Large Benefit Cook - input?

[Herkster]

Hey Brethren.
Late Tuesday night, a house fire struck our small community, leaving a family without a home or any possessions, claimed one life, and brought in fire departments and emergency management crews from over 30 minutes away. The blaze was battled for over 6 hours, we'll into the early morning hours and in our frigid Iowa winter.

Now, clean up is under way, and a benefit supper and silent auction has been set. I've nominated my services for smoking pulled pork for the benefit supper, expecting 250 people. I'm assuming 1/4# per sandwich as there will be several side dishes available. I'm wanting someone to check my math.

250 people, quarter pound per person = 62.5# of cooked meat. Figure 50% weight loss during the cook....so, I need 125 pounds of raw weight, bone in butts, right?

Next task....when I've done large events, I've had weeks or months notice, which made my wsm capable. I don't really have that luxury this time. I'm hoping to line up 3 ugly drums and my wsm and give er hell for two days straight. Meat will then be packaged and froze, reheated the day of the event. I wish I had a Shirley or large smoker near by to ease the pain, but I just don't. I do have a LP trailer smoker, owned by my boss, that hasn't been ran in years. I'm wondering if I can make that run on charcoal and wood??

Anyways, just wanting ideas. I don't have any place near to buy large commercial rubs (town of 600, nearest Sams/Costco is 2+ hrs away). I've got to try and line up a rub, or the ingredients to make my rub, and a loooooot of it. I'll post more tomorrow when I have my computer instead of typing on my phone....cause it's slow and crappy to do!

 

[Jason TQ]

Math looks good. I'm assuming there are other meats and sides being provided.

For rub you can make banging pulled pork with just some salt, especially if it's all going to be pulled :grin: 16 8lb butts is 128lbs which you could do in 2 batches on a single 22wsm as you get get 8 butts in at a time. Especially if you are going to pull and freeze.

When is the benefit?

 

[Herkster]

I will know the date tomorrow, but i think the two options were last weekend in January or first weekend in feb, so ido have some time. I run the 18.5" wsm, can do 4 at a time. Rub won't be too bad to make, just time consuming but for a great cause. I'd just like to line a few guys up and get it done in one weekend, that way we can help with other stuff as needed too.

 

[Herkster]

And I've got the smoker already lit for this weekend and have one day busy next weekend. We'll make it work!

 

[pjtexas1]

How much rub are you going to need? That's harder for me to figure than pounds of meat. Really nice of you to help out your community. :thumb:

 

[Cloudsmoker]

FWIW - for large cooks, with difficult to estimate crowds, sausage is your friend. Particularly if you can let the big meat rest, the sausage can go a long way to increasing your servings.

 

[cueball21]

I've done both brisket and butts with nothing but SPOG (salt, pepper, olive oil, and garlic powder) as the rub with good results. My go-to rub though is Jeff's rub from Smoking Meats forum. I usually make up 8 batches at a time and store it in quart mason jars. One quart jar will more than generously cover one 10-12 lb. butt (or less generously it will do three). My guess is that your 125 lbs. of uncooked butt will be at least 10 and maybe 11 or 12 depending on size. Making up a triple or quadrupled mix of Jeff's rub should get you through. It uses brown sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne and other ingredients. I've added dry mustard and hot paprika to spice it up a bit. The recipe is proprietary because Jeff generates some revenue to support his forum. Look at www.smokingmeatforums.com and you'll find a link to get the recipe sent to you in an email for a few shekels.

HTH

 

[ebijack]

S/P the outside of the butts, or not. Then when reheating add your dry rub to the pulled pork. You will use less rub but the flavor will be there thru out the pork sandwiches, more so than just from being on the outside as a rub.
Saves time and mess when doing alot of shoulders that get mixed together.

 

[Herkster]

How much rub are you going to need? That's harder for me to figure than pounds of meat. Really nice of you to help out your community. :thumb:

I'm not sure on how much rub I'm going to need, but I know it's going to have to be pretty plain jane to not be over offensive (taste wise) to 250 people that are estimated attendee's of this benefit.

Anyone have input on that??

 

[Herkster]

FWIW - for large cooks, with difficult to estimate crowds, sausage is your friend. Particularly if you can let the big meat rest, the sausage can go a long way to increasing your servings.

Thanks for the input Cloud, I'll see how the committee feels about that. I couldn't attend the meeting last night, but I know the push was for pulled pork, which is totally fine as it can be smoked well in advance.

 

[Herkster]

I've done both brisket and butts with nothing but SPOG (salt, pepper, olive oil, and garlic powder) as the rub with good results. My go-to rub though is Jeff's rub from Smoking Meats forum. I usually make up 8 batches at a time and store it in quart mason jars. One quart jar will more than generously cover one 10-12 lb. butt (or less generously it will do three). My guess is that your 125 lbs. of uncooked butt will be at least 10 and maybe 11 or 12 depending on size. Making up a triple or quadrupled mix of Jeff's rub should get you through. It uses brown sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne and other ingredients. I've added dry mustard and hot paprika to spice it up a bit. The recipe is proprietary because Jeff generates some revenue to support his forum. Look at www.smokingmeatforums.com and you'll find a link to get the recipe sent to you in an email for a few shekels.

HTH

I used to frequent that forum often, until I found this place
He has quite the cult following on his rub, that's for sure!

 

[Herkster]

S/P the outside of the butts, or not. Then when reheating add your dry rub to the pulled pork. You will use less rub but the flavor will be there thru out the pork sandwiches, more so than just from being on the outside as a rub.
Saves time and mess when doing alot of shoulders that get mixed together.

Great idea. This is what I typically do - a light rub on the outside so I can get some decent bark, and after it's pulled, I add more rub. You get so much more flavor that way, as the rub isn't just confined to the outside edges