BBQ Bro's I NEED SOME QUICK HELP!

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DavidEHickey

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A club I belong to "Shamrock Athletic Club" decided to have a spring Corn Roast and Pork Roast. I volunteered to do the pulled pork. Not sure how many people will attend I'm guessing 50. As I've never done mass smoked pork before I have a few questions I was hoping you could help me with.

1. I bought 55 pounds of pork shoulders, should this be plenty if I have 50 people attend?

2. I've heard many internal temperatures for pulled pork. What is everyones opinion on the best temperature to remove the shoulders. 190, 195, 200. I intend to wrap and put in cooler for probably a couple hours before pulling so the temp may rise a little after removal.

3. I've only cooked one shoulder at a time in the past. It states 1 1/2 hour per pound will cooking mulitple shoulders affect the total cooking time? or will it be based more on the size of the largest shoulder. Just not sure how much time to alott for cooking. Last one I did took 12 hours

4. Best method??? I was planning on using Chris Lillys championship shoulder recipe thats posted all over the internet for the Rub and wondering if the injection part is actually neccessary I think it was pretty much apple juice water and Worchestershire sauce and salt. Will it really help the meat?

Well any help would be appreciated, I want to impress the members! Or any ideas other than Chris Lillys recipe I would entertain! Thanks
 
I inject mine with a citrus juice the night before. I put the rub on while the fire gets to temp and remove at 195 wrap and throw in the cooler for a couple hours.
 
It has been said 30% of weight is lost during a cook. So 55# of shoulder will reuce to about 38# or so. When I cooked 35# of shoulder, I placed it in a cooler when it hit 185*. When I went to pull it 4 hours later, it was almost still to hot to touch. That cook took about 10hrs around 250*. After foiling around 165*, I did crank the heat up to around 300*.
 
Puppyboy said:
It has been said 30% of weight is lost during a cook. So 55# of shoulder will reuce to about 38# or so. When I cooked 35# of shoulder, I placed it in a cooler when it hit 185*. When I went to pull it 4 hours later, it was almost still to hot to touch. That cook took about 10hrs around 250*. After foiling around 165*, I did crank the heat up to around 300*.
Click to expand...
I actually go with a 50% loss.... the rest I agree with...

Even at 50% you would have about 27.5 pounds of cooked meat... That would give you a little over 55 - 8 ounce sandwiches and that's a lot of meat... I usually go with about 6 ounces per...
 
If it's all going into the same cooler, I'd pull it a littler earlier because you will be putting a lot of hot meat into that confined space. It will continue to cook for a while.
 
If you will have your cooker there, I would try and stagger them and start each 20-30 minutes apart if one to two at a time. I would pull at 195 regardless of how many are going to be in a cooler as it will continue to rise, but not more than 205 degrees at the top and that is some peoples pulling temp.

By staggering you can pull them staggered (first in first out) so that you keep a steady run of hot food available. Really you can do this if they all come off at the same time and just pull one butt out at a time.

On the amount, that should be plenty for 50 people with leftovers and given you don't know how many people will show up I think it good to err on that side so you should be safe here.

On the cook time, it will take longer with the more meat depending on the cooker. If a large off set you are not going to see that much difference as the increase in the meat is percentage wise not that great when taken against the total cooking space. If you are in a smaller cooker, you will get a more dramatic effect.

Good luck and remember to get pics or we won't believe it happened.
 
I'm more on the 50% side. All the other advice is great.
 
^^^^^ What they said...

You should have plenty of meat.
It will take longer to cook that much meat.
If you inject do it the night before (I don't think it is necessary to inject - most will still probably think it is the best they ever had.

I would also pull at 190 if I was going to put all of that in one cooler and keep it for several hours.
 
There is a lot of salt in that rub and injection from what I remember.
 
Good advice so far. I agree with the 50% yield of finished product.

I would pull it out of the cooker at 190-195 since you are going to cooler it.

What are you cooking on?
That will make a difference in your cooking times and variations.

Wilmington huh? Cool!:-D
I'm just over here in Chillicothe!:-D

On edit: I just read your Cattle Call post. Nevermind about what kind of cooker. I'm guessing that loading the cooker up will add some time to your cook, but not significantly since it's a smaller cooker. I could be wrong about that though since I haven't cooked on one of those. Maybe someone else can chime in that has more experience with that type of cooker.
 
ZBQ said:
Good advice so far. I agree with the 50% yield of finished product.

What are you cooking on?
That will make a difference in your cooking times and variations.

Wilmington huh? Cool!:-D
I'm just over here in Chillicothe!:-D
Click to expand...
That brings up a good point... Is this an active group (actually participating in a sport) or just spectators? Younger (teenagers) or old like us?

If they are active or younger, I would stick with the 8 ounce sandwiches, other wise I would cut it back to 6 ounces...
 
I agree with the 50% factor down rule. I usually inject the night before with a mix of filtered bacon grease, pineapple juice and brown sugar, I usually cooler mine at 190, and 1.5 hrs per pound is usually about right on my Char-Griller, regardless of volume being cooked. I think you are fine, except you may want to increase the volume of meat up to 65 or 70 lbs. Pulled Pork never seems to go to waste, and in my experience most people eat more than they do of other foods.

If you want to make it completely unhealthy as I do, add a pound of cooked, crumbled bacon for each 5 lbs of pork after you pull it. I usually add some sweet onion as well to the finished product, but most of my friends have said they like it better with just the pork and bacon mixed.
 
Yep I live within 50 yards of Caesers Creek Lake if you have ever been there. Realistically 20 minutes from Wilmington. Just have the mailing address.

Anyhow a few of you are saying the injection is probably salty and someone said to watch the salt in the rub. Is any one actually familiar with the Chris Lilly recipe? And would you recommend a different Rub? Don't want it to taste too Salty. Have alot of old timers and don't want to raise their blood pressure.

A few asked what I'm cooking them in, because it will make a difference in the time it takes to cook that much. I know its probably blasphemy "my uncle from Texas told me no self respecting BBQer would have a gas smoker" But its a Big Stainless steel smoker that Sams Club sold for awhile. Its well insulated and has 2 gas burners with a wood tray over each. Then a Water pan and drip pan. It stays at a fairly constant temperature with the lowest about 180 and on medium keeps a pretty constant 225. Its about 5' high and 2.5 X 2.5 wide.
 

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Don't inject (too much work), slather w/mustard, rub of choice, put on all the butts at same time, at cook temp of 225* i'd allow 16-hours of cooking time for average 8/9# butts, better off having them done early and in the cooler than running out of time. don't foil during cook (too much work). Depending on cooker you may need to rotate butts around the cooker, flip at half-way mark, spray with apple juice periodiacally after rub has crusted, Don't open the cooker too much, plan in advance what you are going to pull in and how you are going to portion servings, depending on how the cooking time is going compared to the serving time i'd cook to between 190* and 195*, and don' forget to have a plan to keep warm after pulling - Have fun
 
I usually figure on a 60% yield.

This past weekend I cooked about 60#'s of pork butt and two briskets in the Spicewine. The butts hadn't completely thawed out but I was pressed for time. I some of my rub on the butts. No slather. Just rub. Stuck them in the smoker at about 235-240 at midnite. I started wrapping them at about 10am and putting them in the cooler as they came to temp (about 195).

FIFO at 11am for the start of People's Choice. Pulled them. Chopped up the fat that was left and added it back into the pulled pork. Sprinkled it with more rub, added a dash of vinegar for brightness and added some of Bigmista's Secret Sauce to keep it moist. Mixed well. Served samples until 4pm.

Won People's choice.

Moral? Keep it simple and forget about being perfect. Pork forgives.
 
Well? Have you started yet? Don't keep us in suspense man!
 
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