Cooking for a fundraiser

Do you know approximately the breakdown of men/women/children? It makes a notable difference in how much is needed. I cooked a charity thing last year and cooked enough for 250 people, but it turned out they were all women and children and we had a lot of leftovers (very good for the other volunteers!).

I usually figure on a 50% yield for pulled pork, and 3-4 servings per pound depending on what the makeup of the crowd is - i.e. 3 servings/# if there are a lot of big eaters, 4 servings/# if not.

I've been learning not to buy as many buns as there are people. Lots of folks just eat it straight up without making a sandwich. I don't know if half is enough.

It's a little labor intensive on the prep side, but I've had good luck with vac sealing 3# bags of pork and boiling in the bag on site. No moisture loss whatsoever and you won't be reheating much more than you need - I'll do a couple 2# and 1# bags for when things are winding down at the end. I'll freeze a couple to keep the cooler cold on site as well. When filling the bags, I'll flatten 'em out a little so the pork will reheat more quickly than it would if it was a thick mass.

Just had an event last weekend, I had never cooked more than a ten pounder for home consumption. I had to plan for 100 to 150, had no idea how much to make. I went with 60 pounds of pork, ended up with around 34 lbs yield. I went with silver dollar buns from a local bakery, figured 1.5 buns per person on average. With the smaller buns figured maybe 7 sandwiches per pound. Re-heating and drying is a very valid concern, I used chicken broth but it changes the flavor. gtr's vac-sealing and boiling to re-heat is an amazing idea. I wonder if re-heating in regular freezer zip-locks would work.

My 34 pounds of pulled pork almost filled 2 18 qt roaster pans. There were leftovers but the 200 buns would have been about right. I also served chips, pickle spears, cake, coffee, soda and a keg of beer.

140lbs raw pork for a 4oz sandwich per person and 22dz buns. Don't give them the option for additional pork if they don't want a bun. You should have a little of each for left overs but better than running short and make sure you account for volunteers.

rasicnad said:

Just had an event last weekend, I had never cooked more than a ten pounder for home consumption. I had to plan for 100 to 150, had no idea how much to make. I went with 60 pounds of pork, ended up with around 34 lbs yield. I went with silver dollar buns from a local bakery, figured 1.5 buns per person on average. With the smaller buns figured maybe 7 sandwiches per pound. Re-heating and drying is a very valid concern, I used chicken broth but it changes the flavor. gtr's vac-sealing and boiling to re-heat is an amazing idea. I wonder if re-heating in regular freezer zip-locks would work.

My 34 pounds of pulled pork almost filled 2 18 qt roaster pans. There were leftovers but the 200 buns would have been about right. I also served chips, pickle spears, cake, coffee, soda and a keg of beer.

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The plastic used to make the vac-seal bags is a thicker/tougher type than zip-loc type bags and is designed for higher temp resistance. Also the "zip-loc" mechanism usually will not stand up to the temps of the boiling water and will allow water to leak into the product and juices to leak out and "contaminate" your boiling water (i.e. the water will become greasy, etc).

Mid range vac-seal machines are relatively affordable these days and can be depreciated out over a few events.