Newby here

Good Lord! Have you done any of this before? Otherwise, start cooking every day until the event for practice. My experience with pulled pork (which has been confirmed by greater experts on this forum) is that each pound of raw pork butt yields two 4-ounce pulled pork sandwiches, allowing that your guests are serving themselves on small buns. Six pound butt equals twelve sammies. Never provide the monster buns if they are serving themselves.
One six pound butt yields three pounds of meat which make twelve four-ounce sandwiches. Two sandwiches with sides should satisfy anyone.
Ribs are one to two pounds raw per guest, but with sides and other meats, one pound per has worked for me.

Prime rib for 50 people ? I don't know how your thinking, but around here, if we have our choice of prime rib, pork butt, and ribs, the prime rib will be going fast. I mean real fast. Unless you are very wealthy, maybe you should nix the prime rib. Also, without the prime rib, the little Smokette will be running night and day for a few days to churn out 50 pounds of butts and 50 pounds of ribs.

Scott,

So, you up for a challenge.

On my top ten list of things to remember: NEVER use a special day or occassion to learn your smoker. We can help a lot and make it go well, but you still have to do all the work.

So, you want to cook

Turkey,
Pork Butt
Prime Rib
Beans
Slaw.

Try to estimate quantities of what you want to feed them. Are you wanting to feed them well? Do you want them to eat all of the items or choose.

This is an ambitious menu, especially with a Smokette.

If you're doing butts, and giving them 1/4 pd sandwiches, you'll need 1/4 x 50 or 12.5 lbs cooked. That's about 25 lbs uncooked

Turkey, will you go with sliced? I'd do it in advance and cool it. I'd do 2 whole breasts, maybe 3 or 4 (depends on size) and then slice or chunk them that day after reheating.

For 50 people, the key is to figure out your sides and quantities.

You could smoke the butts the day before, put the beans under the butts and cool them both. Then cook the turkey (don't do it with the butts)

How will you reheat?

Plus the timing of this, reheating the food, preppings, etc is something to thing through in detail.

I think you could do it all, with practice (don't wait for the day to do your first turkey, butt or beans).

Oh, and I would think about dropping the prime rib. That's something you need to practice and to have enough for that meal, people will likely want it more than pork butt.

Go out this weekend, get a butt and a turkey breast and some beans and practice!!! You only have one week.

Like Smokin' says.

You might think about getting about 5 lbs of nice sausages,assorted.[Rather than rib roast]

They can be precooked,and even easier to cook.

They can cook at the same time as other meats,reheat easily,hold well.

Cut in small pieces,and make an exotic dip-if you like.

Goes well with the bbq theme.

Use Smokin's brine on whole,or half turkey breasts and they will be even better,the next day,chilled.

Just a thought.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to drop the prime and go for the butt and turkey. I've got a 7 lb Boston Butt ordered for tomorrow as a pratice piece and planning on smoking it on Sun. Any advice on a rub? Do you usually do turkey breasts instead of the whole bird? Is Smokin's brine in the forum? I have a 10 lb turkey thawing out now so will pratice on it when it is thawed.
Will the 008 handle 25 lbs of butt and is it ok to put one on each rack with the top dripping on the bottom, or should I smoke each butt seperate?
My plan is to start smoking on Wed. June 4, and then re-heat on the 7th.
Thanks again and keep the advice coming,
Scott

For the turkey, check out the turkey forum.

Brining 101 is on the main site, under Cooking, then Smokin Guides

quote:

Will the 008 handle 25 lbs of butt and is it ok to put one on each rack with the top dripping on the bottom, or should I smoke each butt seperate?

Put the butts either way, side by side or one above the other. And don't forget to put the beans below the two butts. With the smoke and juices from the butts, you'll have the best beans (do a search for beans, plus there are some in the recipe forum)

You'll have to judge the butts for size,and shape to get 25 lbs in,but you can.

So, how did the practice run go?

I smoked my first Boston Butt on my 008 over the weekend. I got a 7.5 lb BB and put it on the smoker at 8:00 Sat. night and pulled it off at 3:00 Sun. afternoon. I messed up and put it in the smoker cap down and remembered it should have been cap up on Sun. morning, so flipped it over. My thermomater said 176 at 3:00 and we were going to eat at 4:00, so I took it out of the smoker to put into the oven. I grabbed the bone and it pulled out easily, so I figured it was done and it was. it turned out great, everybody liked it. I used about 3 oz of hickory wood and spicy rib rub and made Bill Wrights sauce. I had 10 people over and had 12 oz. leftover.
I'm getting 25.lbs BB for the wedding and a 10 lb turkey. Do you think putting the BB in on Wed. and the turkey in on Fri. will work to have everything done on Sat.?
Scott

I would do the PB overnight Saturday to finish early. Double wrap in foil and put in an ice chest (no ice) and it will hold for 6 hours or so and still be plenty hot. Key is to make sure you give them enough time to finish.

There shouldn't be much time difference. If any, they sometimes finish quicker the more you put in (they become a huge heat sink). If you liked the amount of smoke I would go with the same, you don't want to experiment on THE big batch.

If you go that route, put the turkey breast in early sat and it will still be hot.

OR

Do the PB Thursday night, chill whole. Put in the oven Sat and reheat to 140. Don't pull until you have to, they'll cool off quickly.