# Cooking pull pork for 400 plates---Got some questions



## rwilli (Apr 22, 2019)

Just some assumptions I am making,  would like some input from the crowd to see if I am on the right track:

1.  I am figuring 3 sandwiches per pound of pulled pork.
2.  With bone in shoulders,  I am figuring about 20 percent loss with bone and some trimming/cooking.
3.  I am figuring 180 lbs  of bone in pork shoulders should do the job  (180-20%=144lbs),  144lbs x 3 sandwiches per pound  =432 sandwiches.

Am I in the ball park with these assumptions?

Thanks


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## JJS (Apr 22, 2019)

I think your probably a bit light, we usually experience around 40% loss with bone in pork shoulder.
That would put you around 1/4# per person which is pretty light (unless it’s not good then you may have left overs lol).
I usually figured 1/2# per person plus sides and would have sub 10% leftover


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## smokin peachey (Apr 22, 2019)

When I have done bone in pork butts I figure 50% loss. I always figure  .6 x people so 400 x .6 would be 240lbs of butts. It also depends how many are adults vs children and how good it turns out. The amount of sides also can effect it. I always have extra and never have a problem selling it.


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## Smokinribsbbq (Apr 22, 2019)

I do the same as peach. 50% loss with .6lb/person. We rarely have more than 3lb left over .


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## Lookn4u (Apr 22, 2019)

Me too. 50% loss, but .5 per person. never ran out, came close a few times, but always worked out. Go with a smaller bun, larger than a slider, but smaller than a burger size. Bun size references are escaping me at the moment, but its easy enough to figure out.


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## zwiller (Apr 23, 2019)

+1  50% yield and 1/2lb per person is the standard for single protein.  1/4lb per for 2 proteins.


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## SmokinAl (Apr 23, 2019)

Here is a handy dandy calculator for figuring how much you will need.
Al


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## rwilli (May 17, 2019)

I wanted to follow up on My first (and probably last) big cook.

First,  Thanks to the advice from many of you,  the cook went beautifully.  I had plenty of meat,  The meat came out great---had lots of compliments and 1 offer to help out on some professional cooks.----I declined that--To much like work.

Some lessons learned:

1.  When cooking 25 butts,  you end up with 25 x the mess,  25 time the grease.
2.  When doing a large cook,  don't forget about the extra stuff you will need---Dawn dish washing liquid,  commercial roll of tinfoil,  plenty of tins to put the food in etc.  
3.  Help is a hug benefit,  when it is 9pm,  time to take 6 or 8 butts off of the smoker and still let them rest and process them.
4.  Have extra parts,  I broke two thermometer probes during this cook--luckily,  I had spares.
5.  The Yoder 640 is just to small for a cook like this.
6.  Although you can fit 8 butts on the yoder 640,  it just seems to cook better with 6,  and 6 butts are just easier to manage than 8.
7.  This cook required about 120 pounds of pellets (I expected 60-80).

Probably more lessons learned,  but those are the ones I can think of off of the top of my 

--Again--I Thank all of you for your advice,  It really helped me pull this off.

Bob


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## hardcookin (May 17, 2019)

Thanks for the follow up. I always say every smoke is a learning experince.
As you mentioned BBQ is hard work, extra help is always welcome.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.


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## Ariene (Jul 28, 2021)

rwilli, your lessons are valuable. Thanks for sharing them. I have to follow if I want to get the best meat. You know, I'm trying to surprise my family with the best meals.


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## forktender (Jul 28, 2021)

Awesome photos, thanks for sharing.


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## UrsulaSneathen (Jul 30, 2021)

As for me I don't like pork


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## VirgMart (Jul 30, 2021)

I have never cooked so much pull pork in my entire life. But your pieces of advice are priceless. I usually like cooking grill meat. So, when weekends, I try to look for new recipes to surprise my wife with some delicious meat. But before that, we measure meat, yes, even it would sound weird for someone.  We bought a food scale on amazon, and before cooking or baking something, we weight everything. We are not on a strict diet, but we are trying not to overeat.


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