Wedding Smoke

[mulepackin]

My oldest daughter is getting married the end of July. She and the lucky guy have decided that they want good old dad to do the meat for the reception, since they like it so well. I will also be doing beans, other family and friends will do salads and other side dishes. They want pulled pork and brisket, which I will make a few weeks ahead of time. I've never done anything near the volume this will be, but I believe we can pull it off. We meaning me and my friends here ( moral support means a lot). We are expecting about 300 head of folks. I have a pretty good idea of how much I need but just want to get some input. I figure around a 1/4# of meat per guest, but since there will be both kinds of meat a little more is in order. Then around 1/2 cup of beans and salads/sides per person. So for the pork I think 100# cooked, which would be 200# of butts, and 100# finished brisket, which I believe would also be 200# uncooked. Does this all sound right to everyone? I'm sure I will be soliciting other info., support and sympathy as this thing comes together. Thanks.

[Richtee]

Congrats! I think the yield on the brisket may be a bit higher than the butts if you use flats. But then again, trays of burnt ends for appies might be looked upon favorably! You say .25 Lb EACH per? .5 Lb meat per guest? Err..wait... OK. This is always a tough one... some will want only one meat..etc.

No chicken? I would suggest some if ya can, even if ya bring some in cooked. Folks be getting strange about red (and pork) meat these days. Miffs me too, but gotta keep the guests happy. Any way to get a "survey" with the invite RSVP's?

[WALLE]

MP - I would agree with the suggestion below of a chicken addition. Not only do folks seem to really like chicken, it is cheap!

Couple of things from me using the experience of my March of Dimes event.

Pork - you won't loose half the weight. I think it is closer to 1/4.
Overall poundage, just sounds like too much to me. Don't forget that if you have a couple of decent sides, they make the meat stretch out.

Here are my stats to give you an idea of what we did.

I smoked 10 butts, so roughly 80 pounds.
I smoked 15 of the large packages of chicken thighs from Sams, which was approximately 180 pieces of chicken at 105 pounds.

We served the following:
47 - just chicken
117 - just pulled pork sammies
106 - combo plates
So a total of 270.
Probably could have sold another 20 pork sandwiches, and had about 30 pieces of chicken left over which we sold in bulk.

I like to think that we didn't skimp on anything, nice big sandwiches, and good sides, however we didn't allow seconds which may be different at your wedding.

So... big thing is the serving line. If it's a fill your own plate set up, then obviously you will go through more. If you have a serving line, then you can still give them plenty, but have more control over it.

Next biggest thing I've been involved in was my brother's wedding two years ago. I'm guessing there were at least 300 people, it was a free for all - both food and drink... and we fed that angry mob with 10 large primes - I'm guessing each was at least 16 pounds. Sides were very simple - rolls, salad, baked potato.

So... that's my input, MP. If I were asked to do it, I would go with 10 to 12 shoulders, 10-12 briskets, and 15 packs of the chicken thighs. Again, folks really like chicken.

Bbally is a great source as well. I PM'ed him had he shot me a ton of good info for large crowd coverage.

Rich's idea of a RSVP is also a very good idea. Have them check a box on what they want!

[mulepackin]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I admittedly hadn't even considered chicken, this is the marriage of two cattle ranching families, but that is still a good idea as well. I'll certainly run that by the kids. Keep the thoughts coming.

[travcoman45]

Congrats ta the little lady Mule!

I always figure 50% loss, cause the extra meat makes up fer extra helpins. Chicken is nice an if they ain't happy with all that throw a hotdog at em!

Otherwise sounds like yall got er perty well figured out. Fer large groups on the PP I always toss in a picnic er two, not as much yield but it adds some nice flavour.

[Whisky Fish]

Congrats to the little lady!
One thing I've been doing lately is, I bought a 1000 count pack of "to-go" boxes and then intentionally overshoot a bit on quantity. That way I never come up short and if I have extra, people can take stuff home, so I have less clean up, less throw away and less to store/refrigerate/freeze. Hell I'm not doing this for a living(yet) and I hate cleaning up afterward so it's worth it not having to deal with leftovers.

My Dad always says that, advice, is worth what you pay for it and that didn't cost nuthin

Good luck and keep us posted

JT

[curious aardvark]

you can't go far wrong with a bunch of smoked sausage to snack on as well :-)

Hell you could just spice and season some commercial chubs, smoke whole and slice. (I wouldn't personally serve commercial sausage unmodified - but if it's smoked that always improves the flavour anyway)

Personally I'd avoid chicken, but that's just cos I won't buy factory farmed and the other stuff's pricey lol

also wondering why you're losing half the weight of a butt.
Guess if it's bone in and skin on and very fatty, that might do it.

And my other thought. If you're both cattle families - why the hell are you cooking brisket ? get a decent cut man ! it's your daughters wedding go for the quality cuts !

Hell go for broke and cook a whole heifer !
Now that would be a blast :-)

[mulepackin]

Well, I am under way. The wedding is on the 31st, but I am smoking the meat this weekend to allow plenty of time for hitches and glitches, which have already begun. I ordered all the meat last week from Sams, to be picked up this evening. 2 cases each of flats, butts, and boneless skinless thighs. I went there this evening and what do you know, they can't find anything but the flats, and even that took forever. They had my order, just not the meat. So, they promise me it will be in in the morning. I had planned on prepping tonight, and starting the smoke tomorrow evening. As it worked out, we (the wife, daughters and I) just finished trimming and rubbing 150# of brisket so I likely wouldn't have gotten to the white meat. I did another experiment with the freezer conversion over the 4th. I didn't like the results I got using the electric element and smoke generator previously, so I simply put in my charcoal pan from the ECB, and a couple of water pans. I still used my smoke generator. The family thought it was my best effort yet for ribs and a chuckie. So, I guess I will be using it for this smoke as well and hoping for enough heat. I've got several other units on reserve and on hand for this project if things don't seem to want to work out. 2 offsets, 2 ECBs and a gasser. Pictures will be forthcoming. Again, wish me luck.

[mulepackin]

Okay, we got er done. The meat is smoked, sliced or pulled, panned and in the freezer. When I get time, I'll sort through the pics and get em posted. We started smoking at 6:00 Fri. evening, and I finished the chicken at 10:30 Sat. night. Long weekend. I have 30 half pans of smoked meats (about 150#) and 10 pans of beans.Now my next dilemma will be getting it all warmed up quickly and thoroughly the day of the event. My plan is this. It is all frozen now, in mine, my neighbors, and my in-laws freezers. I can get it into a walk-in the day before the wedding at the reception hall, no sooner. So, I'm hoping it will start to thaw to refer temp then. The reception is at 5:00 next Sat. We can get into the hall for 2 hours at 11:00 a.m. I have 8 electric roasting pans, so I plan to get the meat from the half pans and into the roasting pans at that time, back into the fridge. Then we can get back into the hall at 3:30, at which time we will kick the roasters on high and hopefully every thing will be at serving temps by about 5:30 or so. These are the times I am limited to at the hall, and I cannot use their ovens. If anyone has any other suggestion, please chime in.

[Earache_My_Eye]

My concern would be getting all those half-pans to thaw overnight in the cooler. If they are the shallow (2 1/2" deep) pans, they may thaw enough. If they are the 4" or 6" deep half-pans, you may still have meat-ice-cubes the next day.

It sucks that you are so limited on your access to the reception hall...given more time to prepare...earlier in the day...you could get them into roasters on HIGH, and moniter the temps...then switch to LOW to hold for the reception.

I guess I don't have any good suggestions on how to get it all ready to go with the time frame you have to work with....other than to cross your fingers and pray.

Congrats to your daughter, and I hope all goes well for the recption!

L8r,
Eric

[mulepackin]

They are the shallower half pans, about 2 1/2". I could put them into the roasters at around 1:00, but there wouldn't be anyone there to monitor them for 2 hours, my luck a breaker would trip or something, then I'd have room temp meat for 2 hours. I am hoping for good thaw and fast reheat, which as I understand it, is how you should reheat large amounts for big groups per USDA.

[WALLE]

Hey MP - sorry I missed your previous posts.

On my big smoke, we didn't freeze, but did use roaster pans with some of the juice we had saved - probably 2 cups juice per roaster - and it turned out great.

Beef broth in the can would work the same. Might need to lean on some neighbors/friends to get them going early in the roasters and then bring them in and put them on low.

And.. you could always give one pan a test run.

Good luck, I know the food will be good and it sounds like a heck of a wedding.

[mulepackin]

Heres some pics. No particular order and pretty self explanatory. Briskets in the refer, butts in the sideburners. Chicken the second day in the refer.

[curious aardvark]

the freezer looks portable. Given a pickup and a couple of helpers :-)

So why not use that as a warmer oven as well ? You're not going to put everything out at once are you ?
So the smoker (doesn't need the smoke) can be the in-between stage.

Given the lack of facilities at the hall - that's how I'd do it.

[smokemania]

Congrats to your daughter. And of course good luck with the huge smoke