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Tannehill Kid

Head Chef
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
1,812
Location
Winnfield LA
The two brothers I work for have ask me to cook for an up coming cattle auction they are putting on. They are expecting 300 people to be in attendence. They want me to do pulled pork and/or brisket sandwiches. My question is which one would yall do. Going to serve chips to go with the sandwiches. I've never cooked this much pork or briskets before. What kind of poundage would I be looking at to cook for that many people. Would think that 90 percent will be men.
 
Id go with the pork butt 99% chance that it will come out good..as far as the amt's, Im sure others will chime in. Just my 2 cents
 
It will be more of a challenge but, something about a cattle auction and being as far south as you are makes me think beef brisket. ;)
 
If you do pulled pork alone you will need a minimum of 150lbs of raw pork (approximately 2 cases or 20 butts), that will give you a finished yield of approximately 75lbs (50%). That will give you 300, 4oz servings.

If you want to do half and half then you will need 10 butts (1 case) and approximately 80lbs of brisket flats (1 case @ 10-8lb flats per case). You will get approximately a 50% yield from the briskets raw weight as well. So you will have approximately 40lbs of finished product giving you 160, 4oz brisket servings.
 
Well, in this area butts go for about $1.50/lb and briskets go for appx $3.00+ a lb! Brisket is a better meat in my opinion. It will impress much more as most folks in the "north" do not know how good it is. Larry is good on amounts. Good luck. WM
 
I agree with Wolfy here. Do the 20, pull ahead of time and store in Vac sealed bags. Then just heat up what you need in boiling water.
 
The Billy and the Wolfer are right if you are serving sandwiches, BUT if this is on a buffet or if it is all they can eat... you better crank up the quantities a bit. One meat, 300 hungry men.... 75 lbs of product sounds light to me. I would tend to figure .3 lb per person in that case... so.. .3 X 300 = 90 lb product X2 = 180 lbs raw MINIMUM. It is ALWAYS better to take leftovers home than to run out of food.

if I were doing brisket, I would go with flats and have roughly 90 lbs on hand to serve also. a bit more expensive but would be worth it.

Another option for the beef route would be Chuck rolls to get shreaded beef.

I would do either of the above options ahead of time, pull the pork, slice the brisket, vacuum pack and reheat in boiling water, hold in the cambro or cooler, and open just before serving.

Just the way I would approach it.
 
surfinsapo said:
007bond-jb said:
surfinsapo said:
PORK PORK PORK... even I can't mess that up... Have fun.. !!!! :D

If DGT's can do anybody can :LOL:
F- for you student!!!

Thats hillarious .......LOL gotta love this place!


I WOULD GO PORK TOO. EASIER AND IF YOUR NOT USE TO COOKIN' FOR 300 PEOPLE THERE WILL BE LESS TO WORRY ABOUT. MAYBE GREG CAN BRING HIS KLOSE OVER AND PUT IT NEXT TO YOURS AND HELP OUT. ;) :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
 
Thanks for all the advice. When I do the cook I will take pics and post. I have done chicken cooks the last 15 years for 600-750 plates but there are about 8 of us doing the cook. This will be a challange but it will get done. Thanks again fellow Qer's!!!
 
Well I vote for the pork too...its just way harder to mess up and less hassle than brisket and from whut my old vending chums tell me..folks prefer the flavor of the pork over the brisket. Since you feeding a crowd of full grown men who prob works hard for a living I would feel uncomfortable with anything less 300 lbs of raw bone in butts. Especially if it gonna be helpy selfy on the meat. Now if you got some stingy old widder lady in charge of portion control you could get by with less surely..but not sure if you wind up with happy campers so to speak. Its the boss man's money right? Who cares if you got some leftovers? Make up some dawggy bags and have some kinda little contest to see who wins one. Folks love to take a little home with them. Just my dos centavos of course.

bigwheel

PS...If you gonna let them serve themselves...use small buns...keep the meat on the far end of the serving line...and make up a small sign next to the meat and the buns which say one sandwich on the first pass please. Also pray a lot that you dont run out.

PPS..Edit. I also would not mess with cooking...freezing..boiling water etc. Day before the big event come home and take yourself a little power nap. Wake up in time to get it cooked and hauled to scene of the crime and add about 3 hours for a coushin. Cook up the butts..wrap em..or double wrap if they already wrapped..and throw em the proverbial insulated hot box empty ice chest type deal. Keep em in a warm spot and no peeking allowed. They will stay hot till the cows come home next week. If it practical drag your pit out there and stink up the air a bit and serve em off the pit. Thats make a good impression on folks. Use the heat/smoke from the pit to smoke a few dawgs for the kids in the crowd. Sure some of them old coots bring their grand chillins and such thangs.
 
Got another question for you cooks out there. When to sauce the pull pork? Or would you have the sauce on the side and let them do it themselves. Will be serving sliced brisket also.
 
Tannehill Kid said:
Got another question for you cooks out there. When to sauce the pull pork? Or would you have the sauce on the side and let them do it themselves. Will be serving sliced brisket also.

I would add a little sauce while it's being served. This will add a little flavor and keep it from drying out. Reheated pork will dry out very fast.

If you are reheating using the boil in the bag method I would heat your sauce at the same time. When you dump the bags of pork, toss it in just enough warmed sauce to keep the meat moist.
 
I spray it with apple juice as well as mixing a little bit of sauce into it for seasoning. Keep it covered or it will dry out. I also give them sauce to put on afterwards. I like to keep pork sauce thin so it can sink into the meat some and flavor the whole thing rather than just the top.
 
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