cooking for 500...?'s

Can't speak for landarc, but 50% yield 1/3lb sandwich is probably more in line with his thinking. I know thats what I use for my shack and/ vending comes out pretty close. With the smaller sandwiches you would be in the 300 pallpark. That extra 10% yield makes a difference

Clint

It's going take a lot longer than you think to cook 20 butts on your GO. That's a small space with not the best circulation and not much room between butts. It's taken me 12-14 hours using a ton of lump to get close to pulling temp. That's a long on-site cook.

poorolddan said:

It's going take a lot longer than you think to cook 20 butts on your GO. That's a small space with not the best circulation and not much room between butts. It's taken me 12-14 hours using a ton of lump to get close to pulling temp. That's a long on-site cook.

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I agree with Dan.

poorolddan said:

It's going take a lot longer than you think to cook 20 butts on your GO. That's a small space with not the best circulation and not much room between butts. It's taken me 12-14 hours using a ton of lump to get close to pulling temp. That's a long on-site cook.

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I agree with Dan also. You are going to have a lot longer cook than normal and burn a lot more fuel doing it.

is there a reason (other than the fact you own a diesel ass huge pit...get it son!) why you NEED to cook all on site?

i've recently been reading some articles on full cooking butts, quartering them then vacuuming/freezing or cooling to temp/storing/re-heating on here. it's still the time to cook the butts initially, but if you had the holding equipment to keep the frozen ones cold enough you could stagger what you needed in your smoker to leave room for all else.

all that meat at once will take half a day with a volcano heating it, no?

Yes, I have come to the conclusion that 50% yield on butts is the norm. That has just seemed to be what it comes out to. And I assumed 1/3 pound sandwiches, 1/4 pound is perfectly reasonable though.

if it's adults, switch to chicken and sausages, if there are kids, chicken and hot dogs might be a better seller

landarc said:

For 500 people, you are looking at moving at least 175 pounds of finished meat and perhaps as much as 200 pounds. You would need to be looking at doing almost 300 pounds, or 35 to 40 butts for this, if all you do is pork. Can you realistically do this on site, and pre-event?

For me, with that many people, out of a temporary set-up, I would be looking at a simple menu, maybe two meats (my choice would be pulled pork and pulled chicken) as sandwiches, slaw, and something else, maybe roasted corn chunks. I would want to pre-cook as much as I could, but, if you don't have the facilities, then you will have to do it all on site. I see that as a problem with just one cooker.

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I agree. I founded/run a nonprofit that does BBQ Fundraisers for other 501(c)(3) organizations. I have an 84" Lang, and cooking for that many would fill a good portion of the main chamber with butts. I also encountered at my first event a lot of people who don't eat pork, so I certainly recommend pulled chicken from boneless chicken thighs (more expensive but less waste and easier to pull), that can take some smoke and then be put into aluminum deep full pans with a little apple juice to moisten and to open space for other things. Pork loin is a good call, less space used and shows off a nice smoke ring. I do cole slaw from Restaurant Depot (5 lb bags) with a sweat German dressing (no need to refrigerate and easy to throw together), and the large cans of Bush's Baked Beans with a little tweak (onion, bacon, mustard, whatever) are easy and heat quickly. Also, if you do butt, consider the amount of time and manpower needed to pull it before serving.

If you are going to do chicken. Check Sam's. All summer they have had boneless/skinless chicken breasts on "special" for $1.88/lb. These are rather large chicken breast and can be cut into the size you need for a sandwich. They will cook faster and look better on a sandwich with less labor. If you think you need to have a pulled type product for chicken, just slice the breast up and put it in your pan.

dano said:

I don't have a set up with a commercial kitchen to prep so cooking on site from what I hear is a must. The good news is I can set up on Friday and get started late so I can be ready to pull in the AM and then start with the sides, chicken, etc. It will be a mix in terms of adults and kids (80/20). The good thing with the cooker I am using is that I can set it at night at 275 and it will be running around 200 in the AM (should get me about 80% done from my experience)

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cooking onsite this is true for my area. I am doing a charity fundraiser cook for 300 on Saturday. I had to get a TFE (Temporary Food Establishment) permit and the HD will be inspecting our cook.

You may need this too.

Also a good thing to have if you do not is the ServSafe food handler's course and certification. It take a few hours online and is well worth it. Great info there. Cost about $15

what are you doing for hot holding of the pork?

Promoters give false advice----READ FALSE ADVICE-----Is this a first year event? Is this an event that you are familiar with? Who cooked this event last year? Why are they not coming back this year? How much to you have to pay the promoter to be the only vendor? Are non-vendors / non profits (Boy Scouts, Cheerleaders,etc) going to be selling food. Is there applicable sales tax in your area? Is this event at a Government entity (fairgrounds, etc) where the health dept is required to be? Do you need a permit to serve there? Will there be a fire safety inspection? What hours are you serving? is your serving window during normal eating hours? Are you allowed to sell drinks? Do you required to have a cash register with print out so you can pay a percentage to the promoter? Is the promoter selling tickets and then reimbursing you for tickets sold? Are people allowed to carry their own food into this event? Is it a "free" event or are people paying to get in? Food is only a small problem----you are no longer a Pitmaster---you are a business man. get all of the answers. If this a 1st event and the promoter plans on 500-700----that number is what he is WANTING to show up. If 500 -700 actually show up your actual people served depends upon answers to the above questions. Information that is given on what you might serve would be in error without proper event information

Dano, I am very interested in your out-take on the results. I sure hope you let us know how this went, how you coordinated it and how many people it took to get it done. Good Luck!!!