Pulled Pork for 100

[MTBengalfan]

Going to be smoking this on a combination of a MES and a Traeger grill for a friends wedding and I need to get an idea of how many pounds of meat I will need. Going to be buying the Costco packages (around 16-17 lb per package, 2 butts in each package 8-9 lbs each). I have read anywhere between 28-75 lbs which is a huge difference.

My first thought was to get four packages so around 64 lbs of meat raw. I am thinking I will lose about 40% weight during the cook. My math behind this is 64 lbs x 16 oz =1024 oz total, 1024 oz x .6 leaves me with 614.4 oz cooked. 614 oz /100 people will give me around 6 oz per serving. I am also going to throw on about 20 brats in the smoker and maybe 20 hot dogs on the grill. Any suggestions on the numbers I have came up with would be great. Unfortunately I do not have the exact adult to kid ratio so I am assuming mostly adults. Never hurts to have leftovers and it would be bad to come up short.

Any tips or tricks on the best way to reheat as well would be great. Thanks in advance....

 

[scooter]

Pull it and place in vacuseal bags. When ready to reheat get a big pot of water hot (not boiling) and place the bags of pulled pork into the hot water until warm. Should do the trick.

 

[TentHunter]

I cook pulled pork for a few large groups every year. After doing the first couple cooks, and cooking WAY too much, I quickly learned how to calculate for large groups so I didn't waste money!

4 - 4.5 oz meat per person (pre-cooked weight) is a good all around calculation, so for a group of 100 you will need about 30 lbs of raw pork (this allows for bones). 40 lbs will give you more leftovers than you could want. Remember, you have the bun which is filling, plus you will have brats & hot dogs, plus all the side dishes.

You can do 64 lbs if you want, but based on my experience that is WAY too much.

Oh Yeah, for pulled pork plan on 1.25 buns per person.



Here are two large cooks I did this past year:

Two whole pork shoulders (about 17 - 18 lbs each) fed 140 hungry band kids & staff:

2014 Marching Band Cookout


Here's the banquet where we fed a group of 300 with 72 lbs of meat:

Pulled Pork for 300!

Pay particular attention to this reply where I talk about the math: Pulled Pork




One more note: If you foil during the cook, you will loose very little weight, because the foil catches the moisture/juices which also amps up the flavor if you mix it back in after pulling.

That's my 2¢ if it's worth that much after inflation!