We are planning on having a BBQ dinner fundraiser for the hurricane victims at a local hospital. They want me to cook the butt roasts & beans and we're planning on serving 500 to 600 people. Can anybody give me suggestions on how to calculate servings? For example, how many ounces of meat per head, ounces of beans per serving, etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx-MAC

For that kind of quantity you might want to check out the professionals forum.

I think I have seen serving size suggestions of approx. 1/4 lb. per person of cooked butt with side dishes. I would guess at approx the same quantity for beans, maybe a little more.

The yield for cooked butt is approx. 50% of the pre-cooked weight.

Good idea - good luck.

Thanks for the advice Mike. I'll post one to the pros & see if they can help me out.

If anybody else is interested in calculating quantities I found some good information in the "How many butts for 80 people" link in the "Pork Shoulders/Butts/Hams" archive. I did a search earlier & couldn't find what I was looking for, so I must have not used the right search phrase.

This one?

How many butts for 80 people?

Yep, that's the one.

My smoke is tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it goes. Weather is supposed to cooperate so that's a good start.

Good luck, it's a good cause. If you get any good photos, email 'em to me.

Russ

Well I survived the "Kickin It Up For Katrina" fundraiser. Here's a summary of what I did for anybody whose interested in tackling a dinner for 500 - 600 people.

I used four smokers that I borrowed from local friends. Three were charcol & one was propane. I rubbed the butts with mustard & a rub recipe from Cook's Illustrated (recipe follows) about 6 PM. There were 350 pounds of boneless butt roasts. The kitchen staff had tied them up so they would be one nice uniform piece of meat.

I also mixed the beans at this time. I ended up using 16 gallon cans of beans. (Recipe follows) Everything into the walk-in cooler at the hospital till time to throw on the smokers.

I had everything (butts & beans) loaded on the smokers about 1 AM. Tried to keep the smoker temps between 225 & 250. Added soaked wood chunks to the smokers for about the first 4 hours. Turned the butts about every hour and a half.

Started stirring the beans about 5 hours into the smoke & removed them after about 6 hours. They had thickened to just the right consistency by that time. The beans were held in warmers in the hospital kitchen.

I continued smoking the butts until they reached an internal temp of 190 & then pulled them from the grill, threw about 3 or 4 into each large pans & covered the pans with foil to rest for a couple hours. The kitchen staff pulled the pork & put it into pans for serving.

Started serving at 11 am & served over 500 people. "Kickin It Up For Katrina" was a great success. With the raffles, bake sales, t-shirt sales & other activities that took place we raised over $11,000.00.

Butt Rub Recipe

8 oz Sweet Paprika
4 oz Chili Powder
4 oz Cumin
1 cup Brown Sugar
8 oz Salt
1 oz Oregano
8 TBS Sugar
2 oz Black Pepper
2 oz White Pepper
8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Smoked Beans Recipe
16 gallon beans
3 Gallons bbq sauce (recipe below)
32 cups diced onions
7 Cups Brown Sugar
1 cup sesame oil
4 Cups Mustard
16 Granny Smith Apples diced

Spicy BBQ Sauce
16 cup ketchup
16 can tomato sauce
2 Cup Worcestershire
1 cup Liquid Smoke
2 cups Sugar
4 cups Syrup
8 TBS Tabasco
2 Cup Vinegar
16 TBS Pepper
11 TBS Molasses
8 tsp salt

Awesome Job Dr. Mac! I know it was a lot of work, but you certainly deserve a big pat on the back!

Now get some rest

Thanks Smokin,

Did you get the pix I emailed you?

MAC

Sent you an email this morning with the link.

Russ

Congratulations on your cook - sounds like it turned out great. How did your quantity calculations work out?

Smokin,

Thanks for getting these pictures set up.

Mac

Here's a few butts.


A different angle.



Stirring the beans.



The four smokers.



Some of the volunteers.

Great Job Dr. Mac, looks like a good time.

Smokin'