Graduation Party ?s

[Walleyehooker]

Going to smoke some Pork for a graduation party. How many pounds of meat would I have to do for 100 people? There will be other side dishes like beans,potatoe salad,chips etc. Not worried about making to much as I can give some away and it also freezes well for later use. Just want to make sure I make enough.

[reinhard1]

i'm thinking maby pulled pork? this is an interesting question i have been asked for years when i was in the buisness. the first questions i always asked was "who's comming over, Barney Fife or the Vikings"?

here is the thing. if you just want to get by you can go 4 to 6 oz per person. my guidline has always been 8 oz for boneless [pulled pork, boneless chops] or 3/4 pounds per person anything bone-in. this will be a young crowd so i would go 6 to 8 oz for pulled pork. something everybody loves and easier to serve and make.

i always go the 8 oz route because that's about 2 buns serving. the gals may just eat one but the guy's will make up for the rest plus you may have left overs this way. i dont go by resturant servings or what is suggested on the web, i go by the crowd and i dont want anyone going home who is not stuffed. good luck.

[Leaky]

Looks like you'll need about 50 Lbs of Butt (if they aren't Barney Fife types )

Sounds like it would be a fun project. But where would you store 5 Ten Pound Rubbed Butts overnight before cooking?

Start looking for Sales. I'll keep my eyes open.

[reinhard1]

i bought more butts today here in the Andover Kings County Market for 1.50 per pound. going to get some more if they have any left by friday. i just made 25 pounds of wild rice brats and if i doubled that i still would wonder if i had enough. but that's me. others might go with the 4 to 6 oz serving and get by since they have other items. 8 oz might be a little strong with pulled pork but think of the leftovers for freezing.

may have to do the butts in the oven where you have plenty of room. good luck.

[Walleyehooker]

Should be a mix of people from young to old I guess. I was thinking about a 1/2 pound a person to be on the safe side and in case more people show up but wasnt sure. I have an extra fridge to put the meat in to marinate. The party is going to be in the afternoon so Im thinking I will smoke them later in the day before then wrap them in foil and put in a cooler till the next day. Then before it starts pull the pork and I have 2 big electric roasters to put the meat in and warm if needed. Probably add some apple juice in for moisture.I dont mind having some leftovers as it wont go to waste.Ill post some pictures of these stacked in the smoker when I do it come June.

[Walleyehooker]

I saw your post and the daughter picked up some pork there the other day and put it in the freezer.Thanks

[reinhard1]

you will loose some weight with the loss of the bones and some shrinkage but you will still have some leftovers. have a great time. good luck.

[Leaky]

Sounds like a good plan!

Dang, I forgot about those Butts up in Andover. I know whats going to happen......I'll get there and they'll say we sold everything to this guy making a LOT of sausage. Homemade Wild Rice Brats.................Yum!

[thirdeye]

Going to smoke some Pork for a graduation party. How many pounds of meat would I have to do for 100 people? There will be other side dishes like beans,potatoe salad,chips etc. Not worried about making to much as I can give some away and it also freezes well for later use. Just want to make sure I make enough.

Well, you might want to plan on something like this ^. Heheheee. Well maybe not quite that many butts. I can give you all kinds of formulas, and can tell you stories about debates on yield of pork butts..... 60/40, 65/35 and so on, but I always guestimate in favor of having a little more meat than I need. My magic number is 50/50. In other words an 8 pound raw butt will yield 4 pounds of pulled meat.

8 ounce portions is very generous, 6 ounces is closer to the mark since we're talking a lot of kids (unless this is a kindergarten graduation), and I've seen plenty of times where 4 ounces works.... but like you said, you don't want to run out.

But just for conversation (and demonstration) Using 5 ounces per portion X 100 portions = 500 ounces. Divide that by 16 ounces per pound, and you would need 31-1/4 ounces of cooked meat. If you loose 50% from raw weight..... you need to start with 62-1/2 pounds of butts. Which is about 8 average butts, which come two to a pack.

Now since you have sides, this will help. If you are serving the PP in sandwiches, have someone dish up the meat, this also helps with portion control. Buy small hamburger buns, or loaves of Texas toast. You can stack meat higher and it looks like a bigger portion. And don't buy huge paper plates. Actually the ones with the compartments work great. Make sure all of the sides are attractive looking, and most important, really, really the most important thing.... have the meat at the end of the serving line.

Have 2 or 3 kinds of sauce for folks to add themselves. We mentioned coleslaw in another thread, it goes great on PP sandwiches (and makes the meat go farther). Any thing pickled also goes great with PP. A huge jar of pickles, some pickled onions or cucumbers are great to have right at the meat serving station.

For go-boxes, buy the styrofoam "clam shell" boxes. They have secure lids and are easy to work with. Don't trust a paper plate with plastic wrap on it.... PP does a number on car seats, even leather car seats.

One last thing, and I'm not bringing this up to squash your PP idea, or because I'm cheap or anything.... but a couple of crock pots of sloppy Joes is a wonderful secondary meat to pulled pork. You use the same buns or bread, the same sides will go with it, and quite frankly folks love good sloppy Joes. Sometimes heavy eaters will have one PP sandwich and a sloppy Joe for a seconed run through the line. And out of 100 people, a sloppy Joe might appeal to 10% of them more than PP. I have a very good sloppy Joe recipe I'll share. I think it's in an amount for either 25 or 50 servings.,

I also have a bean recipe called Hog Apple beans that has bacon and sausage in them, uses canned beans for convience, and calls for.... get this..., apple pie filling. It's great for big groups. This is not my recipe, but it's so good I print copies of the recipe every time I serve them because so many folks ask for it.

[Leaky]

This is why I check out this forum whenever I can! Good Stuff! I'm responsible for a meal on our fishing trip coming up for 10 guys. I've always made sloppers. This year its a combo of PP and Joes.

Hog Apple Beans........Bring it on. They sound pretty darn good to me.

[thirdeye]

This is why I check out this forum whenever I can! Good Stuff!

Hog Apple Beans........Bring it on. They sound pretty darn good to me.

Keri C is a barbecue competitor from Oklahoma. She posts on several BBQ forums with recipes, tips, methods that have helped thousands of folks. I have seen a variation of this recipe that uses peach pie filling, and another that calls for cherry pie filling (the color on this one is really nice), but apple is still my favorite. Don't let the use of canned beans or the short cooking time scare you. Blues Hog is a sauce that is very popular in BBQ competitions, your favorite sauce will work fine.

****************

Keri's Hog-Apple Baked Beans

3 or 4 slices bacon, diced

2 - 28-oz cans Bush's Baked Beans

1/2 c. Blues Hog BBQ Sauce (or other sweet-spicy favorite)

1 lb. smoked leftover smoked pork or beef, more or less, or 1 lb crumbled cooked pork sausage

1 can apple pie filling

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. Mustard (prepared)

1 tsp chipotle or cayenne powder (optional, to taste)

1 tsp Blues Hog barbecue rub (or your favorite de jour)

Brown bacon, and saute onion and green pepper in bacon grease. Mix in remaining ingredients. Bake at 325º for 1 hour, or simmer on stovetop in large pot for 30 minutes if you don't have time to do them in the oven. Serves 12.

[Walleyehooker]

Thanks for the info. Ill use it and also pass it on to the other party planners in our group. Haveing a second dish like sloppy joes would be a good idea as not everyone will like pork. I have a bunch of burger in the freezer anyway to use.

[chaffmj]

Thanks thrideye now how about that sloppy joe recipe?

[Moose]

"This is why I check out this forum whenever I can! Good Stuff!"

+10

I also have a grad party coming in June Great info. I heed to add to my pork amounts. I currently have about 20 lbs.

Someone said something about marinating the pork first. I would like that marinade recipe if possible. I did my first PB on the Webber grill at 250 for 6-8 hours brought it up to 200 and put it in a cooler with paper it turned out great but it was kinda blahh even though I put a rub on it. I would like the meat to have some flavor before I stated it up. For the others I will probably use an old fuel barrel type cooker I have access to. I know adding some smoke would increase the flavor but I would like the taste to be very mild and not overly smoky. Any suggestions?

[Walleyehooker]

Ive been trying different rubs and the other day I used garlic olive oil then rubed on McCormic Smokehouse maple seasoning and everyone loved it.Best one I have done so far. Ill be doing the same on my next ones. Let it sit in the fridge for 2 days but overnight would be fine to.

[thirdeye]

Thanks thrideye now how about that sloppy joe recipe?

Sure, here you are. I prefer to use a table top Nesco style roaster, but a big oven roaster will work or a crock pot. I like the Nesco because they have an adjustable temp setting and removable insert.

thirdeye's Sloppy Joe’s

(Makes about 50 sloppy Joe's)

10 lb. ground beef

Dry Ingredients:

2 tbsp chili powder

3 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp crushed red pepper

1 tbsp kosher salt

5 tbsp granulated garlic

Fresh Ingredients:

5 stalks of celery diced

2 green peppers diced

4 onions diced

Sauce Base:

1 cup catsup

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

2 - 6oz cans tomato paste

1/2 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup spicy mustard

1/4 cup Worcestershire

1 can beef broth (start with 1/2 can, reserve the remainder and add later if needed)

Place beef in an oven roasting pan(s) and sprinkle all dry ingredients on top and brown in a 375° oven for about 1/2 hour. Saute celery, green peppers and onions in Nesco roaster or large stew pot. Combine all the sauce base ingredients in a large bowl and blend.

Add the browned beef and some of the pan drippings to the roaster with the sautéed veggies. Add the sauce base. Mix well and cook at 275° for a couple of hours. Add the reserved beef broth if needed for the consistency you are after.

Here is what I mean about roasting the ground beef with the spices on top. The heat wakes up the spice flavors and the fats from the meats allow those flavors to melt into the meat. After the 1/2 hour the meat is not fully cooked, that happens in the roaster, but it's a good method for getting flavor, because the spices form a crust, you just don't get the same flavor as when they are dumped into meat and stirred around.

[thirdeye]

"This is why I check out this forum whenever I can! Good Stuff!"

+10

I also have a grad party coming in June Great info. I heed to add to my pork amounts. I currently have about 20 lbs.

Someone said something about marinating the pork first. I would like that marinade recipe if possible. I did my first PB on the Webber grill at 250 for 6-8 hours brought it up to 200 and put it in a cooler with paper it turned out great but it was kinda blahh even though I put a rub on it. I would like the meat to have some flavor before I stated it up. For the others I will probably use an old fuel barrel type cooker I have access to. I know adding some smoke would increase the flavor but I would like the taste to be very mild and not overly smoky. Any suggestions?

It's hard to get flavor into the center of a big hunk of meat like a butt. You can inject your butts, or you can season them as usual with a dry rub and when they are close to done, wrap them in foil with a couple of ounces of apple juice, then finish cooking them tender. Then move them in a cooler with a bunch of newspaper for insulation so they can rest and get happy. When you unwrap them a couple of hours later, there will be a couple of cups of really good liquid in the foil.... Just mix this back into the pulled meat, and add a few sprinkles of BBQ rub, maybe a squirt of sauce and you are good to go..

[Walleyehooker]

Great looking stuff but Ill be busy and their probably getting Manwich at the Grad party.lol I might spruce it up a little with some ketchup,mustard or BBQ sauce etc. so I can call it home made.hehe

[reinhard1]

Third Eye your amazing!!!!thanks so much for taking the time to help us out with some great stuff!!!!good luck.

[Jim Almquist]

All good looking food!!!

I will have to give the beans and the sloppy joes a try.

[Leaky]

Now thats a kicked up slopper! Thanks for posting this and the beans.