Pork Butt for ~50?

[Erik Anderson]

Gents - I have volunteered to provide pulled pork for a college graduation open house at the end of May. There will be between 50 and 75 people there. Keeping in mind that there will be some other meat available (burgers, brats, etc) along with the requisite BBQ sides, how many pounds of butt should I plan on cooking up? My initial calculations show that I should perhaps plan on 1/3 pound/person pre-cooked weight. Is that in the ballpark?

Thanks!

 

[Mike A.]

I haven't fed that large a group, but precooked I would think a minimum 1/2# PP.

Perhaps 4 8# butts for 60-70 people.

 

[Keri C]

I usually figure 10 people per butt, and typically have some leftovers which I send home with those who request it (or sell to those who request it, depending on what kind of function it was for.) 1/3 lb precooked is roughly 1/6 lb or about 2.5 oz per serving. That's not much. 4 oz makes an okay sandwich. 5 oz is a nice sandwich. Serving with with other meats, I'd allow at LEAST 4 oz each 'cause when they get a load of your pulled pork they're going to ignore the burgers and brats.

Try at least 4 oz cooked X 2 = 8 oz each raw weight X roughly 60 people = 30 lb precooked divided by 7-ish lb per butt = 4.3 seven-lb butts. Or 3.75 8-lb butts.

Thus, I come up with same answer Mike did. Sorry. I'm a CPA. Gotta crunch the numbers.

Keri C, still smokin' on Tulsa Time

 

[Tony Hunter]

For 50 people at 8 oz. per person you should cook 40 lbs. of raw butt. That equates to two 4 oz. sandwiches each and should be fine if you have other meats as well. If you want 12 oz. per person then you should cook 60 lbs. of raw butt.

 

[Erik Anderson]

This is great info - thanks everyone. Call me paranoid for starting to think about this too early, but I can't help but get a little excited This will be my biggest bbq undertaking yet.