My SM008 should be here this week and I am pretty excited about the future learning curve.
I will in advance, thank you all for the help I am sure that I will recieve.
Zappa
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quote:Reply Admin New PM!
Oops.....I think I meant SM020...Sorry
Well. You're quite welcome in advance. 
Take good detailed notes on everything you cook to allow you to either recreate what you liked or fix what went wrong. Experiment and have fun! I have the 008 and love it!
There is a link at the top of the Owners Forum "New Owners, Have Questions, Start here" that should get you headed the right direction.
I don't know about thanking us in advance, we CAN get pretty opinionated
but your welcome
Russ
I don't know about thanking us in advance, we CAN get pretty opinionated
but your welcome
Russ
I am going to smoke some pork butt to make pulled pork for about 60 people for a bike ralley in WV. How much should I do?
Bobby -- Make that question a separate thread. Tell us what kind of crowd you'll be feeding - men, women, kids, families...
I did 160 lbs. of butt and it yielded about 120 lbs. of finished pork. Bones and excess fat removed. It easily served 125 people with lots left over. I served it on small buns and with slaw. Be sure to put the pork, buns, and slaw if any first on the line so people load up on that first. Some people don't know how to load a plate properly. Salads, fruit and sides can take up a lot of room and there is no room left for the good stuff.
quote:Originally posted by Finman:
I did 160 lbs. of butt and it yielded about 120 lbs. of finished pork. Bones and excess fat removed. It easily served 125 people with lots left over. I served it on small buns and with slaw. Be sure to put the pork, buns, and slaw if any first on the line so people load up on that first. Some people don't know how to load a plate properly. Salads, fruit and sides can take up a lot of room and there is no room left for the good stuff.
Are you serious?
Butts usually yield about 50-55%, so you should have ended up with about 80-88lbs of finished meat. 120lbs would be a 75% yield which is impossible unless you cooked the meat to 160*.
Also, your advice as to how one should set up a buffet is exactly opposite what someone should usually do. Putting the meat first in line encourages/tempts people to load up on way more meat than they'll eat, thereby throwing off your portion estimates and food costs. Slaw, potato salad, beans, and most starchy sides are cheap and filling. Both good qualities to have unless you want everyone eating or throwing away $5 worth of pulled pork.
For 60 average people, figure on 6-8oz of meat per person, based on gender mix, activity level, sides(assuming 2), etc. Assume a 50% yield and go with 6oz per person, Since your yield will be slightly better than 50%, that will allow you some margin for error. You'll need to cook 45-50lbs of raw butts to yield 23lbs of finished, pulled meat. 23lbs x 16oz=368oz/60ppl=6.9oz per person.
quote:Originally posted by Bobby jr:
I am going to smoke some pork butt to make pulled pork for about 60 people for a bike ralley in WV. How much should I do?
Yes please start a new thread. "Threadjacking" just means that we won't be able to find your topic because it's a sub-topic in this thread.
Put a descriptive title and you'll get plenty of help.
Todd G,
Where's the love? I can only go by what has worked for me. My scale didn't lie, I measured the starting weight of the butts before cooking and after. I cooked 160 lbs. of butt at 225 for 23 hours until they reached an internal temperature of an average of 195 degrees. Some roasts were larger and some were smaller so there was a range of a few degrees. After separating the bones, pulling out the larges pieces of fat I was left with exactly 117 lbs. of pulled/chopped pork.
The reason for recommending setting up the buffet line in such a way, was so people could can enjoy the fruits of my labor and me not worrying about being stingy on how much is being eaten or thrown away. The line my last butt was served in was set up like you recommend and the only complaint I had was that if the people knew how good the sandwiches were going to be they wouldn't have taken so much of the sides. Peace to you, and good Q.
Finman
Where's the love? I can only go by what has worked for me. My scale didn't lie, I measured the starting weight of the butts before cooking and after. I cooked 160 lbs. of butt at 225 for 23 hours until they reached an internal temperature of an average of 195 degrees. Some roasts were larger and some were smaller so there was a range of a few degrees. After separating the bones, pulling out the larges pieces of fat I was left with exactly 117 lbs. of pulled/chopped pork.
The reason for recommending setting up the buffet line in such a way, was so people could can enjoy the fruits of my labor and me not worrying about being stingy on how much is being eaten or thrown away. The line my last butt was served in was set up like you recommend and the only complaint I had was that if the people knew how good the sandwiches were going to be they wouldn't have taken so much of the sides. Peace to you, and good Q.
Finman
Seeing as the thread has already been hijacked....
I have to agree with Todd. He's in the catering business and knows butts. I have cooked several myself and for as many as 280 people.
When smoking a butt I always plan on 50% loss in weight/volume. If I can get 55%-60%, cool. Never have smoked a butt and only lost 25%. That would be fantastic but it just doesn't happen.
In the catering business, the last thing you want to do is to run out of the main dish, therefore I must again agree with Todd.
No love-lost, just trying to bring things into reasonable focus. Always room for a good, friendly discussion!
I have to agree with Todd. He's in the catering business and knows butts. I have cooked several myself and for as many as 280 people.
When smoking a butt I always plan on 50% loss in weight/volume. If I can get 55%-60%, cool. Never have smoked a butt and only lost 25%. That would be fantastic but it just doesn't happen.
In the catering business, the last thing you want to do is to run out of the main dish, therefore I must again agree with Todd.
No love-lost, just trying to bring things into reasonable focus. Always room for a good, friendly discussion!
Sorry Zappa, they've THREADJACKED you...
If this is about catering, maybe a post in the Pro's section would be good.
Hint... Hint...
If this is about catering, maybe a post in the Pro's section would be good.
Hint... Hint...
I'm no expert caterer,but I have cooked with a few.
We tend to shoot for 50% yield,and have really cleaned it,like we would for comps,and netted out at only 46%.
The old local chains in Fl used to do like Todd says.
They would cook to below 170% internal,cut around the bone,and thick slice fat and all.
Now,they probably did yield near 75%,since they were in it for a profit.
Another really rough method ,I've seen used is 2/3 lb raw meat per person,plus 10%.
Figuring 3 sides,and bread.
Thus 2/3 X 60=40 lbs + 10%[ 4lbs]=44 lbs x 50%=22 lbs.
Not to far off,either.
We tend to shoot for 50% yield,and have really cleaned it,like we would for comps,and netted out at only 46%.
The old local chains in Fl used to do like Todd says.
They would cook to below 170% internal,cut around the bone,and thick slice fat and all.
Now,they probably did yield near 75%,since they were in it for a profit.
Another really rough method ,I've seen used is 2/3 lb raw meat per person,plus 10%.
Figuring 3 sides,and bread.
Thus 2/3 X 60=40 lbs + 10%[ 4lbs]=44 lbs x 50%=22 lbs.
Not to far off,either.
I should have put a couple of smiley faces in mine so it wouldn't come across as being so harsh. My apologies. I wasn't trying to be difficult. I just kind of jumped on it because I didn't want other people to use your yield numbers until we figured out how you did it.
In your original post you mentioned doing a group of 125ppl and having leftovers. With 116lbs of cooked meat, I would hope you did have leftovers!
Most BBQ restaurants figure on about 8oz of meat on a generous sized plate. That's also the figure I use unless I KNOW I'll be feeding a teen age hockey team or mens athletic team after the game. Then I might figure 10oz, but I'll usually regret it. 8oz of meat(on average) is a lot of meat if you have other sides to eat as well. You had almost a full pound, and I've never seen an average group of normal people average more than 7-8oz of meat. So you had plenty to say the least.
The line setup thing is completely up to you and how you want to do it. But most caterers will go with the less expensive, more filling items at the beginning of the line to keep people from getting carried away. Same reason many caterers will use servers even for buffets. The staff costs less than the food cost/waste if the crowd is large enough. Usually folks in the line can see the other end so they know what awaits them down where the good stuff is, or they can even get a second plate. Caterers count on peer pressure to reduce the number of people that engage in this activity. Kind of like counting cards in Vegas. It may not be illegal, but it is frowned upon.
If you really want to see this example in action, the next time you're doing ribs for a crowd, put the ribs in front of the line. Watch as people walk off with half slabs and maybe even whole slabs as your planned 1/3 slab portion estimate goes right out the window. If you have big eaters, like football players, this can get real ugly.
As for your yield, I just don't know what to say. That kind of yield would not only keep a lot of BBQ restaurants in business, but it would make their owners rich. I would only question the yield for the following reasons: 1) My family's BBQ restaurants cooked about 1 ton of pork shoulders and butts daily, 5-6 days a week, for about 70 years. We monitored our yield on every batch, and for skin on shoulders it was consistently about 47-52%. For butts it was about 53-58%. The variations there were more due to inconsistencies in cooking practices than in the meat itself., and 2) I make buckboard bacon pretty much monthly, you know, bacon made from butts instead of belly. Well, after butterflying a butt and removing the bone in preparation for curing, the meat is at about 80% of original weight even before cooking. Raw., and lastly, 3) If you search you'll find info on the board about boneless butts/shoulders. I've cooked a few and some of the other caterers here have cooked thousands as it is their preferred item to cook. Their yield numbers are usually around 65-70% for an item that started out boneless.
I'm not knocking your numbers at all. In the food business, it's about 20% cooking and about 80% number crunching, so if you can help me get my yield up to your level, or even bump it 5%, I'll be grateful and think of you next year as I sun myself on some nice beach while on the vacation I paid for with the extra 5%. I'd take you with me but you don't want to see me in a Speedo.
In your original post you mentioned doing a group of 125ppl and having leftovers. With 116lbs of cooked meat, I would hope you did have leftovers!
Most BBQ restaurants figure on about 8oz of meat on a generous sized plate. That's also the figure I use unless I KNOW I'll be feeding a teen age hockey team or mens athletic team after the game. Then I might figure 10oz, but I'll usually regret it. 8oz of meat(on average) is a lot of meat if you have other sides to eat as well. You had almost a full pound, and I've never seen an average group of normal people average more than 7-8oz of meat. So you had plenty to say the least. The line setup thing is completely up to you and how you want to do it. But most caterers will go with the less expensive, more filling items at the beginning of the line to keep people from getting carried away. Same reason many caterers will use servers even for buffets. The staff costs less than the food cost/waste if the crowd is large enough. Usually folks in the line can see the other end so they know what awaits them down where the good stuff is, or they can even get a second plate. Caterers count on peer pressure to reduce the number of people that engage in this activity. Kind of like counting cards in Vegas. It may not be illegal, but it is frowned upon.
If you really want to see this example in action, the next time you're doing ribs for a crowd, put the ribs in front of the line. Watch as people walk off with half slabs and maybe even whole slabs as your planned 1/3 slab portion estimate goes right out the window.
If you have big eaters, like football players, this can get real ugly. As for your yield, I just don't know what to say. That kind of yield would not only keep a lot of BBQ restaurants in business, but it would make their owners rich. I would only question the yield for the following reasons: 1) My family's BBQ restaurants cooked about 1 ton of pork shoulders and butts daily, 5-6 days a week, for about 70 years. We monitored our yield on every batch, and for skin on shoulders it was consistently about 47-52%. For butts it was about 53-58%. The variations there were more due to inconsistencies in cooking practices than in the meat itself., and 2) I make buckboard bacon pretty much monthly, you know, bacon made from butts instead of belly. Well, after butterflying a butt and removing the bone in preparation for curing, the meat is at about 80% of original weight even before cooking. Raw., and lastly, 3) If you search you'll find info on the board about boneless butts/shoulders. I've cooked a few and some of the other caterers here have cooked thousands as it is their preferred item to cook. Their yield numbers are usually around 65-70% for an item that started out boneless.
I'm not knocking your numbers at all. In the food business, it's about 20% cooking and about 80% number crunching, so if you can help me get my yield up to your level, or even bump it 5%, I'll be grateful and think of you next year as I sun myself on some nice beach while on the vacation I paid for with the extra 5%. I'd take you with me but you don't want to see me in a Speedo.
To tag onto Todd,here is a post from Elizabeth Lumpkin,Boss Hawgs BBQ and Catering.
They are one of the standards for the bbq forum.
The Lumpkins can list, with some disagreement, the number of championships Boss Hawg's Barbeque and Catering Co. has earned in the past several years.
They began as a four-seat eatery less than a decade ago, and now the restaurant on the patio at Brookwood Shopping Center seats 120 casual diners at the tables covered with red and white checkered vinyl cloths.
Aside from receiving a two-diamond rating from AAA, Boss Hawg's has been named for great barbecue in the Best of Topeka competition several years running. The restaurant also has been written about in the New York Times and in Maximum Golf magazine.
It earned the world title for brisket at the Jack Daniels cook- off at Lynchburg, Tenn., last year.
Elilabeth's Catering Portions
Smokin' may move all this over to the Pros forum.
They are one of the standards for the bbq forum.
The Lumpkins can list, with some disagreement, the number of championships Boss Hawg's Barbeque and Catering Co. has earned in the past several years.
They began as a four-seat eatery less than a decade ago, and now the restaurant on the patio at Brookwood Shopping Center seats 120 casual diners at the tables covered with red and white checkered vinyl cloths.
Aside from receiving a two-diamond rating from AAA, Boss Hawg's has been named for great barbecue in the Best of Topeka competition several years running. The restaurant also has been written about in the New York Times and in Maximum Golf magazine.
It earned the world title for brisket at the Jack Daniels cook- off at Lynchburg, Tenn., last year.
Elilabeth's Catering Portions
Smokin' may move all this over to the Pros forum.
Great Stuff!
True, I am not a pro just a hobbyist that loves to cook and eat. The confusion may be in the term butt. I am using what we call a pork shoulder or butt roast. The roasts come in hunks ranging anywhere 4 to 9 pounds with a single blade bone in the middle and are pretty lean. I use the same roasts, untrimmed for sausages.
Since I am not a caterer, I only serve food to friends and family for their enjoyment and not a profit. I look forward to seeing the fat drip off their elbows as they are wallowing in whatever came out of the Q.
Keep up the good work and I will report back on my next batch. I've been asked to do the same amount for a 60th birthday party.
As far as the speedo goes, that's not going to happen Peace to you, and good Q
True, I am not a pro just a hobbyist that loves to cook and eat. The confusion may be in the term butt. I am using what we call a pork shoulder or butt roast. The roasts come in hunks ranging anywhere 4 to 9 pounds with a single blade bone in the middle and are pretty lean. I use the same roasts, untrimmed for sausages.
Since I am not a caterer, I only serve food to friends and family for their enjoyment and not a profit. I look forward to seeing the fat drip off their elbows as they are wallowing in whatever came out of the Q.
Keep up the good work and I will report back on my next batch. I've been asked to do the same amount for a 60th birthday party.
As far as the speedo goes, that's not going to happen Peace to you, and good Q
Ok..since we're threadjacked to the max... Another factor in how far your food will stretch, interestingly, is the size of the plates offered on a buffet.
We went with 9 inchers (what the hostess wanted) on our last 'do' and we had easily half again the leftovers we had counted on (...and yes, the food was great! No smart A** remarks!) People just seemed to stop at one plate-full and not refill (well, some did of course), and were satisfied.
We went with 9 inchers (what the hostess wanted) on our last 'do' and we had easily half again the leftovers we had counted on (...and yes, the food was great! No smart A** remarks!) People just seemed to stop at one plate-full and not refill (well, some did of course), and were satisfied.