Pulled pork for 40?

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westerndf

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So I have a reverse flow smoker that is insulated and keeps temp very well. I have a party coming up and will have 40 people. So how much meat and how long to cook it? i'm thinking 40lbs uncooked and cooking for 12 hours at 225. Any advice would be welcomed. I'm going to cook it friday for a party saturday.

Thanks

Dan
 
I would add to the weight you are going to start with if its the only meat that's going to be there. Like 1.2 lbs per person maybe even as high as 1.5 lbs.
I say this cuz I cook pulled pork for our parties and if I didn't add the. 2 or. 5 it won't even make it around.
I only have a small brinkman but I smoke 4-5 hours after that finish in oven covered with plastic wrap then foil over night. I wrap each butte directly.
Not telling you how to cook yours by any means just tossing ideas if its hard to fit it all in your smoker.

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I usually figure 5oz for a serving so you get 3servings/lb cooked. Less if it is all guys, or big eaters. Then figure that you will loose about half the weight while cooking. You should be good with 40 lbs.
 
If you are serving PP sandwiches, then a starting weight of 1 lb./ person is probably OK, unless you're feeding a football team. The nice thing about PP is that it keeps warm and moist for a long time. I suggest planning too much rather than "just enough." If you have leftovers, PP freezes and re-heats VERY well, and makes a nice quick meal in a pinch.

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It's important to remember that it's not about the time, it's about temperature. I've had PP finish in as little as 8.5 hours and as much as 12+ hours; it's done when it's done.

For food safety, you should get it through the "danger zone" of 40F-140F internal temp in four hours or less (don't insert the temp probe until you're near the 3 hour mark -- again for food safety purposes). Your smoker temp should cruise between 225-250F, and you should strive for thin blue smoke, not roiling white smoke. If you can smell smoke, you're smoking.

  1. Rub with whatever you like. I keep it simple: salt, pepper, brown sugar, maybe a little spicy heat -- depending on my audience.
  2. Smoke it until it hits 165F internal temp, foil and take it to 190F if slicing, 195-205F if pulling.
  3. When you're done cooking, keep the pork in the foil, wrap them in old towels and place them in a cooler to rest AT LEAST 1 hour. 2-3 hours is great. They will still be nearly too hot to shred by hand at this point, and they will have had time to reabsorb some juices and have the flavors intermingle.
  4. Sauces are condiments, not ingredients, so leave them on the side for your guests to choose according to taste.

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I recommend bone-in pork butts (which are a shoulder cut -- go figure :confused:) for the best flavor. It should just pull out clean just like the picture above, if you've cooked it correctly.

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Then you get to serve something that looks like this. And you get a lot of "oooohs" and "aaaahhhhs" and "mmmmmm's". :rockin:

Hope it all goes well!
 
In a pinch you can "rush" a butt through the stall if you foil. IE : When it hits 160 foil and bump the temp to 300. It it finished too early you can FTC for hours and still be very hot. I had had butt's take 14/ 15 hours at 225 so start early. Like it was said prior. they are done when they are done, temp not time.
 
Adiochiro3...nice write up and pics.

Dan,

You've received good advice so just a few more thoughts from a cook I did in February for the same size crowd.

Get untrimmed whole butt. I get cryovac 2 butt packs. Bone-in or boneless is your choice but like others mentioned I use bone-in after i did a side-by-side cook of both and the bone-in won the taste test at a party we had. Try to get packs where the butts appear about the same size. It's not a big deal but does make cooking times more consistent if the roasts weigh the same amount. If not then just monitor the smaller one more closely. Roasts will come typically around 8-9 pounds and I generally assume a 40% yield with bone-in. Cooking time will depend on the details of your actual cook but figure around 2 hours / pound of your largest roast before trimming. The cook I did took right around 16 hours @ 225 to an internal meet temp of 195. Flip the meat once around half way. When they hit your final temp pull them, as mentioned, and tightly foil for the cooler sit on a few layers of towels for an hour. As Adiochiro3 said they can sit in the cooler for up to 3-4 hours. Preheat the cooler by putting a pan of boiling water in it 20 minutes before your butts are done. Note you may see your meet plateau at around 160-170 during the cook...don't panic it's just everything getting nice and tender.

On the serving size question we did the typical sides of beans, slaw, salads, etc and 4 butts (2 cryovacs) took care of right at 40 with left overs.

Let us know how it turns out.
 
For amount to purchase it depends greatly on if there will be any other meats or sides. If they will be sides or something else substantial you can easily figure on a 4oz sandwich per person. When cooking butts you typically lose 50% between fat and bone so I always plan on 2 servings per pound raw. If you think each person will only eat one sandwich then go with 20 pounds at minimum.

As far as cooking time I would try to plan 16-18 hours. That will give plenty of time to rest in a cooler and even if it finishes early I have held them in coolers for 8 hours and they were still too hot to handle.
 
Thanks, Mtnrider.

Adiochiro3...nice write up and pics.

Dan,

You've received good advice so just a few more thoughts from a cook I did in February for the same size crowd.

Get untrimmed whole butt. I get cryovac 2 butt packs. Bone-in or boneless is your choice but like others mentioned I use bone-in after i did a side-by-side cook of both and the bone-in won the taste test at a party we had. Try to get packs where the butts appear about the same size. It's not a big deal but does make cooking times more consistent if the roasts weigh the same amount. If not then just monitor the smaller one more closely. Roasts will come typically around 8-9 pounds and I generally assume a 40% yield with bone-in. Cooking time will depend on the details of your actual cook but figure around 2 hours / pound of your largest roast before trimming. The cook I did took right around 16 hours @ 225 to an internal meet temp of 195. Flip the meat once around half way. When they hit your final temp pull them, as mentioned, and tightly foil for the cooler sit on a few layers of towels for an hour. As Adiochiro3 said they can sit in the cooler for up to 3-4 hours. Preheat the cooler by putting a pan of boiling water in it 20 minutes before your butts are done. Note you may see your meet plateau at around 160-170 during the cook...don't panic it's just everything getting nice and tender.

On the serving size question we did the typical sides of beans, slaw, salads, etc and 4 butts (2 cryovacs) took care of right at 40 with left overs.

Let us know how it turns out.

+1 on the above comments, for sure. Especially the highlighted parts. I usually try to keep my cook temps closer to 250F -- hence the "faster" cook times. I too have had smoke/cook sessions take 15+ hours. And thanks for covering me on the plateau or "stall" Mtnrider; I forgot to include that info which often causes a lot of consternation for the uninitiated.
 
Oh, and keep those juices! You can either make an au jus for your event or freeze the juice in ice trays and use them later for soup stock, stews, gravys, cooking rice, etc. Beef stock (from brisket smokes) is great for those purposes as well. Unbelievably fantastic.

Remember, if it looks good, eat it!

--Andrew Zimmern, Bizzare Foods
 
Try to get packs where the butts appear about the same size. It's not a big deal but does make cooking times more consistent if the roasts weigh the same amount.

Actually, weight is less a concern than getting butts that have about the same thickness. I bigger butt can cook in the same time if it is the same thickness as a smaller butt.

BTW, I agree, bone in is much better.
 
*side note!
===> If you have never made an Omelet from leftover pulled pork you are really missing out! Thank me later.
 
I used to have some Cuban neighbors who did a pig roast every summer, and I mean whole pig, on a spit, over a fat-ass fire. Almost the whole neighborhood ate on those days. Unless of course you're squeamish about plucking delicious flesh from the head/face of a delicious carcass. Other estimates sound reasonable, and don't forget the brew! Just thought I'd throw in my .02 and maybe nudge you (or other) toward a whole pig pit roast :rockin:
 
One thing I didn't see in the replies above (it's possible I just missed it) is it's as easy to cook multiple butts as it is to cook a single one. I think I could easily fit four butts on by large BGE without getting a stacked rack. Just make sure that you have at least 2" of space between the butts, if they're too close or touching you'll create one big piece of meat that will take longer to cook.

Assuming you have a big enough pit I'd probably start it around 11pm - midnight Friday, to hopefully have it done around noon, though I'd probably run mine around 250. That should give you plenty of time to double wrap em in foil and cooler them if they come off between noon & 1 and still be plenty hot for the party.
 
Doing a party of 25, pulled pork butts. Looking at three 8lb butts. I am figuring 1.5-2 hrs per lb. starting the smoker at about 0300 and running it for at least 12 hrs solid. What's your alls opinion? This will be my first attempt at smoking anything.
 
Doing a party of 25, pulled pork butts. Looking at three 8lb butts. I am figuring 1.5-2 hrs per lb. starting the smoker at about 0300 and running it for at least 12 hrs solid. What's your alls opinion? This will be my first attempt at smoking anything.

Butts are very forgiving. It's better to start early and rest a bit longer in foil & cooler than be rushed imho. What you'll find is that hrs per lb is a good guideline yet the butts will be done when they're done. I just did two 9.5lb butts on Monday that went 15hrs at 225 before they were done. The 8lb butt I did the time before finished in 11hrs.

If you double foil the butts and then wrap them in towels and place them in a cooler they'll keep for hours above 140F.
 
Plan on keeping them warm in a slow-cooker on warm till I serve. Ding a few different sauces to go with. My wife is making a mustard based BBQ we use on spare ribs, and I am doing a rum spiked kc masterpiece.
 
Thanks for everyone's advice on the pork. I started with 40lb of pork in the smoker and cooked at 225 for 14 hours. After serving 47 people I had about half of the meat left over and it was kick ass.

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