Daughter wants me to cook pulled pork for her wedding in Sept. Should be approx. 200 people there eating, buffet style.
There will be jambalaya and white beans, meatballs and other assorted finger foods and such.
With that said... here is my plan.
I'm thinking about 100#'s of raw meat, going by the 1/2 #/person model. I think that will be way too much, considering all the other items people will be chowing down on. But I'm okay with that.
Usually our butts around here are in the 7-8# range. So that's approx. 13 butts. I'm thinking that will take about 16 -17hours or so and hoping that I can fit all on the MB XL smoker. If they don't all fit, I was thinking of doing 3 or 4 the day before and using them as the last resort butts and reheating them in the oven at the wedding hall, maybe adding a finishing sauce to them for moistness.
When smoking this many, do I need to add extra wood for smoking, more than I would for doing 1 or 2 butts? I'm using applewood and considering a mix of apple and hickory or pecan.
Will they hold for 4-5 hours in ice chest, wrapped with foil/towels, can I stack them in the ice chest? I have to be there 2 hours before the wedding and am hoping that will be my rest time, but I wouldn't mind getting them done a few hours earlier to be "safe" so I don't show up smelling all smokey. lol.
My plan is to use a chafing tray or two to keep the meat warm while serving, and have a couple trays already pulled and sitting in the oven at 150* (should it be higher like 180*?) to keep them warm and ready to switch out trays once one is getting to the empty mark. Then once I'm down to the last 2 trays, start pulling 2 more butts and keeping them warm.
I'll be using squeeze bottles to put 2 different BBQ sauces in for "users choice", one a carolina type and the other, probably KC Masterpiece or Sweet Baby James Q sauce, just for simplicity's sake, plus..I love KC Masterpiece.
Also considering putting slaw on the side for those that want to use it, but wondering how to keep it on the cool/fresh side in the hot weather.
And.. for the buns... I like CWB's...but it's a wedding. Trying to decide if CWB's are fine or need something fancier, like Kaiser or maybe Kings Hawaiin buns, or some other choice??
I've only just started smoking and have a few butts under me, doing some more trial runs before wedding to hopefully get everything smoothed out, nervous as can be right now.
Comments/suggestions/answers needed please.