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First BBQ job

FM Former Member
I am doing pulled pork for 100 people. After pouring through these forums, it looks like I will need about 16 4-4.5 pork should butt roasts(that is what is readily available and I like the smaller roasts because of the extra rub and bark). I can do about 8 of these at one time. On site I have one regular residential oven and two gas grills that can be used as a warming oven, if the space is required.

My game plan is to smoke half of the butts the day before, foil them and place them immediately in the refrigerator. On the day of the event, I plan to cook the remaining 8 small butts. FTC them for a couple of hours, etc. It seems the preferred method to reheat the first batch is to do them whole, wrapped in a low temp oven 220-225 until they get back up to around 160 internal temp. I would guess this would take about two hours??? Once they are at this temp, would it be desirable to lower the oven temp to hold them at 160 and then pull them as needed on the serving line.

Does this timeline look reasonable? I am also doing the usual cole slaw,etc but also a chicken and sausage jambalaya (my area of expertise <G>Wink.

Any thoughts from the ones that do this all the time?

Thanks in advance.
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T tomMember
We are careful of our handling,so we are more likely to reheat to about 145*,and hold about 140*.

You can reheat at most temps,but 250* will get you there a little quicker and no harm.

If folks are there for a long time,we may pull as needed.

If they are going to eat over a couple hours,we try to get ahead on the pulling,put in 1/2 pans,cover with plastic and foil.

Keep in a cambro,or holding oven.

Add a little 50/50 apple juice to bbq sauce ,as needed.

Tom-Fl
T tomMember
If they all eat at once,just pull it all early in the day, and go to the 1/2 pans.

To feed 100,you are probably talking about a light case,of 60-65 lbs.

If you are forced,you can pull the first batch as you cook them,and reheat the foil pans,at the same temps,you discussed.

If you have a chafing dish,just carry from the holding oven to the chafer,when it is 3/4 empty.
FM Former Member
This is a situation I just delt with for 800 people. First, I pre-cooked 400 lbs of pork but I let them cool in coolers before going into the fridg. The day of serving I cooked 60 Chickens and 14 Briskets. While cooking I slowly heated up the Butts to 170*. This ensured me they were safe to eat and tender due to the number I had to deal with, People loved it!!! The main thing I don't do is go straight to the refridgerator while the pork is still hot. Seems pork does'nt like that.
FM Former Member
quote:
Originally posted by TN PIT CREW:
This is a situation I just delt with for 800 people. First, I pre-cooked 400 lbs of pork but I let them cool in coolers before going into the fridg. The day of serving I cooked 60 Chickens and 14 Briskets. While cooking I slowly heated up the Butts to 170*. This ensured me they were safe to eat and tender due to the number I had to deal with, People loved it!!! The main thing I don't do is go straight to the refridgerator while the pork is still hot. Seems pork does'nt like that.


It's actually a difficult compromise. Ideally you want to cool the meat as quickly as possible if it's not going to be used right away. That's the official word from the health department. If you don't have sufficient refer space to do this they would say do smaller jobs or rent a refer truck for the event. Ouch$$$. If you go straight to fridge with that much meat, you'll just heat the fridge unless it's a pretty large walk-in with a lot of thermal mass, so you're not helping anything there. So what's a person to do?

I've done the same thing you did. I've also held the meat at serving temp for 12 hours while the second batch/meat cooked. I always think safety first, but I'm not going to turn away a job if I can possibly help it.
R ribdogMember
Todd,

If you want to cool the meat quickly, I have used water and ice baths before. Place the meat in a double ziploc bag and place it in a cooler with ice and water in it. Try to keep sealed edge of the bag above the water level. This process will cool the meat fairly quickly and would make most health departments happy I would think. That is unless you have a large walk-in like you suggested.
FM Former Member
quote:
Originally posted by RibDog:
Todd,

If you want to cool the meat quickly, I have used water and ice baths before. Place the meat in a double ziploc bag and place it in a cooler with ice and water in it. Try to keep sealed edge of the bag above the water level. This process will cool the meat fairly quickly and would make most health departments happy I would think. That is unless you have a large walk-in like you suggested.


That process would work well no doubt for a few butts. It works well for soups and beans too, but I can't see it really working for 400# of meat. I don't know if there's enough ziploc bags and ice in the country to quick cool that much meat. Smiler
FM Former Member
While we are on the subject...is there really much difference in quality of the product if you pull the pork and bag it and reheat to service, or cool the pork whole, then reheat and pull it? It seems that it would be more convenient to pull the pork after it is originally cooked but I don't have a clue about a difference in taste/texture with either method. I am doing some experimenting at home, but not being from NC or SC, I may not have an educated enough of a taste to know...... Roll Eyes
FM Former Member
I don't know if there's a difference because I've always pulled it, bagged it, then reheated it. I've been pleased with the results so I've never tried anything else.

If I'm going to use within 24 hours, I put it in half pans, cool it, and then seal it with foil. Just before I reheat I drench with sauce(here in my part of NC we sauce pork with vinegar based "dip") to help keep it moist, and then into the oven for reheating. I actually just bought a small Masterbuilt smoker to use solely to reheat/hold product. I've used it a couple of times now and it has given flexibility for when I have a lot of meat to deal with. It will hold 5-6 half pans. It's not perfect, but it was a cheap solution and those aren't easy to come by.



I bag pork if I plan to freeze it or sell it. Same process, I just add sauce when I bag it. Keeps away freezer burn and bags freeze like bricks.
FM Former Member
I just did a little warmup party and since I did not relish starting at 4:00 on the smoke, I did the pork butts the day ahead. I cooled them with the ice bath as suggested and popped them in the fridge, foiled and whole.

The next day, after looking at my "guess-timated" reheat time of 2 hrs, I realized that from my cooking charts at 250, it took five hours to get the butts to 150. That makes a two hour reheat time a little optimistic. I started reheating four hours ahead and still had to crank it up a little to get to what I wanted.

Anyway, the finished product was excellent. It does make for extra work at the last minute but the "visual" of opening the whole butts and then pulling just ahead of the serving line was good.

Again, thanks to everyone for all the good input.

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