Fundraiser for Hurricane Victims

dr mac,
if all you are doing is the pulled pork and smoked beans here is how i would do it
figure 6 oz of each if you are serving and serving is the best way to go in my experience.

to figure how much pork to cook here is a method that has served me well.

1- number of servings = 600
2- multiply that by 6 oz and you get 3600 oz
3- divide that 16 to get pounds of COOKED MEAT and that gives 225 pounds of cooked meat required.
4- for the raw weight of the meat that you have to purchase just multiply 225 pounds by two since your shrinkage will be about 50%. so you need about 450 pounds of raw meat.

what you might consider doing if you have about 2 volunteers is setting up a little assembly line and doing the pork as a 4 oz sandwich. if you got a nice small type hamburger bun 4 oz would look nice and you would then only need 150 pounds of cooked meat (or 300 pounds raw).

i don't think anyone would complain since your customers are giving to a good cause and by using a really nice bun your presentation would look great to them.

hopes this gives you an idea that you can use and good luck with your fundraiser
jack

dr mac,
sorry long day.
what you might also consider doing is putting the beans in a chafer and use a 4 oz spoodle.
set them up before your meat or sandwich area.
this will do two things.
1- it will slow the line down enough to make serving the meat or sandwich pretty ez.
2- by using a 4 oz spoodle if someone wants more they will have to dip twice. most people won't as they know this impedes the line flow (and makes them look like lil piggies) so you might need around 25% less on the beans.

if you keep the price the same that will give you more profit to donate!!!!

jack
ps. just wanted to add that you are a good person for doing this

Hi Prison Chef,

Thanks for the information. I used an extension agency chart when I calculated how much meat I needed & the chart only listed boneless butt roasts so to some extent I was guessing on how much meat to buy. After reading your suggestions, I will definitely want to order more meat!

I also didn't think about the size of the bun & how the amount of meat we decide on will look on the bun. 4 oz on a huge kaiser bun wouldn't look too appealing. Your information should help make this a much more rewarding experience for all involved. Thank you so much for your advise.

Hi Jack,

I have a question regarding figuring out how many beans to make that I hope you can help me with. The recipe I'm planning on following is 16 gallons cans of "pork & beans", 3 gallons of my homeade bbq sauce, 32 cups of diced onions, 7 cups of brown sugar, 1 cup sesame oil, 4 cups prepared mustard, & 16 diced granny smith apples. How many 4 servings do you think I'll get when I take "cooking loss" into consideration?

I never heard back from anybody on my "bean quantity" so I guess I'll just see what 19 gallons of beans will serve. I'll post my results sometime after Thursday for anybody interested.

dr mac,
i appologize for not looking at your bean question.
had a little health problem
will do the math
hope the response isn't too late
jack

dr mac,
ok took your bean recipe and came up with a total of 2,784 ounces (i did not include the apples in my calcs as a overage saftey factor)
to check my math i used 128 ounces = 1 gallon.
based off of that i come up with the following

4 oz servings = 696
6 oz servings = 464

let the apples be your overage amount as a safe guard against running out

again i appologize for not responding sooner and i hope that you understand

jack

No problem Jack! I just appreciate your first response. I think I'm good to go. My smoke starts in 3 1/2 hours so I'll know more in about 12 hours. Thanks for the feedback!

dr mac,
could you please do me a favor and let me know how much left over you had and your plate count???
every now and again i like to recheck my calcs so i don't give out bad info.
thanks for being understanding about the bean thing.
i really appreciate that
jack

sounds like a yummie bean recipe! good luck, mac.
i am thinking you will have plenty of food left. send some this way...heehee.
jack, what up with the health, man?! you ok?
working too hard, aint ya.
well, we didnt sell on ebay, although thousands of interested potential buyers. some are still considering the place.
maybe it was meant for you and peggy...
rest, my friend.

coffee,
rest sounds nice.
but in 30 mins i go to the rig to pull my 28 hour deal for the farmers market.
go to the docs next wednesday to get looked at. will send you email
jack

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 a large group. Thank you Jack for your advice!

We served over 500 people, but I'm not sure how many over 500. I'd guess around 530. I ended up with about 1 1/2 gallons of beans left over and about 30 pounds of meat (about 3 roasts) left over. We sold the meat in 2 Lb bags for $5.00 a bag & the kithchen staff split the beans up to take home for supper that night.

I used four large smokers that I borrowed from local friends. (Three charcol & one was propane.) I rubbed the butts with mustard & a rub recipe from Cook's Illustrated (recipe follows) about 6 PM. There was 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 & "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

Thanks for the info Dr Mac and congrats on raising all that money to help folks out.

Regards,
Preston