Backyard cooking for 500 people!

[WvQ]

I’ve cooked for 60, but tomorrow I’ve agreed to cook Brisket for 4-500 people for charity. My plan is to prep and start cooking at 5pm with a serve time of noon the next day. I’ll have to use two vertical smokers and two drums to smoke 150lbs of Brisket. I’ll trim, season, inject and pray.

 

[Smoking Piney]

500 is a HUGE order. Do you have a way of keeping prepared food hot for serving?

 

[sudsandswine]

Youre cooking 150lbs raw for 500 people? Will there be other meat there? If not I think youre gonna be way short unless youre serving slider sized portions per person.

 

[WvQ]

I’m going to wrap and cover them to rest in coolers, then when I take them across to the event they have a warmer

 

[Smoking Piney]

Youre cooking 150lbs raw for 500 people? Will there be other meat there? If not I think youre gonna be way short unless youre serving slider sized portions per person.

Agree.

For 500, you will need more meat.

 

[WvQ]

Good question about quantity. Another person is doing Pork Butts, and others are doing the sides.

 

[Smoking Piney]

Figure in 8 ounces of meat per person......that's 250 pounds of cooked, yielded meat. You're not going to make that yield with 150 pounds of raw brisket.

No offense, but signing up to serve 500 people on 4 backyard smokers has the markings of a train wreck.

If you figure this out AND pull it off, by all means, let us know how you did it. :-D

 

[patrickd26]

Figure in 8 ounces of meat per person......that's 250 pounds of cooked, yielded meat. You're not going to make that yield with 150 pounds of raw brisket.

No offense, but signing up to serve 500 people on 4 backyard smokers has the markings of a train wreck.

If you figure this out AND pull it off, by all means, let us know how you did it. :-D

Sorta what he said. But, we are all willing to help. You gotta start asap, vacuum seal, flash cool in ice water, fridge, repeat... Also, 2 people cooking all that meat? Oh, man... train wreck.

 

[wbratt1]

Agree with comments on quantity of meat - even if you assume 4oz per person because of other meats, that’s 250lb raw. That ship has probably sailed so it is what it is. I would add that prep will take a lot longer than you think so I would trim and anything else you can do tonight or in the morning so you’re ready to go and have time to rest before serving. Good luck and report back!

 

[Smoking Piney]

I certainly wish WvQ the best of luck in pulling this off. :-D

 

[Hoss]

Musta been a typo......40-50 , ,maybe.???????

 

[bryonlr]

Hope he's got a big backyard

 

[Rusty Kettle]

Oh wow. Get more meat asap. If its too late well focus on what you have. When its gone its gone and don't worry about it. Its for charity. Your a backyard cook. Not a caterer. So yeah anyone complains just tell them you did what you could.
Have fun and do your best.

 

[pjtexas1]

The first thing I learned cooking more than 5 briskets was that trimming will take way longer than you think. I wish I was closer so we could stuff all that into the shirley.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[sudsandswine]

Good luck and for sure post pics of your adventure. To expand upon what pjtexas said - logistically a cook of that volume is quite an undertaking; procuring, holding, prepping, cooking, and holding that amount of meat is no small task and doing it while having to manage multiple different cookers instead of them all being on one certainly adds another dynamic. After doing 100 to 200lbs raw a couple times for parties we threw or participated in, I gained a new appreciation for those that do it day in and day out. Trim briskets for 3 hours, cook them for 8 to 10, then spend 2 hours slicing them. Lots of work!

 

[Demosthenes9]

Will echo what others have said, but have questions as well. Are you cooking full packers or just flats? Asking this because flats will have a higher yield percentage than full packers, i.e. 150lbs of trimmed flats in cryo will serve more than 150lbs of full packers.

If that's 150lbs of untrimmed packers, you'll be woefully short as you can figure about a 60% yield, or about 90lbs of cooked meat. Even at 4oz (1/4lb) servings, that's only 360.

 

[sudsandswine]

If that's 150lbs of untrimmed packers, you'll be woefully short as you can figure about a 60% yield, or about 90lbs of cooked meat. Even at 4oz (1/4lb) servings, that's only 360.

A 60% yield on post-trimmed weight is probably more realistic. Using Costco packers as an example, i have a 20-25% loss right off the bat just from a moderate to slightly aggressive trim and then a 60% yield off that. 16lb brisket > 12lb post trim > 7lb yield. Which is more like 45ish % yield to untrimmed weight (unless you count serving hard white unrendered fat to guests). 150 raw > 50% post trim/cook yield = 75lbs x 1/3lb per person (probably low if guests are doing self service) = ~227 servings. :becky:

 

[Demosthenes9]

A 60% yield on post-trimmed weight is probably more realistic. Using Costco packers as an example, i have a 20-25% loss right off the bat just from a moderate to slightly aggressive trim and then a 60% yield off that. 16lb brisket > 12lb post trim > 7lb yield. Which is more like 45ish % yield to untrimmed weight (unless you count serving hard white unrendered fat to guests). 150 raw > 50% post trim/cook yield = 75lbs x 1/3lb per person (probably low if guests are doing self service) = ~227 servings. :becky:

heh, thanks. That would explain why even though I always cook extra, there never seems to be as much left over as I would have expected

 

[WvQ]

Thanks for the input people. Hopefully to put everyone at ease a little here is how this will work. The group I’m cooking for is buying the meat and dropping it off. I’m only cooking it, so it’s up to them on how much they want cooked. For prep. I have help coming today at 3pm and then I’m planning on starting the cook around 5pm.

 

[Bigbears BBQ]

WVQ
Good luck with your cook and take plenty of pics, keep us posted along the way.