My wife asked me tonight whether I could make up enough pulled pork for a friend's going away party (a "despidida" here in Mexico). She estimates a little over 100 people (adults and kids) will attend. I figure I would need to do a minimum of 6 pork butts, probably safer with 8 to have enough meat. How many 8 lb. pork butts can one smoke in the 18" WSM during one session with the standard, two rack configuration?
Tony Catencamp
TVWBB Member
Scott,
If you figure on 6 oz. per person, that works out to 37.50 pounds of finished meat or 75 pounds pre-cooked weight. Some will eat more and some less, but 6 oz. is a number I've seen thrown around by a lot of caterers. I did pulled pork for my brother's wedding with 80 guests and 6 oz. worked out nicely with 3 pounds or so left over.
I've done three butts per rack and I used wooden skewers to keep some air space between them for maximum smoke penetration. Your situation will not allow you to cook it all at once, but you can easily do one round the day before, crash cool the pulled pork after pulling and packaging in ziplock freezer bags in a cooler of ice water. I use a one gallon bag per butt after adding a small amount of No. 5 sauce and a 1/2 table spoon of rub. The next day when you are a couple of hours away from the scheduled dinner time, reheat in a large Nesco roaster with some apple juice. Use some forks or bear claws to separate the meat so that you don't get any cold spots. I've set the heat on the roaster to 250 or so and I've also placed a sheet of aluminum foil over the top of the roaster to retain as much moisture as possible because the roaster lids have holes to release steam.
Pulling that much pork the day of the event isn't a bunch of fun anyway. Good luck with the party. You'll get lots of compliments and it's nice to see that many people enjoying good que.
Tony
Scott Dace
TVWBB Super Fan
75lbs uncooked would yield about 130 servings at 6 oz. I did this before but for 200 people and my servings were 4oz on a roll with a scoop of deli slaw and finishing sauce. I did that with just under 70 lbs of pork shoulder. I would go with the 4 oz serving, thats still a 1/4 pound of meat any way you look at it. Plus with the deli slaw on top the sammie looks pretty impressive and I had no complaints about the $4.50 I was getting for them which included a bag of chips and a canned soda.
Tony Catencamp
TVWBB Member
Scott,
What are your yields on pork butts? Prior to doing my brother's wedding, I weighed every butt I cooked and I was only getting 50-51%. This number didn't change during the big cook either. I was just wondering because there's little way I could get almost 49 pounds cooked weight out of 75 pounds, unless the meat was extremely lean.
Thanks,
Tony
Take a look here. This was plenty of meat.
Thanks guys for the input. I had thought about pulling my Brinkmann out of retirement, but I think I will take your advice and do two cooks on the WSM. I'll probably do the first cook with four butts in and the second with four or five. We'll see how that goes. Again, many thanks for your advice.
Scott Dace
TVWBB Super Fan
Tony, my yeild was about 65% and I used pork shoulder as opposed to pork butt. Maybe that is the difference.
