Feeding BBQ to 40-50 this Saturday!! Advice needed!

I think you need to take a minute and think aboput who you are cooking for. Men and women, children and even the age of those your cooking for. Are you wanting to be able to send meat home with people. And who is paying the bills. Some will eat beef and not pork and some will eat pork and not beef. A half pound per person per meat type will be a ton of food, with left overs.
I'm doing the saem thing this weekend for my mothers birthday, 70 people. 4 butts, 3 briskets, 9 racks of ribs, 54 chicken thighs. Plenty of leftovers.
On the sides, I'll be doing canned beans dressed up and potatoe salad, slaw and bread. The beans and slaw and salad all have serving sizes listed on the containers. The quanities are a little on the low side, so I over size some and go with it.

Randy, thats sounds like wayyyyy too much meat to me. You will have plenty to send home with everybody.

Well, I will agree with you. I think it would be much easier with just the two meats.

It's my mom and dad's families and it has been a long time since everyone got together. And my dad wants everyone to take some home.

But on the pork and brisket. I think if you allowed a 1/3 lb of each per person. Everyone would be happy.

Besides what's a butt here or there between friends.

Just got the butts and briskets rubbed and in the fridge for the night.

Back to Shooter's post...
Welcome Shooter...

Doing a search for you,
prisonchef posted:
How Much per Person

As for wood, don't over do it. 1-2 oz. per 10# is plenty. Some may not like too much smoke. Use mild wood except on the briskets. After meat reaches 140˚ it doesn't smoke much more (as per many posts here on the forum).

Flats? Go with whole briskets.

Start a few days ahead of time and refrigerate/re-warm so you don't get sauce on your face at the last minute and end up waist deep in it. Pull the pork when hot after smoke and resting, then refrigerate.

Many reciepes here, try a search for what you want and do the math for your goup.

Have fun,
Rob

Theres nothing wrong with having a bunch of leftovers. I go ahead and pull whatever pork I have left and put in sealable bags, make sure you put it all in there, bark, fat juice, everything. When you want to eat it again just defrost for a little bit and put the bag in in hot water, not boiling. Let it get warmed up real good and sprinkle whatever rub you like on it and eat it up. Its just as good as fresh made I think.

Thanks to all who have responded so far! You guys are so supportive and it's reassuring.

I'll err on the "too much" side and be sure there's leftovers for wifey and I (grin).

You'll probably come up with about 50% shrinkage and waste on your meat once it's done. I'd figure about 1/3 lb. per person cooked weight. Double that for your raw weight. Depending on where you live, they might like pork or beef more.

A really easy slaw recipe is to buy the bags of slaw mix in the grocery store. 2 bags of slaw mix to 1/2 bottle of Marzetti's. That will serve about 25 people. Use Marzetti's slaw dressing which is also available in the grocery. It's a precooked dressing that tastes great to me. Use a big pot or bowl. Put your gloves on and toss it all up.

A good bean recipe is just to mix a bunch of different types of beans. Open and drain and rinse 6 lbs of different beans. If you use pork and beans or baked beans don't rinse them. Put on some gloves. Mix 1/4 c. mustard, 2 c. ketchup,or the equal amount of a combination of bbq sauce, and heinz 57, 1 c. diced onion, 1 bell pepper, 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 c. honey or molasses to dissolve the sugar. We use about 6 lbs of beans. Dice 1 onion and bell pepper real fine. Make them a little soupy. If you have a little leftover bbq meat you can chop it up and add it. Or top it with bacon. You can cook the beans in the oven or in your smoker. I don't know how big your smoker is. This should feed at least 50 people. Takes about 1 hour or so to bake.

Peggy

Shooter,
Use steel hotel pans if you have them to cook the beans. Or if you use disposable, I'd divide them into smaller pans and cook them for a less amount of time. All the acidity of the ketchup and stuff can eat into the aluminum. So you don't want them in the aluminum for too long. I usually cook them at about 300 deg. in the oven. They go about 1 hour if we are using the steel pans. Don't store them in the aluminum.
Peggy