Cooking pulled pork for a wedding
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Yes, you want 80 lbs, post-cook.
Working backwards, expect to lose about 40% of the pre-cook weight to cooking loss and the bone, so you want 133.33 pounds pre-cook. Call it 135 for ease.With that amount, you’re probably buying case price per weight, so just see what your supplier will do for you. Butts average around 8 lbs per, but they can easily get up to 10 or down to around 7, so just picking a number is rather risky.
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Its not how many pork butts you need, its how many pounds do you need. Id figure half pound per guest uncooked. You’ll lose alot of weight in cook. I did I think 200#'s for my wedding. My advice, cook ahead of time and freeze then just put it in a roaster oven to heat it up.
Tex_77 you know how many guests you had? You had plenty to go around?
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I’ll have to ask the wife, we had plenty of leftovers.
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I always use the bone in butts. I find they taste better. 80 pounds should be about right. I have 120 pounds on my pit now, should come off late this evening. Biggest trick I have found is low and slow, 215’ to 225’F until the meat reaches about 190 to 195’F. At that point, the meat will easily come off the bone. I do wrap mine when they reach about 145 to prevent them getting too much smoke. The connective tissue in pork butt, with a longer time and lower temperature is converted into sugars which give a very natural sweet flavor. I have also found at event, pulled pork sliders are really the biggest hit. I use the King Hawaiian Rolls, and a bit of a sweeter barbecue sauce than I would use with beef, with one pickle slice. Stab it with a fancy toothpick and people go wild. In that case you only need about 1/4 pound per person with sides and still have left overs. This is a case of perceived greater value while maintaining cost. It has never failed me. Typically people eat 2 to 3 sliders each.
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I always use the bone in butts. I find they taste better. 80 pounds should be about right. I have 120 pounds on my pit now, should come off late this evening. Biggest trick I have found is low and slow, 215’ to 225’F until the meat reaches about 190 to 195’F. At that point, the meat will easily come off the bone. I do wrap mine when they reach about 145 to prevent them getting too much smoke. The connective tissue in pork butt, with a longer time and lower temperature is converted into sugars which give a very natural sweet flavor. I have also found at event, pulled pork sliders are really the biggest hit. I use the King Hawaiian Rolls, and a bit of a sweeter barbecue sauce than I would use with beef, with one pickle slice. Stab it with a fancy toothpick and people go wild. In that case you only need about 1/4 pound per person with sides and still have left overs. This is a case of perceived greater value while maintaining cost. It has never failed me. Typically people eat 2 to 3 sliders each.
Chef You almost described exactly what I do about 3 times a year for family holidays.
Always a hit -
Chef You almost described exactly what I do about 3 times a year for family holidays.
Always a hitglen Don’t break what’s not broken…
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twilliams Hell the wife doesn’t remember, maybe 200?
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Tex_77 must have been a wild night…lol
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twilliams Well we had a band and open bar, so yeah it got a little western!
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I’ll add in that 1/2 pound of cooked meat per guest sounds like a lot when you figure in that they are sandwiches and expecting that you have sides. I would bet that you had a lot left over, but that might be just what you want. It’s a matter of how generous you want to be or what the client wants and is willing to pay for.
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