Cooking for 75ish people! First time large group

[Bpbolde]

I hope I'm not in over my head, but I'm going to be cooking pulled pork and shredded chicken for my wife's grandma's funeral luncheon. I've never cooked for more than 20 people before. Since its lunch, I don't want to pull an all-nighter tending fire to have it fresh off the grates. Besides, I don't trust myself to time it right :shock:

My thought is to cook the day before (Monday), pull it that night and refrigerate. The morning of, reheat gently in covered corningware pans to 160 degrees to try not to dry it out, faux cambro it to the church and keep it warm with chafing dishes and sterno cans. I'd love to have the bark stay intact. It seems like sacrilege to reheat and murder the bark, but I need my sleep...

I'm planning on eight ~10 pound pork butts, and six chickens. Dry brine the day before, then rub with Meathead's Memphis Dust before cooking. I think I'll serve it dry, and have a few sauces at the end of the buffet for people to choose from.

Knowing Custer had a plan too, I wanted to run this plan by you all and see what you think. See if there's any tips from all your expertise. Things I'm specifically concerned about:

• Will this be enough food if another 20 or so people show up?
• How long will it take to reheat in big corningware pans and what oven temp should I use to reheat?
• If I can't get a hold of stainless chafing dishes, are disposable aluminum pans ok or will it impart any bad flavor?
• I've never smoked this much at the same time. I've done two butts and later in the day, put a few racks of ribs on. I can keep the cooker (vertical offset) within 10 degrees top to bottom. I know to keep good airflow around the meat. Anything else to look out for with this much meat on?

Thanks for the tips, this means a lot for my wife and her family and I want to make it the best I can.

 

[Harmony BBQ]

I'm sorry for your family's loss and think it is really nice of you to cook for the funeral. I know everyone will love it. You have more than enough pork for 75 people-figure 1/3 pound more or less cooked per person. 80 pounds raw equals an estimated 40 pounds cooked gives you 120 1/3rd pound servings. I do think you will need more chicken maybe cut back on pork and cook a few more chickens if you have the space. As far as reheating the next day it will be fine. Don't worry about the bark, people will still think it is the best ever. I'd say allow at least 2 hours to reheat, more time if you can as it is better safe than sorry. Go with 300 or so in the oven. Use a thermometer to monitor and start a little earlier than you think you need to. Aluminum pans will work fine and will save you a lot of time to clean up if you decide to just dispose of them when finished. Best wishes to you and your family.
Mike

P.s. Bring a box of zip lock bags in case you have leftovers, family and friends will want them for sure

 

[ebijack]

If you have the time, I'd suggest doing the butts the day before finishing the cook in the evening. Pull when the bone will wiggle from the meat but not to easily removed. Double wrap in foil. Like mentioned, don't worry about the bark, it will be fine. Place the butts (like mentioned, you have more pork than you should need) onto a couple large towels in a cooler. Cover with more towels to fill the air space. Not tightly, just fill. Those butts will still be hot in the morning. You can then pull them. Put into pans and cover tightly with foil. Add some drippings or apple juice. Place those into the oven to keep warm 170* or less if you can. Till time to transport.
Cook the bird the morning of if you have the time. Poultry is something you have to be careful with to avoid problems.
PM Fwismoker(Keith) for his cooked chicken held in pans recipe. He does this at his block parties and everyone loves it. He makes a broth so to speak.
Actually, serving the food is the hard part. You will need/want helpers. Also bring a large box of serving gloves and paper towel.
If you were closer, I'd come help.

 

[keeperofsecrets]

I do pork and chicken charity cooks often for 100 and my cook is four butts and six whole chickens with two side offerings. At 225 to 250, that's 12 hours roughly for the butts and 4 to 5 hours for the chickens. Less time if you spatchcock.
I pull when the chickens are 165 and the butts are 202 to 204 (or use the bone wiggle method mentioned). If I am serving the next day, I shred both chickens and pork immediately and put in several 1/2 size disposable steam table trays and cover with plastic wrap and then foil. I reheat in the oven without uncovering at 350 until they come to serving temp.

 

[B-More BBQ Junkie]

The only advice I will give you is that you will likely burn through more charcoal/wood that you normally do, and you are probably going to run the vents more wide open then you are used to for one or two butts. This was about 4 years ago on a 22.5" kettle. I tried to cook pit beef for my boy's 1st birthday party for a large crowd (33 lbs. top round). I had cooked two ~3.5 lbs. roast before and it was no big deal, but the sheer amount of meat on the relatively small cooker was just sucking the heat out of the coals. Took way longer that I thought. For reference, it normally takes about an hour to cook a single roast of similar size, but these took 2.5-3 hours and I had to add another chimney of coals. This was the situation after about a half hour and I realized this was going to take a lot longer than usual. Oh, and I WAAAAAYY overestimated how much food I needed. Ended up sending 3 cooked roasts home with people.

 

[sleebus.jones]

Some very good suggestions here. Yep, you'll need to fire more wood than usual, and definitely get some help with the logistics. Transporting hot food is always interesting, especially when you haven't done a quantity that large before. Help on the serving line will be needed. Be prepared for the cleanup when everything is done. You may want to bring some heavy contractor bags so you can just chuck all the dirty stuff in there and clean up at home.

I like the idea of cooking the chicken in the morning. Spatchcock those birds, pull the keel bone and wishbone and you'll make the quartering easy when they're done. They'll also cook quicker and more evenly. My secret weapon for seasoning chicken is Tony Chachere's. Never had a complaint.

Figuring people will get a sammitch and a piece of chicken, you should probably have 10 birds on there (80 pieces), depending on how you serve the breasts. If you intend to cut them in half, you can get away with less. Going off of the serving size recommendation above, you'll need six 10# butts.

Best of luck and my condolences for your loss. I think you'll find the smiles you put on people's faces that day will do you a world of good.

 

[Bpbolde]

Thanks guys for the advice and kind words. The suggestions are a big help. There's plenty of room to cook, I have 6 24"x24" grates to work with. The cooker is a stick burner, and we have a lot of oak, maple and beech. It'll be interesting to see how much more wood it used. I'll adjust the amount of pork and chicken. Getting ready to head to the butcher's shop to pick everything up.

I'll be cooking the chicken whole, then shredding for sandwiches rather than serving whole pieces. Whole chickens seem to give the juiciest meat. It seems to be a good idea to have an alternative in case anyone doesn't care for pork.

We'll have plenty of people to help with cleanup, the disposable pans and contractor bag suggestion will help with that. Ziplocs too! (Thanks HarmonyBBQ)

 

[EdF]

Good luck - it's a great adventure! One that you'll never forget, nor will your guests!

 

[Steve S]

I recently cooked 6 butts and about 40 lbs of chicken for 100. I ended up with a full pan of pork leftover (about 10 lbs cooked out of 30 ish). This was the other kind of funeral, with people in dresses and tuxes with a preacher. Being a bit lazy myself, I used boneless thighs and breasts, which you should have plenty of time to cook the morning of.

 

[mchar69]

This was the other kind of funeral, with people in dresses and tuxes with a preacher.

Ha ha, now you tell me!