Catering question

The real question is what other food was available? That alone will make a big difference in how you estimate.

Your math is right, though. 24 butts at around 8 pounds, assuming 50% yield, gives you about 250 6 oz servings. So no problems there.

But if there was a lot of other food out there for people, and a lot of people made sandwiches, I think the most likely scenario was that people took far less than 6 oz of pork. Like you mentioned, probably far closer to the 3 oz range, which is half of what you were estimating.

I know that when I've served pulled pork and put buns out to make sandwiches, people actually take less pork. Especially if you're just using the little white 4" buns. It doesn't take but 3-4 oz to make meal of a sandwich for most people.

So, given you were providing an option for sandwiches, and I'm assuming there were plenty of sides and other food out there, 6 oz was just a high estimate. When I will be serving sandwiches I tend to stick to a 4 oz estimate and there's still usually some left over.

Williefb said:

I cooked 24 butts for 250 people (football players, coaches, parents, band members, & cheer leaders. There were 200 buns used and a few folks didn't get a bun. I'm going to say that approx 1/2 of the pulled pork was eaten and many went back for 2nds. I was figuring on 6 oz / person just to be safe. The mom's put the meat on the buns and I'm figuring they had around 3 oz / sandwich.
They are freezing the meat and plan on feeding the crowd again. The crowd liked the BBQ and we booked several sales from the event.

How many butts would you have cooked for this crowd. My butts averaged just under 8 lbs?

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An eight pound butt yielding just slightly over 50% weight in meat will provide about 4 pounds of meat.

One pound of meat will yield about 3 sandwiches with a kaiser roll, 4 with a smaller hamburger type bun.

So with the above math you would yield about 16 sandwiches per butt with your hamburger buns...

Your math was right, 250 / 12 = 20 butts for kaiser rolls, .. But 250 / 16 = 15 butts for hamburger rolls.

Although not all 250 people will have a sandwich, it will equal out with those who will return for second helpings.


But also like marubozo said if there were other foods to choose from, you would use considerably less which seems like the case.

156lbs of raw butts figuring 5oz pp and I let them serve themselves and take what they want. I have never come close to running out, even when serving football players.

Rule of thumb one butt= 20 sandwitch

Is the above assuming bone in?

WHen I do butts, I figure 4 oz. each, and 60% to 70% yield on the butts. Your service size will also depend on the size bun.

WhatHappened said:

WHen I do butts, I figure 4 oz. each, and 60% to 70% yield on the butts. Your service size will also depend on the size bun.

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Where do you get butts that yield like that?