frozen for a day or two), I will take the fresh every time.

To my mind you will be providing a much better product if you can cook and serve Friday for Saturday and Saturday for Sunday. Just my opinion, take it or leave it.
 
I would say that it isn't really fair for you to be asked to cook with such a wide range of possible guest. It really is impossible to plan for this. Smoke 4 butts, then have a kettle there to do burgers for the rest that may show up. Goodluck Bud. I'm sure your prok will turn out great.
 
J.,

I done a church yardsale back in the summer. I done like Chris said and cooked 6 butts Thursday night for sale Friday and cooked 6 more butts Friday night for sale Saturday. I started out with 12 bone-in butts totaling 174 lb. We finished up selling every ounce in 1 lb ziplocs and had 88 lbs. total sold. All the meat was still warm when sold so that kept it fresh as possible.

This may not help you much but I would try to time your cook starts where it will work out being fresh when serving. Butts will hold for several hours in a cooler before pulling to serve. Also mine came out right at 50% pulled ready to serve meat.

Randy
 
I did pulled pork for a rehersal dinner about 3 weeks ago, there was going to 48 people there so the host ordered 13 pounds of pork. I cooked 4 roughly 8 pound butts got the 13 pounds out and had some left for my freezer. there was plenty of pork for the party plus there was leftovers. when I bought the meat I figured losing 50% when cooking after all was said and done and I weighed all the meat after cooking it was almost exactly 50%. Four butts on the WSM took me just over 13.5 hours.

Smokey J's BBQ
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Now just taking your last question first I would split the difference and do seven (7) butts total, four (4) cooked the Friday just before the weekend, 3 cooked on the Saturday of the weekend. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
This is an excellent suggestion and one I would likely follow myself.

I too prefer cooking for direct service but I wouldn't hesitate to cook early and freeze or fridge (which I chose would depend on time between cookin and service). The important thing, imo, if cooking early is to chill quickly and package in smaller amounts for both quality and safety concerns.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice and support. I'll start cooking Friday and see what happens. Weather's reporting our possible first snow for Friday, so I don't thing chilling quickly will be a problem. High for the day should be around 50, but it'll be COLD in the morning when I start firing up my WSM. Dang, should have had this thing this weekend. It was beautiful weather.

Honestly, even with all my grumping and complaining, I don't mind doing this. I love to cook, I just want it to be good quality for the event.

I'll boil the macaroni and eggs a couple of days in advance and pre-chop the onions and celery, so all I'll have to do Friday is make the dressing for the macaroni salad and assemble it, then set it in the fridge to chill and marinate. All the concentration will be on the pork!

Besides, she's my financial advisor! She finds me new ways to fund my BBQ habit!!
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