How many pork butts?


 
half pound per person.
approximately 4lbs of edible pork from 7.5lb butt.

I ain't no mathematician butt it'd take a lot.
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At 1/2 pound per person you would need 500 lbs of butt.

7.5 butt = 4lbs of edible.

125 7.5 lb pb's = 4lbs x 125 = 500 lbs of meat.

I think..it's early...
 
It's going to depend on a lot. Is shoulder the only protein being offered? What are the sides to go along with it. Sit down or buffet style? All adults or some kids as well?

Clark
 
Using Jim's and Derek's figures:

If each 7# butt produces 4# of edible pork and if you say 1/2# of pork per person; then each butt would make 8 servings.

1000 persons divided by 8 persons per butt equals 125 butts.

Are you serving any sides? 1/2 lb may be a bit much per serving.

joe
 
I'm going to advise a little more meat...

I'd probably count on using 8-9 lb cryovac bone-in butts, yielding 4# of usable meat each. (I prefer to de-fat my butts after cooking much more than 90% of the folks...haven't heard a complaint about that yet)

I would also figure on 1/2 lb of meat for each person, IF you can get a serious grip on the number of those 1,000 people are going to eat meat and eat pork. Seems to be more and more folks today leaving the good eating to the rest of us. Out of that number, I'd figure 1/2 lb for 85% of that number and 12 oz for 15%.

Let's say you had 900 people. That's 385 lbs for the 8 oz portions and 100 lbs for the 12 oz portions. Let's call it 500 lbs of cooked meat. That's 125 butts. Hehehehe...same number as everyone else gets, but I'm going about it a different way...
 
My experience with charity events is that I can get about 30 modest sammies per butt. These are on hamburger buns with a gob of meat somewhere between a golf ball and a very small tennis ball. This is a fund raising thing, so folks don't expect a huge sammie with a baseball size handful of meat.

Bottom line, you need somewhere between 35 -50 butts on a fundraiser model.

Cheers!
 
Agree. The math is right IF that's the only meat being served.

At our Church's annual picnic, I figure only 1/4 lb per at most. But that's because there's also hamburgers and hot dogs and oceans of sides.

And don't forget TIME! Takes me 3 days to smoke it all!

I also started a tradition amongst the volunteer cooks by bringing along some ABT's that smoked on my WSM hidden behind the trailer'ed grill. Just a little something-something for us to snack on while we slaved over the grill. Now, several cooks bring samplers of their own specialties - brisket, wings, tamales, etc. Yummy!
 
FWIW, I believe a local bbq caterer advises planning on 6 sandwiches to a pound, and some say to plan on 6 oz. per person. I've done some decent-sized barbecues, receptions, and reunions, but never needed as much as half a pound of pulled pork per person. I'd change my tune if it was for just a bunch of guys, though.
 
As I said yesterday, 1/2 lb of meat seemed high. A week ago yesterday I smoked 6 butts totalling 45 lbs for PP sammies at an awards banquet at a local high school for the wrestling team. 65 people showed up and I still had 1 whole butt left. The parents had green salad, potato salad, baked beans and desserts. If sides are being served, 1/2 lb per sammie is a bit high.
 
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