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Cooking for 60 baseball players

FM Former Member
I have to cook for 60, adult male baseball players tonight. I am doing Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Chicken and Ribs for meats.
Baked Beans and Coleslaw for sides and Banana Wafer Pudding for Dessert.
Ususaly i am cooking for singles or a family of 6-8. My question is, how much as far as quanity of each items to serve them ? Any ideas for 60. I have 30# pork butt smoking now and was thinking 10 slabs ribs and 10 whole chickens pluss 10 # slaw and 15# baked beans. Am i close, as i would not want to be short on food. thanks
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T trucky1008Member
I've attached a copy of a BBQ Catering Workbook that I cannot for the life of me remember where I got. It will calculate all your needed quantities and you can adjust the portion size as well. It's an Excel spreadsheet but it would only allow me to upload as a zip file. Let me know if you have trouble unzipping the file. I hope it works out for you.
Don

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FM Former Member
I would suggest about 4-6oz of slaw and beans per person, by volume, which means you'll need about 2.5-3.5 gallons of each, maybe a little more if they serve themselves. Put these and bread at the front of the line so they don't fill their plates with meat. A spoodle or segmented plates help keep portions under control.

I would suggest 4 bone sections of ribs if using baby backs if you expect each person to have some, and maybe 2-3 bones each if using trimmed spares(I think this is a little lite myself, but it should work out). I don't think you have enough ribs for 60 portions of this size. You better serve these and ask if they want them so to stretch as far as possible.

For the BBQ, I would suggest 6oz per person since they're all adult males. You're going to be tight on this with just 30# of butts in the smoker. I'm guessing you'll have about 18# of pulled meat, and that gives you 4.8oz per person.

Lastly, 6-8oz by volume is about right for banana wafer pudding(naner puddin'), so about 4 gallons or 3 deep half pans should do the trick. Hope this helps in time. Good luck!
Last edited by Former Member
FM Former Member
just got done, well, todd is right on his calculations. I am glad i head some extra in the fridge to through in and warm up. I am small time, cater a few bars on weekends, pulled pork byt the pan and two sides, simple stuff, then the rest of the time, its a family on vacation not wanting to cook and they are here for 2 weeks or a month and they want bbq without the hassle. They call in before they leave for Disney and when they get home at 7 pm, I arrive and deliver then a half pan of ribs, butt, chicken, sides and I leave, simple to control. This was unusual, but good, I might add. The customer drove by my house and I had the FEC 100 going and they smelled it and stopped. But sixty people is alot at one time.They forgot to tell me they were 20 college kids, the man who stopped wasz the dad, ya, so i assumed older people. We show up and they are all big boys and it is self serve drop and run, the way the dad wanted it. we ended up running back and grabbing some more and bringing it back to them. they were pleased. Nice Indiana couple. Anyway. Total food count.
80 buns
18 # puled pork
10 slabs st louis ribs cut into 2 bone sections
13 # rib tips
21 # baked beans
10 # coleslaw
3 half pans nana pudding
57 men, one women and a food cost of $237.34 and a gross of $15.00 head, so $900 Gross,$662.66 net
I cooked the butts 16 hours, the ribs, 6 hours, the chicken 3 hours and the beans 3 hours. As it kept getting fuller it was hard to stay on target temp. 224 for first 11 hours with the butts was fine, turned up to 300, added the ribs and it held at 300 til i put the chicken on buttom racks, then i could not keep it above 212 for the rest of the smoke. It did come out fine, but good lesson on that much weight at one time slowing process down.
Thanks Again CS and the Forums for helping out make good Q
FM Former Member
I completely missed the mention of chicken in your original post. Sorry about that. Having the chicken no doubt helped on the rib quantity quite a bit. But it sounds like in the end everything turned out great, and you made money which is always good.

I like your business model BTW. Wish we had enough visitors here to do the same thing.
FM Former Member
Thanks to all here, lurked for 2 years, my wife says i should be a PHD in something, all the spare time i spent in the computer reading,printing off pages of notes and recipes, copy of the catering worksheet for cost analysis, etc, i belly flopped in and I can say i am having a decent start "with some help from my friends here" all welcome anytime at our house.
One thing i did learn even though i had read it and forgot, temp loss on full load-items next to temp sensor hotter from burn pot trying to catch up and add more fuel. Good call forums, i made the 180 turn and more up 2 shelfs midway after reading forums again in temp worry syndrome, not climbing after long stall, clock ticking.
Anyway, not a big sports fan and being new to Fl, didn't realize it was spring training season here. Just booked a Wed night 80 man ball team dinner, drop and dash, no serve, nor irbs this time, chickens, pulled pork and whole pork loin, and the loin is on sale for $1.49# 12 logs, sold them on 2" think cut loin steaks for parents, 40, and pulled pork,.88# picnics , 2 each, 6 oz sandwich and 1/2 chicken, .77#, and coleslaw and potatoe sald, $7.95-10# box, RD, and we are off and running again at $15 head, no chafing , no sterno, drop and go.
Yes, being in vacation area is unique i am seeing, and I think i am cheaper ,and its funner eating at home than doing the buffet thing, 4th day her trying to save a buck in this economy and i do 6-8 person vacation dinners with dessert, delivered 5 mile area, for $80. Cost are good, getting experience, timing, etc, and paying a few bills and adding equipment. We do have tough rules here in Fl though, and more licensing than I have ever saw,lol, you need a sheet of plywood for your certificates to show for "inspectors", good , but very excessive here, Idaho, no regs and I might say no problems I have every found.
But having a great time , cooking Q with my 4 year old grandson we are raising and trying to get by in this new world.

Thanks to all, especially Okie and Tom and Drof BBQ for all the well handed out advice and
learning curve advancement and a BIG shout out to Eddy and CS for making a damm fine product and standing behind it all, really OLD SCHOOL now days, just try to find another company that evens answer their phones, much less with any knowledge.
Thanks To All Here
FM Former Member
Trucky

Love the workbook that will make things alot easier to have a starting point. One question i have is on the sides it lists them in quarts most of the time im cooking for family and like doing the beans and potato salad homemade. How many pounds of dried beans do i do to make a quart? How many pounds of potatos make a quart? Anyone have a qood guess?
FM Former Member
Hey Hog Smith, you might want to look into using whole shoulders or just butts instead of picnics. Butts will give you better yield and less labor time, so even at $1.20#, your cost might be better. If I'm cooking butts, I do a 3 butt/1 picnic ratio just to get the rich meat from the picnic.

I prefer whole shoulder because I think the picnic section adds tremendous flavor. You should be able to find shoulders by the case for under $1# Plus you can sell the shoulder whole if you like. A lot of people want them like that to slice.
FM Former Member
quote:
Originally posted by HOG SMITH BBQ:
Thanks to all here, lurked for 2 years, my wife says i should be a PHD in something, all the spare time i spent in the computer reading,printing off pages of notes and recipes, copy of the catering worksheet for cost analysis, etc, i belly flopped in and I can say i am having a decent start "with some help from my friends here" all welcome anytime at our house.
One thing i did learn even though i had read it and forgot, temp loss on full load-items next to temp sensor hotter from burn pot trying to catch up and add more fuel. Good call forums, i made the 180 turn and more up 2 shelfs midway after reading forums again in temp worry syndrome, not climbing after long stall, clock ticking.
Anyway, not a big sports fan and being new to Fl, didn't realize it was spring training season here. Just booked a Wed night 80 man ball team dinner, drop and dash, no serve, nor irbs this time, chickens, pulled pork and whole pork loin, and the loin is on sale for $1.49# 12 logs, sold them on 2" think cut loin steaks for parents, 40, and pulled pork,.88# picnics , 2 each, 6 oz sandwich and 1/2 chicken, .77#, and coleslaw and potatoe sald, $7.95-10# box, RD, and we are off and running again at $15 head, no chafing , no sterno, drop and go.
Yes, being in vacation area is unique i am seeing, and I think i am cheaper ,and its funner eating at home than doing the buffet thing, 4th day her trying to save a buck in this economy and i do 6-8 person vacation dinners with dessert, delivered 5 mile area, for $80. Cost are good, getting experience, timing, etc, and paying a few bills and adding equipment. We do have tough rules here in Fl though, and more licensing than I have ever saw,lol, you need a sheet of plywood for your certificates to show for "inspectors", good , but very excessive here, Idaho, no regs and I might say no problems I have every found.
But having a great time , cooking Q with my 4 year old grandson we are raising and trying to get by in this new world.

Thanks to all, especially Okie and Tom and Drof BBQ for all the well handed out advice and
learning curve advancement and a BIG shout out to Eddy and CS for making a damm fine product and standing behind it all, really OLD SCHOOL now days, just try to find another company that evens answer their phones, much less with any knowledge.
Thanks To All Here


I'm just starting to research a mobile kitchen in Florida. Can you provide tips for the licensing part? I hear it is a nightmare?

Thanks
kcmikekcmikeMember
quote:
Originally posted by Trucky1008:
I've attached a copy of a BBQ Catering Workbook that I cannot for the life of me remember where I got. It will calculate all your needed quantities and you can adjust the portion size as well. It's an Excel spreadsheet but it would only allow me to upload as a zip file. Let me know if you have trouble unzipping the file. I hope it works out for you.
Don


Hey Don, thanks for posting this all those years ago. Sorry I'm just now finding it.

I am the creator of the original BBQ Catering Workbook. We used to have it hosted in several places, but they have since dropped off into obscurity. If anyone still needs (or would like) a copy of it, just shoot me an email at mike at oakridgebbq dot com.

Likewise, if you should ever have any questions on it, please just let me know.

Thanks!
Mike
CEO, Oakridge BBQ LLC
http://www.oakridgebbq.com

email: mike at oakridgebbq dot com
andyjandyjMember
If Mike was cooking in Joplin, he was probably cooking with Operation BBQ Relief for Joplin. In a little over a week, they cooked 120,000 meals in the middle of a parking lot. I'm not a competition cook, but I'm so proud of all the guys and gals that pitched in and got meals out to those that lost everything and the first responders.

Who else besides competition BBQ cooks could have pulled this off? Show up in an empty parking lot and start cranking out the Que!
P pagsMember
Well. I just tried some of the Oakridge BBQ Santa Maria Steak Seasoning on some tri tip. Sprinkled it on half the tri tip and used my homemade on the other half. Smoked the meat and taste tested. Oakridge has a real Santa Maria winner there. Excellent flavor. They brag about their high end ingredients with good reason. It shows up in the flavor. I'm sure it would be good on all types of beef, but it's great with Tri Tip. I'll order again.
kcmikekcmikeMember
quote:
Originally posted by AndyJ:
If Mike was cooking in Joplin, he was probably cooking with Operation BBQ Relief for Joplin. In a little over a week, they cooked 120,000 meals in the middle of a parking lot. I'm not a competition cook, but I'm so proud of all the guys and gals that pitched in and got meals out to those that lost everything and the first responders.

Who else besides competition BBQ cooks could have pulled this off? Show up in an empty parking lot and start cranking out the Que!


Thanks so much!! I just did whatever I could to help out. The guys who put OBR together and all the cooks who came down to Joplin were the REAL heroes!!!

Mike Trump
Oakridge BBQ
http://www.oakridgebbq.com
kcmikekcmikeMember
quote:
Originally posted by Pags:
Well. I just tried some of the Oakridge BBQ Santa Maria Steak Seasoning on some tri tip. Sprinkled it on half the tri tip and used my homemade on the other half. Smoked the meat and taste tested. Oakridge has a real Santa Maria winner there. Excellent flavor. They brag about their high end ingredients with good reason. It shows up in the flavor. I'm sure it would be good on all types of beef, but it's great with Tri Tip. I'll order again.


Thanks for the business!!! We appreciate it a great deal!

Mike Trump
Oakridge BBQ LLC
http://www.oakridgebbq.com
Last edited by kcmike
FM Former Member
Hello everyone! First post on here. I've been hosting the files that Mike Trump has made available for everyone to use and I've had to change hosting companies. So, some of you have noticed that the download links for the BBQ Catering Workbook, etc. haven't been working. Well, I'm happy to say I've got the files back up and available for you to download again. The new links are below. Thanks for your patience!

BBQ Catering Workbook v3: http://bit.ly/M1befW

BBQ Catering Workbook v3 (Metric): http://bit.ly/N4exnJ

--

Brad Trump
Kansas City, MO

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