Is this enough?


 

Kris Auer

TVWBB Member
I'm cooking for my sister-in-law's graduation party this weekend and she has requested brisket and pork. I am think 3 pork butts and 2 whole packer briskets. Is this enough? I only have an 18" WSM and plan on adding a grate to accomodate it all.
 
Yes,that should be plenty of food. Let your smoker come to temps before you add the meat,or you might have a hard time getting to proper cooking temps. Let us know how it turns out.
 
Goodness! with 3 butts and 2 whole briskets you could feed three times that number. Get your foodsaver ready.
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I'd suspect that you will be putting the butts in the smoker some hours after you start the briskets? Butts take lots less time to cook than briskets even for pulling... The alternative of course is to cook some of the meat ahead of time, and warm it up.

I have to agree with Canada Mike too, sounds like a lot of meat for 50 people. If I may suggest... do one brisket, the 3 butts plus a roasting chicken or three. The chickens will probably take less time than the butts, add more variety and ward off some hunger pangs if the other meats are not finished cooking. Just my 2cts.
 
Butts take longer than briskets - if we're talking typical butt sizes.

If you've time, I'd do two cooks, as Jim suggests.
 
I would strongly recommend doing the butts a day or two before. Pull and put in the fridge.

When the brisket is just about done, warm the pork in the oven.

That way there's no panic if things get delayed and eases the stress on you quite a bit, especially if you're new to mixed-meat cooking.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by TravisH:
I would strongly recommend doing the butts a day or two before. Pull and put in the fridge.

When the brisket is just about done, warm the pork in the oven.

That way there's no panic if things get delayed and eases the stress on you quite a bit, especially if you're new to mixed-meat cooking. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, absolutely Travis. Good tip. Another thing about pulled pork the day after... all of that beautiful tasty sauce has an extra day to marinate the food.
 
I'm doing that very same cook this weekend for a b-day party. I'm doing an all night butt cook Friday night into Saturday, then high heat briskets on Saturday while the butts are resting. That's my usual routine for this sort of cook. I also agree, the meat quantity doesn't sound like too much to me, there's no shame in leftovers.
 
If they're not heavy eaters you'd probably be pretty close to feeding them with the pork butts alone so you'll be fine. Happy cooking.

I get about a 40% yield in pulled meat from butts (your may get more), figure 1/4# of meat for small eaters, 1/3-1/2 for bigger portions.
 
Brisket and pork is what was requested so I won't be adding anything too it. The briskets are each ~9lbs and the porks each ~8lbs. I plan on doing them at the same time, foiling when necessary. The problem is that this is out of town for me, I am not arriving until Friday evening. I am doing an overnight cook at ~250 degrees hoping to finish late morning Saturday. The graduation is @ 1:00, so I need to be done by then (although if I'm not it's OK because I don't really want to go to the actual ceremony). Party starts at 4. If I can somehown get out of going to the ceremony I should be good to go.

As far as the amount of meat goes, I'm not actually paying for it and I ususally take the attitude of better to have too much than not enough.

If I remember to take my camera, I'll document and post the results.
 
Start soon after arrival. You can hold for some time if you need to. If an early start is not in the cards then take a look at what's what early in the morning. Foil the meat if you need to speed the cooking. It will need rest time plus time to finish (pull, slice, etc.) for serving so don't cut it too close. Easier to finish on the early side and hold than rush to get everything done, rested and served in a hurry. (That can make you crazy.)
 

 

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