Whats the most food you've fit on a UDS?

[SteveKing]

I'm planning on throwing a rather larger party, and I'm wondering... whats the most amount of food you've cooked on a UDS? Also with a huge amount of food is a full basket enough fuel?

[SmittyJonz]

One fellar on here does 12 chickens on a single UDS every Christmas.

[SmittyJonz]

Most I've done is 2 med Briskets and 4 Butts on my 2 grate UDS (3 grates counting waterpan grate). A Brisket n 2 Butts per grate. It was pretty tight till shrinkage.

My basket would hold 20 lbs Briquetts plus half bag of wood chunks.

[smoke ninja]

If you hang em you can cook a mess of ribs in a uds. I forget how many but my buddy Ebijack cooked like 15 racks on one

[GlobalTJB]

6 butts at once with 3 per grate. Also have done 2 briskets and 4 chicken halves at once

[dad2jsc]

6 butts. A full baskets in my uds was plenty for 6 butts.

[Chitown_hillbilly]

What's a "rather large party"? That's a pretty ambiguous description. A normal party for my house is 50, but that could be what you call large. I usually cook ribs and chicken thighs and drums for our parties. But that's not serving a real meal, more like we provide meat and everyone brings something. Anyway I can easily do 10 lbs of drums and thighs plus 7 racks of baby backs.

I think the easiest to cook a lot of meat for a large party would be a bunch of Butts. Everything else takes up a lot of Area and provides less volume. You could always cook butts prior too and do something else the day of.

[smoke ninja]

What's a "rather large party"? That's a pretty ambiguous description. A normal party for my house is 50, but that could be what you call large. I usually cook ribs and chicken thighs and drums for our parties. But that's not serving a real meal, more like we provide meat and everyone brings something. Anyway I can easily do 10 lbs of drums and thighs plus 7 racks of baby backs.

I think the easiest to cook a lot of meat for a large party would be a bunch of Butts. Everything else takes up a lot of Area and provides less volume. You could always cook butts prior too and do something else the day of.


You could easily do a load of butts and briskets overnight. Those could be held until service with the ribs and chicken cooked just before. This would effectively double your cooking space.

[DjPorkchop]

The most I have ever tried to throw on mine was 2 10 lb butts and 3 racks of st louis ribs

[Fwismoker]

It was pretty tight till shrinkage.

Seinfeld--George's Shrinkage - YouTube


Seinfeld - The Shrinkage - YouTube

[ebijack]

6) 9 to 10lb butts not a problem with 2 cooking grates, bottom 3rd grate for a drip pan. You can see the 4 here, plenty of room to fit a third on each grate. A full basket ( don't know the size of yours), like mentioned would be at least a #16 bag and wood chunks. That should go for 17+ hrs untouched.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/841/rk7i.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/ndrk7ij)
Liked mentioned, you could cook some in advance as they hold up to holding or packaging and reheating very well.
If you want to do a lot of ribs and have the ability to hang 16 racks is doable, maybe 18 if you squeeze them in. Here is 12 mid cook showing the room available.
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/923/jVIsAt.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/pnjVIsAtj)
If you have the time/want do a N8man conversion of added racks and kettle hood for more cooking room.
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130795

[aawa]

I have done 8x 8-10lb pork butts at one time in the UDS. It took a lot longer to cook than normal because it struggled to get back up to 300degrees because airflow was restricted because of the meat.

Also I had to be quick with pulling meat off. I had designated one of my friends as the lid guy. That way grease fires didn't start while I was pulling meat.

[TXBronco]

I rotate. I had a turkey for the entire cook, some pork baby backs the came on after the start and some fatties that I put on in the middle for a snack. Also had a but on with the Turkey. Just had fun maning the drum. I did have to add fuel but my basket is on the medium side, need to rework it

[ITBFQ]

6 butts on my UDS is the biggest load I've had on it, too. A full charcoal basket was plenty.

[daninnewjersey]

6 butts on my UDS is the biggest load I've had on it, too.

Ditto....my drum is pretty much maxed out at that point using 2 levels...

[1911Ron]

I did 80#s of butts for a charity cook.

[cinmur]

6 -16 lb briskets hanging on hooks... it does work quite well... have done 180 lbs on 2 55 once and 60 lbs in a 30 gallon... am looking forward to doing only 1 someday!