cooking for 500...?'s

dano

dano

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Hey guys....I have a big cook set up for October and have to get a game plan together. I have been told that it will be around 500-700 people and I am the only vendor (lucky me!) I have never cooked for that many people and was wondering if anyone could lend some advice.
I have a trailer smoker and am trying to cook everything on site before hand.
Thanks in advance!
 
Before anyone can help, what is the menu and how large is your cooker?
 
Need more info. I hope you are not doing this alone?!? What are you cooking? How big is your smoker? Do you have to feed them all at once or over time? I think you have dug yourself a very big hole :pray: :pray: :pray:
 
I have good one trailer (Charleston). It will be an event where I will be serving for about 5 hrs or so. I will have help but I will have the only smoker on site.
 
dano said:
Hey guys....I have a big cook set up for October and have to get a game plan together. I have been told that it will be around 500-700 people and I am the only vendor (lucky me!) I have never cooked for that many people and was wondering if anyone could lend some advice.
I have a trailer smoker and am trying to cook everything on site before hand.
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

dano said:
I have good one trailer (Charleston). It will be an event where I will be serving for about 5 hrs or so. I will have help but I will have the only smoker on site.
Click to expand...

Are you vending or serving, there is a difference. Vending you might not sell to all of them.
 
It is a event that I was told by the organizer I will need to vend to roughly 500 people. I know pork will be needed for sure with some side. Trying to figure out what else to cook. Sausage maybe?
 
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.
 
Green beans are your friend. Get a 2 burner outdoor camping range and two 5 gallon pots. The large green bean tins that serve 25 people sell for around 3-4 bucks. The only other ingredients to make solid green beens is hamhock/country ham chips and salt and pepper.
 
I am not familiar with the Good-One cooker you have. I have the Trail Boss, their largest smoker, and would have trouble doing all the meat on site. With the amount of meat you are going to cook, you will need at least 12 hours if all the meat is put on at the same time. It may take longer due to the mass of meat you are trying to cook all at once. Something like this, I would go with pork loin and chicken breast. You can slice it and serve on sandwiches. Better yield, shorter time to cook, easier to portion and prep.

What are the dimensions of the smoker you have? I can figure out how much meat you can put on the smoker at one time if I have the dimensions.
 
Pyle's BBQ said:
I am not familiar with the Good-One cooker you have. I have the Trail Boss, their largest smoker, and would have trouble doing all the meat on site. With the amount of meat you are going to cook, you will need at least 12 hours if all the meat is put on at the same time. It may take longer due to the mass of meat you are trying to cook all at once. Something like this, I would go with pork loin and chicken breast. You can slice it and serve on sandwiches. Better yield, shorter time to cook, easier to portion and prep.

What are the dimensions of the smoker you have? I can figure out how much meat you can put on the smoker at one time if I have the dimensions.
Click to expand...
The Chuckwagon has 4 grates. 1 grate is 41"x17" and 3 grates 41"x21". It is a Rodeo model. The trailer also has the Lone Star grill on it which is set for direct grilling and has about 900 sq. in on it.
 
looking at the height of those grates you may have trouble using all of them, they look to close together for pork butts. you may only be able to use 2 from the pics
 
ButtBurner said:
looking at the height of those grates you may have trouble using all of them, they look to close together for pork butts. you may only be able to use 2 from the pics
Click to expand...
It can actually go to a 3 rack configuration by taking one out and using staggered c-channels that are welded on to the grates. Can get at least 24 butts on at one time.
401058_10151710756615739_368693994_n.jpg
 
What I was thinking was 20 butts, burgers, hot dogs, and sausage. Then do some beans and another side.
 
20 butts would be about 250 sandwiches, maybe as much as 300 sandwiches. You are then assuming that the rest of the sales will be grilled items. Which could be reasonable in your market.

What about anyone who does not want to eat pork or beef? I don't know about PA, but, out here in CA, the folks who own BBQ shops note that their pulled/quarter chicken sales about equal pulled pork.
 
landarc said:
20 butts would be about 250 sandwiches, maybe as much as 300 sandwiches. You are then assuming that the rest of the sales will be grilled items. Which could be reasonable in your market.

What about anyone who does not want to eat pork or beef? I don't know about PA, but, out here in CA, the folks who own BBQ shops note that their pulled/quarter chicken sales about equal pulled pork.
Click to expand...
How did you get 250?
The math I came up with was 20 8lbs shoulders (160) with a 60% yield come to 384 1/4lb sandwiches
 
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