Results 1 to 5 of 5
  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    ma
    Posts
    719

    How much to cook?

    So i just got a re tec and am really enjoying cooking on it. I am planning on bringing in a bunch of BBQ for the folks at work as a thank you for working so hard. I am guessing I would be feeding 40-50 people lunch and was thinking of Pulled pork and Chicken with mac and cheese and beans as sides. I am not against other dishes but figured they would be the easiest to bring in on aluminum pans with sterno. I am sure others will being in more stuff. How many pork butts or whole chickens should I pick up? Also anyone have any good vegetarian main dishes I could make as well?

  2. Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    Somewhere in Mississippi
    Posts
    2,619
    #2
    I certainly would have thought some one would have answered before now--This should give you a general idea...........I have feed 50 people and I promise it is ALWAYs better to have some left than not enough.............
    https://www.chef-menus.com/food-quantity-chart.html

  3. Member
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    ma
    Posts
    719
    #3
    Awesome thanks. This is very helpful

  4. Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Parma, MI
    Posts
    1,671
    #4
    I haven't been on for a bit and just saw this. I own a BBQ restaurant and food truck, we do caterings upwards of 1500 people and here is what I put on my catering menus for customers to think about.

    1lb of cooked meat will feed 2-3 people, if your doing sandwiches you can do 3 servings per lb (our standard serving is 1/3 lb per sandwich)
    Sides are generally broken out by 1/2 and full pan sizes, one 1/2 pan should have 15-20 servings depending on the guests, again know your crowd and how they eat, a group full of beer drinking guys will eat differently than an office party usually.

    Cooked vs Raw- Pork butt will lose between 40-50% of it's weight once cooked, keep this in mind when figuring how much you want to cook to feed your crowd. Chicken will lose approximately 20% of its weight as a general figure. I have gotten my yields up over time with new techniques in cooking and new equipment, I average about 75% yield for pork and brisket now and closer to 90% for chicken, but it all varies on time/temp and style of cooker.

    40-50 people I would break it down like this:

    Meat lbs: 25 cooked goal - 13lbs each approx = 26lbs pork and 15lbs chicken raw these are the numbers you have to hit minimum
    Sides: 1 full pan of each side will be enough, especially if there will be other options available from others bringing items.

    Vegetarian options: We do not do strictly vegetarian options currently because I do not have a smoker I can dedicate to it. While I'm not a vegetarian, I respect others choice and would not cook veggie options in my cookers which have meat cooked in them. I understand vegetarians are not as strict as vegan, I just rather not create a headache for myself so I do not go down that road at the moment. Most of our sides are vegetarian so we just promote that. I have other friends in the business who smoke jackfruit and offer that for vegetarian guests, it goes over very well and is actually quite good, when done right it's a similar product to pulled pork, minus the delicious pork part lol.

  5. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Louisville Ky
    Posts
    15,367
    #5
    Quote Originally Posted by glfgd82 View Post
    I haven't been on for a bit and just saw this. I own a BBQ restaurant and food truck, we do caterings upwards of 1500 people and here is what I put on my catering menus for customers to think about.

    1lb of cooked meat will feed 2-3 people, if your doing sandwiches you can do 3 servings per lb (our standard serving is 1/3 lb per sandwich)
    Sides are generally broken out by 1/2 and full pan sizes, one 1/2 pan should have 15-20 servings depending on the guests, again know your crowd and how they eat, a group full of beer drinking guys will eat differently than an office party usually.

    Cooked vs Raw- Pork butt will lose between 40-50% of it's weight once cooked, keep this in mind when figuring how much you want to cook to feed your crowd. Chicken will lose approximately 20% of its weight as a general figure. I have gotten my yields up over time with new techniques in cooking and new equipment, I average about 75% yield for pork and brisket now and closer to 90% for chicken, but it all varies on time/temp and style of cooker.

    40-50 people I would break it down like this:

    Meat lbs: 25 cooked goal - 13lbs each approx = 26lbs pork and 15lbs chicken raw these are the numbers you have to hit minimum
    Sides: 1 full pan of each side will be enough, especially if there will be other options available from others bringing items.

    Vegetarian options: We do not do strictly vegetarian options currently because I do not have a smoker I can dedicate to it. While I'm not a vegetarian, I respect others choice and would not cook veggie options in my cookers which have meat cooked in them. I understand vegetarians are not as strict as vegan, I just rather not create a headache for myself so I do not go down that road at the moment. Most of our sides are vegetarian so we just promote that. I have other friends in the business who smoke jackfruit and offer that for vegetarian guests, it goes over very well and is actually quite good, when done right it's a similar product to pulled pork, minus the delicious pork part lol.

    That is very good info. I need to save this as I will occasionally cook for groups and its always a guess for me. I typically just go big and give away the leftovers.