Pulled pork and brisket for 45-50 people?

[Troy S]

I would really appreciate some advice, because I feel like I'm losing my mind over the math! I have been running roughshod all over Google, searching up on different BBQ forums and the like as to how much meat I will need for Saturday, but I figured I would pop in here and ask my pitmaster pals from TVWBB.

This Saturday, I'm going to a family event at my uncle's ranch. He asked me to cater brisket and pulled pork. I'm honored to be asked of to do it, but I want to make sure everything is just right. I will be using my 22.5" WSM and two of my drum smokers for this job.

The head count is anywhere from 40-50 people. Maybe more. I really don't know. It is an event for family and friends, and yeah, it's a big family. There are some big eaters, too, I might add. My uncle did tell me that there will be some vegans (LOL) there, so he is taking care of grub in that vein of things as well as some sides. Now, the thing is, of everyone who will be there, I have no idea how many non-meat eaters will be there -- that is a big question mark to take into consideration. Also, as far as sides go, I have no idea what he has planned for that. So that is another thing that has me overthinking here, and why I'm wondering if I'm either under or over-shooting how much meat I'm bringing.

As for the brisket: I'm thinking of around 50-55 lbs. of uncooked brisket. Now, I'm not a hardcore trimmer like a lot of guys are. I'll take off the hard fat to as close to leaving 1/4" as I can. Accounting for shrinkage, I'm not sure what to expect the final weight to be. 30% loss? 50%? At any rate, I guess I'm shooting for at least half a pound of meat per person. I'm going to Sam's Club today to pick up the briskets. Last time I was there a couple of weeks ago, a full packer was $2.88/lb.

As for the pulled pork: I have around nine or ten pork butts in my freezer, around 80-90 lbs. I am not going with that much meat, of course, but I'm still wondering how much I should roll with. Same as brisket or less?

Now, with that much meat, I know some people may have their preferences between the two, as one may be more favored than the other. At the end of the day, I would rather bring too much meat than too little, but I don't want to overshoot by a ridiculous amount.

The weirdest request was 24 chicken wings and 24 jalapeno poppers. Odd request given the amount of people. I double-checked such a request for that amount several times to confirm from him. This has nothing to do with what I'm asking. I just wanted to mention it because it was an unexpected request given the event size.

Any advice? I'm on the edge of paralysis by analysis here! Haha. Thank you for reading. I'm sure I'm leaving out a detail I originally wanted to mention as I'm rushing around working today, but that is the gist.

 

[JKalchik]

Tony, FWIW, I've smoked for 65-70 people a couple of times. 2 full packer briskets (17-18 lbs. each,) 2 pork butts, and 4 chickens, and served everyone pretty easily. There certainly shouldn't be a problem with leftovers, but yeah, I wouldn't want to run out for sure.

 

[Troy S]

I appreciate the swift reply, J! The 17-18 lb. briskets -- was that the weight of the raw meat, or cooked? Just clarifying. How big were the pork butts?

A couple of weeks ago, for a party, I smoked an 18-pounder and it was destroyed pretty quickly among 14 people. That was along with mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, green beans and deep-fried wings as side items. Yeah, I know some big eaters.

Doing the math for all this, I feel like Zach Galifianakis' character from the first Hangover movie.

 

[JKalchik]

17-18 lbs uncooked on the briskets, each. IIRC, the pork butts were 7-8 lbs each, boneless, uncooked.

Labor Day, I smoked a packer brisket and a pork butt (about the same size) for about 10 people, and had enough leftovers for another meal.

I would definitely plan for leftovers. Having empty pans at the end is a pleasant surprise.

 

[timothy]

ChrisA has a calculator on pork butts.https://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pulled-pork-butt-servings-calculator/

 

[Karl Quist]

Did not know about the pork butt calculator. That could be very, very handy. Thanks for that post @timothy

@Troy S my apologies, I don't have anything constructive to add here, but did want to say that I love your sunglasses. Best of luck with the meal.

 

[Brad Olson]

The head count is anywhere from 40-50 people. Maybe more. I really don't know.

Get paid up front.

Seriously, if the parameters are weak it's tough to come up with a reasonable estimate. Figuring on 48 people because it helps the numbers, rounding up the traditional 1 lb. per person estimate to 1.25 and splitting gives 30 lbs. each of uncooked pork and brisket. Go from 1.25 to 1.5 and it's 36 of each. If your uncle (hopefully his name isn't Scrooge McDuck) is covering the sides and the vegetarian outliers, I think this will get you close.

But there's a wild card: will there be booze? Because if the beer flows and the appetizers and early sides get devoured, appetites may be dulled when the barbecue comes out.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Relax you got this. Usualky a pound per person is overkill. I like to have a lot of extra but know in advance I am overdoing it. The closest estimate I have seen professionally, is about 2-2.4 people per pound of cooked. Which works out to about the same as . 8 to 1 pound per person before cooking. With a hefty 50 percent loss margin of error.
Now we need to know about other dishes.
I frequently cook for 40-45. However most are small eaters. I usually try to have a pound per person. And i have to give most away at the end. But I see you have friends like me. I am not saying I could eat a whole flat myself. Unless I was hungry.

 

[Troy S]

Did not know about the pork butt calculator. That could be very, very handy. Thanks for that post @timothy

@Troy S my apologies, I don't have anything constructive to add here, but did want to say that I love your sunglasses. Best of luck with the meal.

Haha thanks, man. Best cheap shades I've ever purchased, because they fit my big head.

ChrisA has a calculator on pork butts.https://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pulled-pork-butt-servings-calculator/

Nice! Thank you for mentioning this, Timothy! Very clutch. I remember seeing this calculator a year or two ago on here, but I totally forgot about it. Again, I really appreciate it.

Get paid up front.

Seriously, if the parameters are weak it's tough to come up with a reasonable estimate. Figuring on 48 people because it helps the numbers, rounding up the traditional 1 lb. per person estimate to 1.25 and splitting gives 30 lbs. each of uncooked pork and brisket. Go from 1.25 to 1.5 and it's 36 of each. If your uncle (hopefully his name isn't Scrooge McDuck) is covering the sides and the vegetarian outliers, I think this will get you close.

But there's a wild card: will there be booze? Because if the beer flows and the appetizers and early sides get devoured, appetites may be dulled when the barbecue comes out.

Really appreciate your thoughts on the matter -- truly does help.

I doubt there will be any alcohol. I could be wrong, though, but my doubt exists just because I know this particular uncle of mine is stringent teetotaler for all I know. I could be dead wrong! I'm not super close to him. I have only ran into him a few times in the last 17-ish years. This barbecue came about, because back in early July I ran into him, and he mentioned that he 'might' contact me about barbecuing for a big family/friends event. I was absolutely shocked when he actually reached out to me about it, though. I might have to thank a few of my cousins for showing him the BBQ from my Instagram page.

I still don't understand his request of only 24 wings and 24 jalapeno poppers. I'm throwing in a few extra poppers, because I hosted a party back in May, smoked 80-90 jalapeno poppers, and for 15 people they didn't last! (Of course, a few were taken home as leftovers.) He asked if I could make the wings 'extra spicy' -- I know just the job for that. There's a company out in Colorado that makes crushed peppers, and they have a crazy blend featuring ghost, reaper, scorpion and habanero peppers.

Going back to the booze bit real quick: I know everybody is different, but whenever I drink, my appetite goes into overdrive and I feel like I could eat a whole cow.

Relax you got this. Usualky a pound per person is overkill. I like to have a lot of extra but know in advance I am overdoing it. The closest estimate I have seen professionally, is about 2-2.4 people per pound of cooked. Which works out to about the same as . 8 to 1 pound per person before cooking. With a hefty 50 percent loss margin of error.
Now we need to know about other dishes.
I frequently cook for 40-45. However most are small eaters. I usually try to have a pound per person. And i have to give most away at the end. But I see you have friends like me. I am not saying I could eat a whole flat myself. Unless I was hungry.

Thank you, Tony!

I wound up with 57-58 lbs. of brisket from three packers yesterday after my trip to Sam's Club. Two 20-21ish pounders and a 16 pounder.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Seems like you are going to master this. BTW I hope the pork shoulders are not still in the freezer. if they are you can always leave them there and buy fresh ones.
Add in all the pulled pork and you should have plenty of food. With buns and cole slaw you can feed a lot of people. I use a simple mustard sauce but people here who are more pro than me do a finishing sauce iirc no.5. Neither is absolutely necessary and I am sure you have your own plan.
We would all feel more confident after the rest of the details are filled in. How many people? All day? Sumo? How many are older? Will there be other food and drinks? One smart tip: have somebody serving the food. Sandwiches too. I am sure there is an expert here who can explain why, but it makes the food go further.
Ps. Maybe some hot wings but be careful and have plenty of not too hot, or maybe hottt on the side.

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Good luck but you got this now be proud!

Oh and pics after please

 

[Tony-Chicago]

How did it go?

 

[Troy S]

Finally getting a chance to reply! I have been absolutely wore out the last couple of days. First things first: everything went great. But since I'm terribly long-winded, I want to share my experiences just in case it helps anybody else, or -- at the very least -- presents an entertaining story for my fellow BBQ fanatics.

Smokers/cookers used:

-- 22.5" WSM
-- 18" Barrel House Cooker
-- 14" Barrel House Cooker

(I love my BHCs for smaller cooks. I got a great deal on them a couple of years ago and they are amazing. Yes... BHC was a competitor of the PBC, got in a huge legal battle, PBC won the said battle and took control of BHC; the 18" is still being produced but the amazing 14" has been discontinued for a year or longer. Anywho, I digress. Just wanted to mention this, even if this is a dedicated Weber forum. I'm a free-loving barbecue freak, so I rarely discriminate from any smokers as long as I'm throwing down 'Q with wood.)

I woke up at 3:45 a.m. on Friday morning. After I tore down a potent amount of caffeine, I started off by getting the five pork butts ready. I'll be honest: I didn't trim much fat from the uncooked pork butts. The most I did was score the fat and then add my rub all around. No binder. Afterwards I fired up my 22.5" WSM. I made a classic mistake that I had not made since I very first used my WSM in 2017, and that mistake was not filling up the charcoal ring to the brim with a 20-lb. bag of good ol' Kingsford blue. I'll get to why that was a mistake later on, but I'm sure you WSM vets already understand. I used 75-80% of the bag when I poured it. Buried some cherry chunks in there. Used the tried and true Minion Method to get things going. Probably about 15-20 briquettes in a small chimney. All vents open to kick things off. I foiled the water pan -- used absolutely no water.

I added all five pork butts to lower cooking grate. Yes, they were packed in there, and yes, I definitely realize that -- until fat rendered and the pork shrunk -- it affected the air flow between them, but that ended up not being a problem whatsoever by the end of the cook. I debated heavily about hanging two of the briskets in the 18" BHC, and after I had everything set up, I realized that I definitely could have done so! However, I opted to place the biggest brisket of them all on the top grate of the WSM. Just rounding up on the numbers, the pre-trim weight of the uncooked briskets were 22, 21 and 17 lbs. respectively. Some big ol' briskets. Before Friday, I had never cooked more than one brisket at once, let alone three in one go, and the biggest I had ever smoked was probably 18 lbs. in the summer of 2018.

After I got the pork butts onto the WSM, next was my most disliked job in all of barbecue: trimming brisket. OK, I don't hate it. It is actually a little therapeutic, but it is still my least favorite thing about throwing down briskets. To trim one, I already feel that way, but three? I couldn't wait to get it over with. I wish I could have trimmed them up the night before, but I didn't have room in my fridge to set them up.

I didn't trim the briskets as aggressively as I was originally going to. However, I did take off a ton of fat. Mostly the hard fat. I had a huge bowl filled to the brim with it. Took a while to trim them up. I trimmed up the biggest one first, added it to the WSM, then the second biggest one... fired up the 18" BHC and hung it in there with four hooks, and so on and so forth with the third brisket on the 14" BHC.

Temps in the WSM started dropping at the 6 hour mark, which was rather upsetting, and I realized that I should have used the entire 20-lb. bag of charcoal from the get-go. I added about 60-80 briquettes to bump the temps back up.

I started foiling a couple of the briskets at around the 2-4pm mark. Can't remember the times, so I could be off. I didn't wait until they both hit 160, but the briskets in the BHCs already had their barks set at 145-150 degrees or so, and I double-wrapped them tightly. The first brisket to come off was, surprisingly, the 21-pounder at about 5 p.m. Next was the 17-pounder at around 7:30 p.m. I can't remember what time I foiled the 22-pounder. I will admit to also foiling all five pork butts to speed things along, and I bumped up the temps with more charcoal later, and even opened two of the WSM's intake vents. The 22-pounder finished up at roughly 9 p.m. I rested all three briskets in coolers for a minimum of two hours. I can't remember what time I removed the pork butts, but it was a little before the 22-lb. brisket.

When I shredded up the pork to pull it, I meticulously went through it and tried to remove as many big globs of fat as possible, as I know most people dislike the fat. It took a while, but to me it is more than worth it when I serve people.

All in all, I finished slicing up the last brisket at 12:15 a.m. To say that I was exhausted by the time I went to sleep by 1 p.m. would be an understatement! But I had a great time, actually. I loved doing it. Here's a couple photos of the briskets. I was very pleased with the bark on the briskets and the pork butts. I only have a video of the pulled pork in a long foil pan if anybody would like to see.





After going to bed, I woke up five hours later and fired up my 18" BHC, cooked up 40 jalapeno poppers (I told my uncle that I was going to make extra -- more than the 24 he requested -- because they were popular). I don't have any photos because I removed them from the cooker, added them to a foil pan and wrapped immediately to keep them hot, but if anybody is curious about my popper method, here it is: softened cream cheese + 4-cheese Mexican blend of shredded cheese + Meat Church Holy Voodoo seasoning. Cut the stem off the peppers, slice them lengthwise, deseed them, stuff with the cheese mix, wrap in half slices of bacon. My favorite way is to smoke them with applewood, but since I'm out, I used cherrywood.

After the poppers, I cooked the wings. Same thing with the poppers: I removed them and foiled up the pan immediately to keep warm, adding them to an insulated bag.

Left my house at 10:30 a.m. and made it there at about 12 p.m. as my uncle requested the dinner for 12:30.

I was afraid that I made too little food, but thankfully I made enough. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. The poppers were completely gone within five minutes. Dead serious. The brisket was the biggest hit. By the time everyone had placed some in takeout containers, it was all gone! I spiced up the wings just as my uncle asked, and he was pleased with them. One of my cousins told me that the brisket was the best he had ever had in his life, which was a huge compliment to me, because he lived in Texas for over ten years... he could have been blowing smoke and just feeding me a big compliment, but it meant a lot to hear that. I love feeding people. It is my biggest passion in the entire world.

I also found out that the same cousin who delivered that big compliment has been looking into investing in a food truck. I made sure to tell him to let me know if he does, because I would love to be involved in that. Again, my biggest passion in the world. Can't help it. I love all the painstaking work involved, the grind, it's all worth it.

I know I'm leaving out some details, but that is the long-winded gist! It's 2 a.m. here and I wanted to throw down an update.

AIso wanted to thank everyone who chimed in and helped me out. Yeah, I basically made too much food for the dinner itself, but I'm for sure glad that people were able to take leftovers with them.

I'm going to try to be more active on here. Admittedly, I don't use my WSM too often unless I'm throwing down monster cooks, because it is such a charcoal hog. I have been looking into getting an 18" WSM for cheap, used or not, but haven't found many up for sale in my tiny neck of the woods. Saw one nearby for $80 on the Facebook marketplace once, but when I messaged the seller he never responded to me!

 

[Bruno]

Finally getting a chance to reply! I have been absolutely wore out the last couple of days. First things first: everything went great. But since I'm terribly long-winded, I want to share my experiences just in case it helps anybody else, or -- at the very least -- presents an entertaining story for my fellow BBQ fanatics.

Smokers/cookers used:

-- 22.5" WSM
-- 18" Barrel House Cooker
-- 14" Barrel House Cooker

(I love my BHCs for smaller cooks. I got a great deal on them a couple of years ago and they are amazing. Yes... BHC was a competitor of the PBC, got in a huge legal battle, PBC won the said battle and took control of BHC; the 18" is still being produced but the amazing 14" has been discontinued for a year or longer. Anywho, I digress. Just wanted to mention this, even if this is a dedicated Weber forum. I'm a free-loving barbecue freak, so I rarely discriminate from any smokers as long as I'm throwing down 'Q with wood.)

I woke up at 3:45 a.m. on Friday morning. After I tore down a potent amount of caffeine, I started off by getting the five pork butts ready. I'll be honest: I didn't trim much fat from the uncooked pork butts. The most I did was score the fat and then add my rub all around. No binder. Afterwards I fired up my 22.5" WSM. I made a classic mistake that I had not made since I very first used my WSM in 2017, and that mistake was not filling up the charcoal ring to the brim with a 20-lb. bag of good ol' Kingsford blue. I'll get to why that was a mistake later on, but I'm sure you WSM vets already understand. I used 75-80% of the bag when I poured it. Buried some cherry chunks in there. Used the tried and true Minion Method to get things going. Probably about 15-20 briquettes in a small chimney. All vents open to kick things off. I foiled the water pan -- used absolutely no water.

I added all five pork butts to lower cooking grate. Yes, they were packed in there, and yes, I definitely realize that -- until fat rendered and the pork shrunk -- it affected the air flow between them, but that ended up not being a problem whatsoever by the end of the cook. I debated heavily about hanging two of the briskets in the 18" BHC, and after I had everything set up, I realized that I definitely could have done so! However, I opted to place the biggest brisket of them all on the top grate of the WSM. Just rounding up on the numbers, the pre-trim weight of the uncooked briskets were 22, 21 and 17 lbs. respectively. Some big ol' briskets. Before Friday, I had never cooked more than one brisket at once, let alone three in one go, and the biggest I had ever smoked was probably 18 lbs. in the summer of 2018.

After I got the pork butts onto the WSM, next was my most disliked job in all of barbecue: trimming brisket. OK, I don't hate it. It is actually a little therapeutic, but it is still my least favorite thing about throwing down briskets. To trim one, I already feel that way, but three? I couldn't wait to get it over with. I wish I could have trimmed them up the night before, but I didn't have room in my fridge to set them up.

I didn't trim the briskets as aggressively as I was originally going to. However, I did take off a ton of fat. Mostly the hard fat. I had a huge bowl filled to the brim with it. Took a while to trim them up. I trimmed up the biggest one first, added it to the WSM, then the second biggest one... fired up the 18" BHC and hung it in there with four hooks, and so on and so forth with the third brisket on the 14" BHC.

Temps in the WSM started dropping at the 6 hour mark, which was rather upsetting, and I realized that I should have used the entire 20-lb. bag of charcoal from the get-go. I added about 60-80 briquettes to bump the temps back up.

I started foiling a couple of the briskets at around the 2-4pm mark. Can't remember the times, so I could be off. I didn't wait until they both hit 160, but the briskets in the BHCs already had their barks set at 145-150 degrees or so, and I double-wrapped them tightly. The first brisket to come off was, surprisingly, the 21-pounder at about 5 p.m. Next was the 17-pounder at around 7:30 p.m. I can't remember what time I foiled the 22-pounder. I will admit to also foiling all five pork butts to speed things along, and I bumped up the temps with more charcoal later, and even opened two of the WSM's intake vents. The 22-pounder finished up at roughly 9 p.m. I rested all three briskets in coolers for a minimum of two hours. I can't remember what time I removed the pork butts, but it was a little before the 22-lb. brisket.

When I shredded up the pork to pull it, I meticulously went through it and tried to remove as many big globs of fat as possible, as I know most people dislike the fat. It took a while, but to me it is more than worth it when I serve people.

All in all, I finished slicing up the last brisket at 12:15 a.m. To say that I was exhausted by the time I went to sleep by 1 p.m. would be an understatement! But I had a great time, actually. I loved doing it. Here's a couple photos of the briskets. I was very pleased with the bark on the briskets and the pork butts. I only have a video of the pulled pork in a long foil pan if anybody would like to see.

View attachment 15967

View attachment 15968

After going to bed, I woke up five hours later and fired up my 18" BHC, cooked up 40 jalapeno poppers (I told my uncle that I was going to make extra -- more than the 24 he requested -- because they were popular). I don't have any photos because I removed them from the cooker, added them to a foil pan and wrapped immediately to keep them hot, but if anybody is curious about my popper method, here it is: softened cream cheese + 4-cheese Mexican blend of shredded cheese + Meat Church Holy Voodoo seasoning. Cut the stem off the peppers, slice them lengthwise, deseed them, stuff with the cheese mix, wrap in half slices of bacon. My favorite way is to smoke them with applewood, but since I'm out, I used cherrywood.

After the poppers, I cooked the wings. Same thing with the poppers: I removed them and foiled up the pan immediately to keep warm, adding them to an insulated bag.

Left my house at 10:30 a.m. and made it there at about 12 p.m. as my uncle requested the dinner for 12:30.

I was afraid that I made too little food, but thankfully I made enough. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. The poppers were completely gone within five minutes. Dead serious. The brisket was the biggest hit. By the time everyone had placed some in takeout containers, it was all gone! I spiced up the wings just as my uncle asked, and he was pleased with them. One of my cousins told me that the brisket was the best he had ever had in his life, which was a huge compliment to me, because he lived in Texas for over ten years... he could have been blowing smoke and just feeding me a big compliment, but it meant a lot to hear that. I love feeding people. It is my biggest passion in the entire world.

I also found out that the same cousin who delivered that big compliment has been looking into investing in a food truck. I made sure to tell him to let me know if he does, because I would love to be involved in that. Again, my biggest passion in the world. Can't help it. I love all the painstaking work involved, the grind, it's all worth it.

I know I'm leaving out some details, but that is the long-winded gist! It's 2 a.m. here and I wanted to throw down an update.

AIso wanted to thank everyone who chimed in and helped me out. Yeah, I basically made too much food for the dinner itself, but I'm for sure glad that people were able to take leftovers with them.

I'm going to try to be more active on here. Admittedly, I don't use my WSM too often unless I'm throwing down monster cooks, because it is such a charcoal hog. I have been looking into getting an 18" WSM for cheap, used or not, but haven't found many up for sale in my tiny neck of the woods. Saw one nearby for $80 on the Facebook marketplace once, but when I messaged the seller he never responded to me!

Brisket looks amazing! Great story!!

 

[Tony-Chicago]

Congratulation! No worries about reply we knew you would be exhausted from all that. Just reading it made me nervous. That brisket sure looks good. Did you have enough food? Was there any other food there? So glad you made it through. Sounds like a lot of work.

 

[JKalchik]

I'd have never thought that 45-50 people would go through that much food..... good to know your eaters.

Kick back, take a deep breath, and have a tasty beverage.

 

[Troy S]

I failed to mention another aspect of my WSM's shortcomings with the first round of coals burning out quickly: mine has always been slightly out of round. The middle cooking section sits fine on the fire/charcoal base, but it has never been a perfect fit. You know how a prospective feature of the WSM is placing a grate on the bottom, cooking over it and apparently being able to fit the lid there, as well? There is no way I could do that with mine if I wanted to. Even with the lid, I have always had to kinda force it onto the top of the WSM to fit it in the lip.

Despite that, my WSM has always been a great smoker for me. Yeah, it's slightly out of round, and the door sucks (even with trying to mold it to seal up better, there's an annoying air gap) to the point where I have been considering the purchase of one of the Cajun Bandit doors the last few years (I've never considered any other mods; heck, I'm stubborn about using thermometers to monitor cooks at times, too, because even though I love my Thermoworks Smoke... I'm so accustomed to cooking by feel and intuitive estimations out of habit, even if I'm incorrect at many points... I just love kicking it old school, unabashedly so).

I figured that would be worth a mention. When I fit the lid onto the middle cooking base, I fit the back part in and then snap the front on. I have read others who have to do the same. It really isn't that big of a deal. With all the use I have gotten out of it, particularly in 2017 when I used it the most, all the build-up inside has created a wonderful seal. But you can see where the middle section doesn't fit perfectly onto the base if you look around the parts that connect. Again, and I apologize for repeating, it isn't the biggest deal in the world because I still love this smoker even if I do give preference to my drums for smaller cooks.

@Tony-Chicago -- the sides featured green beans, coleslaw, fried cabbage, quinoa (one vegan of the bunch...), two different kinds of pasta salad, some monster baked potatoes, corn on the cob and a couple of other items that I'm forgetting. A slew of desserts, too. My favorite was the banana pudding and the gluten-free honeybun cake. My biggest mistake was bringing 96 (!!!!) buns. Asides from some people just not preferring a bun, there was quite a few of the bunch who have celiac disease/gluten intolerance as well. I took a good bit of buns back with me. One of my cousins took the rest of the pulled pork, and the leftover buns, to a homeless shelter nearby, so it pleases me that everything was happily consumed.

I definitely had enough food! That was my biggest concern. Replying to @JKalchik as well here. I have to admit something, guys. Maybe it makes me sound like a low quality person (I say this, because I had/have guilt for doing this, feeling selfish), but when I finished slicing up the final brisket, I realized that I had a TON of it. I saved a couple of slices of the flat for my girlfriend who doesn't care much for fatty meat, and I saved a few slices of the point that was nice'n'fatty for myself. While delivering the food, I felt some anxiety that I didn't bring enough, but everybody ate until they were stuffed, and then a lot of people took some brisket in takeout containers home.

I had some particular anxious energy over this cook, because I had never cooked more than one brisket at a time. To do three of them was incredibly daunting to me. I feel ridiculously comfortable with brisket now, in terms of the way every brisket reacts different to smoking times, what to watch for (setting the bark, foiling vs. not foiling, probe tenderness, resting, etc.) to the extent that I feel I can at least make a decent one out of any brisket that I come across. That is not to sound sheepishly arrogant about it, but it is really to say that I'm comfortable with them instead of holding my breath now, whenever I have one on the pit and it stalls. No more panicking. Just relaxing and allowing the meat to do its thing and trusting that all will work out given patience.

I remember the first two briskets I ever smoked on my own. The first one was a flat. I nailed it and felt great about it. Speaking of arrogance in the above paragraph, the second brisket was a whole packer -- I overnight-smoked it, and the next morning when it wasn't close to being done, I shoved it in my oven -- brisket wrapped in foil -- and cooked it on 350 for an hour or two. Yeeeah, huge mistake. I overcooked it, it turned into stringy, shredded, pulled brisket. After a couple of decent sandwiches, I salvaged it and made a delicious chili with it. Never made that mistake again. That was three years ago. I have probably cooked ~25-30 briskets (maybe?) since then, and that memory of ruining that first whole packer still makes me cringe. I guess we all have that one brisket story! LOL

I really appreciate all the advice. I have catered a couple of graduation parties, particularly in 2019 more-so than this strange year, but it was with pulled pork, which is pretty well objectively way easier to cook than brisket, and I was on here asking for advice on what I should do in regards to pricing and amount of grub. I received help so swiftly.

I think the world of this community. Such a great group of barbecue lovers who come together, talk 'Q and help each other out. Sincerely warms my heart deeply and puts a huge smile on my face.

 

[JKalchik]

I felt some anxiety that I didn't bring enough, but everybody ate until they were stuffed, and then a lot of people took some brisket in takeout containers home.

THIS..... is a high compliment, when people ask for the leftovers. Personally, I've said for a long time that I'm happy to share leftovers, and even happier to be left with empty containers when it's done.

 

[Karl Quist]

I saved a couple of slices of the flat for my girlfriend who doesn't care much for fatty meat, and I saved a few slices of the point that was nice'n'fatty for myself.

I wouldn't say this makes you a low quality person, and does, in fact, make you the opposite. Maybe I'm mis-interpreting you (I don't think I am), but checking your own food shows you care about those you serve it to.

One of my deep set fears is serving food to people that even I wouldn't eat, so holding some back for myself is vital.

EDIT: And it sounds like the whole thing was a hit! Well done, and good for you!

 

[Troy S]

One of my deep set fears is serving food to people that even I wouldn't eat, so holding some back for myself is vital.

I 100% agree with you. I occasionally bring food to a man that I consider to be like a second dad to me. He worked for my dad for 20-some years back in the late-ish '80s until my dad's passing in late '03, and he's a good dude. Sometimes I cook up some grub that just isn't quite up to par in my opinion and I would feel embarrassed to feed it to anybody!

Thank you, everyone. TVWBB is the best food community on the entire internet as far as I'm concerned.