# Son's Grad Party - Say A Prayer For Me!



## pi guy (Jul 8, 2022)

A while back a bunch of you were VERY helpful answering some questions I had about pork butts for my son's grad party on the 16th of this month.  Since then I've been hard at work trying to perfect the process.  Well, we're a week away and this has snowballed into us doing just about every part of the meal for 100+ people.  The wife decided to do all the sides and cupcakes herself.  Our very first time attempting anything like this.  Here's a rundown of what we're doing.  I'll add pics as they are available (been too focused on cooking to take pics until now, so apologies, but will step it up for y'all!).  This is a work in progress, hope you don't mind.

*PULLED PORK:*
So far have smoked 7 butts, average of 8 lbs each, on 3 different occasions
Suctioned juices and put in container and into the fridge. Pulled pork and put in containers and into the fridge for a day.
Pulled meat and juices out next day, defatted juices and mixed with meat.
Put meat into vac bags (about 3-4 lbs per package) and into the freezer.  Currently have 40 lbs of finished meat.
Have 2 more large butts to smoke this Sunday, will do the same procedure as above. Plan to yield about 10-11 lbs more for grand total of 50 lbs finished meat.
Plan is to water bath the bags (in a roaster) the morning of the party, get them up to temp and fill chafing pans with heated meat. Keep the remaining meat in water bath and open the bags to refill the chafing pan as needed.
Here is what is done so far:








*ICE:*
Yes, ice.  Figured we needed a TON of ice for drinks, for under cold dishes, etc. so wife bought a table top ice maker (figured we'll use it throughout the sumemrs with kids' sports, boating, etc).  We've been busily making bags of ice (bought bags on Amazon) and put in our freezer.
Here's what we have so far:







In the coming days I'll update the following with recipes and some pics.

*4 CHEESE MAC N CHEESE:


SMOKED DEVILED EGGS:


BBQ PIT BEANS:


TORTELLINI OLIVE SALAD:


FRESH CORN SALAD:


CANDIED BACON:


DECORATIONS:*


Thanks for looking, wish us luck!


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## SmokinGame (Jul 8, 2022)

Pi, sounds like you have it under control. The menu sounds great!

Hope you get some sleep over the next week.


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## Ringer (Jul 8, 2022)

You got it man, it'll be great


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## DRKsmoking (Jul 8, 2022)

That is quite an undertaking. But like Mark 

 SmokinGame
  said, looks like you have it under control.
Funny how things snow ball into more than expected.  hope extra hands to help out on the day of.

Good luck, you both will be fine.   

David


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## chopsaw (Jul 8, 2022)

Yup , you got it . Have fun .


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## Winterrider (Jul 8, 2022)

Very nice gesture from you and your wife tackling this project. You got it figured out it sounds like.


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## tbern (Jul 8, 2022)

Awesome what your wife and you are doing, best of luck that all goes well for you and that the party is a huge success!


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## bigfurmn (Jul 8, 2022)

pi guy
, remember to have fun too. Don’t get so busy you forget to enjoy the day. Have a friend or someone help keep an eye on the food. I saw my cousin miss a lot of her daughters party being too worried about things, even with me watching the hot food.


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## Brokenhandle (Jul 9, 2022)

What was that address again? I think a few of us will offer to show up and help watch the food...disappear! Lol. Sounds like you have this under control.  And have fun like the others have said!

Ryan


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## 912smoker (Jul 9, 2022)

Brokenhandle said:


> What was that address again? I think a few of us will offer to show up and help watch the food...disappear! Lol. Sounds like you have this under control.  And have fun like the others have said!
> 
> Ryan


We'll  blend right in  with the crowd !
Have fun and enjoy!!

Keith


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## pi guy (Jul 9, 2022)

SmokinGame said:


> Pi, sounds like you have it under control. The menu sounds great!
> 
> Hope you get some sleep over the next week.


LOL, thank you! I have a full week of work travel this coming week (I'm in Sales). Plus just found out about a funeral Monday, and daughter's softball 2 nights. Yeah.


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## pi guy (Jul 9, 2022)

bigfurmn said:


> pi guy
> , remember to have fun too. Don’t get so busy you forget to enjoy the day. Have a friend or someone help keep an eye on the food. I saw my cousin miss a lot of her daughters party being too worried about things, even with me watching the hot food.





bigfurmn said:


> pi guy
> , remember to have fun too. Don’t get so busy you forget to enjoy the day. Have a friend or someone help keep an eye on the food. I saw my cousin miss a lot of her daughters party being too worried about things, even with me watching the hot food.


Thank you, and yes we do need to remember to have fun too!
We've had some great parties over the years, but never cooked this much. We used to be great party hosts but always stressed too much for weeks before, only to find that everything turned out perfect.
Guess we need to just relax a little and trust the process and know that no matter what we'll have friends and family around us all day.


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## pi guy (Jul 9, 2022)

Brokenhandle said:


> What was that address again? I think a few of us will offer to show up and help watch the food...disappear! Lol. Sounds like you have this under control.  And have fun like the others have said!
> 
> Ryan


LOL yeah for sure!! Come by, if your in the Detroit area!


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## pi guy (Jul 9, 2022)

Planning on a 5am start tomorrow for the final 2 butts.  Got them scored, panned, rubbed and wrapped into the fridge.
Sorry, doing this from my phone. Pics may not be in chronological order.


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## Nefarious (Jul 9, 2022)

Order doesn't matter, we can figure this out.  Looks delicious.  I'd certainly crash that party.


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## pi guy (Jul 10, 2022)

1st of the final 2 done and pulled.


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## tbern (Jul 10, 2022)

Looking awesome!!


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## jcam222 (Jul 10, 2022)

You jumped in with both feet! I like it. If it were me since you have saved the liquid gold to mix in I would probably just warm the meat straight in the toaster pans and mix it in as needed.


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## SmokinGame (Jul 10, 2022)

Looking great, Pi!


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## bigfurmn (Jul 10, 2022)

looks fantastic! Well done.


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## pi guy (Jul 12, 2022)

jcam222 said:


> You jumped in with both feet! I like it. If it were me since you have saved the liquid gold to mix in I would probably just warm the meat straight in the toaster pans and mix it in as needed.


My only worry about doing it that way is that there is so much meat, I would have to do it in many batches. And I'm afraid of making the meat too loose if I over work it.


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## pi guy (Jul 12, 2022)

Update on the freezer. Getting full.  Serious cooking of sides starts tomorrow. The corn in the freezer came from 24+ ears for the corn salad side.

Also just finished 2 slabs of baby backs, chopped and de-boned and vac sealed. They'll be added to the pit beans on Friday.

Top left is the white cupcakes. Guess the wife found out about freezing them before thawing and defrosting. She still has to do the chocolate cupcakes.

Plus neighbor's daughter is a chef and she is doing 100s of cookies.

Ughh


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## pi guy (Jul 14, 2022)

Tonight the wife is busily working on corn bread muffins, bacon for the pit beans and for candied bacon.  I'm smoking the eggs for smoked deviled eggs.

Daughter asked if I was smoking pickles for the party. I am not. She was disappointed so I took the last of what was left in a jar and thew them in too.

Much more to come.

Cheers all!


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## Brokenhandle (Jul 14, 2022)

Never smoked pickles before!

Ryan


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## clifish (Jul 14, 2022)

pi guy said:


> Tonight the wife is busily working on corn bread muffins, bacon for the pit beans and for candied bacon.  I'm smoking the eggs for smoked deviled eggs.
> 
> Daughter asked if I was smoking pickles for the party. I am not. She was disappointed so I took the last of what was left in a jar and thew them in too.
> 
> ...


smoking pickles and eggs....please elaborate when you have time.


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## Brokenhandle (Jul 14, 2022)

clifish said:


> smoking pickles and eggs....please elaborate when you have time.


Smoked,  pickled eggs are awesome! Although some mention something about a green haze after consumption!

Ryan


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## clifish (Jul 14, 2022)

Brokenhandle said:


> Smoked,  pickled eggs are awesome! Although some mention something about a green haze after consumption!
> 
> Ryan


Is that like the "ring of fire"  that happens after a night of eating ghost peppers....lol?


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## pi guy (Jul 15, 2022)

Brokenhandle said:


> Never smoked pickles before!
> 
> Ryan


Only did it once, but for some reason the kids loved them!  I thought they were OK, but they ate them just by themselves (I had thought of putting them on a burger or something to give a nice smoky flavor).


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## pi guy (Jul 15, 2022)

So quick question if anyone's out there this afternoon...

Is it safe if I take my vac sealed pulled pork out of the freezer and put it into the fridge overnight, THEN put the bags in the roaster water bath to get the meat to temp?

Or is it best to go from frozen right into the hot water bath?


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## pi guy (Jul 15, 2022)

clifish said:


> smoking pickles and eggs....please elaborate when you have time.


Sure, we absolutely love these things! 

I found pre-hard boiled and shelled eggs at Sams for fairly cheap since we're doing so many, so I'm using them for the first time.
Cold smoke the eggs on a wire rack using a AMNPS with pellets.  I move the pellets to one side and the eggs to the other so the smoke doesn't go up directly onto the eggs.  Just find that they don't get as ugly that way.
I use apple pellets.
I smoke them for 1-2 hours, get them off the racks and right into the fridge until ready to either eat, or make into deviled eggs, or scotch eggs.
They make the BEST scotch eggs: Take some raw breakfast sausage and pack it around a whole smoked egg.  Put that into an air fryer until the sausage is done (unsure of time).  Incredible!


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## clifish (Jul 15, 2022)

pi guy said:


> So quick question if anyone's out there this afternoon...
> 
> Is it safe if I take my vac sealed pulled pork out of the freezer and put it into the fridge overnight, THEN put the bags in the roaster water bath to get the meat to temp?
> 
> Or is it best to go from frozen right into the hot water bath?


I do that all the time


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## pi guy (Jul 15, 2022)

4 CHEESE MAC N CHEESE:


SMOKED DEVILED EGGS:














BBQ PIT BEANS:


















TORTELLINI OLIVE SALAD:


FRESH CORN SALAD:


CANDIED BACON:














DECORATIONS:


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## Bearcarver (Jul 16, 2022)

*WOW!!!*
AKA*  Oh My God!!*
'Nuff Said, but Be Back!

Bear


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## rileybowler (Jul 16, 2022)

Man you sure took on a big load with all this, I would not attempt this but my hat is off to you great planning as well as great cooking. After this is over you and the wife deserve a vacation.


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## Nefarious (Jul 16, 2022)

Wow, tremendous effort.  Everything looks delicious.  You son is one lucky guy.  Congratulations on his graduation.


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## Bearcarver (Jul 16, 2022)

One Awesome Graduation!!
And All I got was this lousy Draft Notice!
Just kidding---I volunteered.

Bear


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## Hammond guy (Jul 16, 2022)

Looks like you nailed it.  Enjoy your day


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## pi guy (Jul 17, 2022)

rileybowler said:


> Man you sure took on a big load with all this, I would not attempt this but my hat is off to you great planning as well as great cooking. After this is over you and the wife deserve a vacation.


Thank you. It was a total success! Labor of love...


But I'll never do this again!

:)


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## JLeonard (Jul 17, 2022)

Amazing effort on you and your families part. And looks like you pulled it off.  Thinking a tray of those eggs would be mine alone along with a double handful of that bacon. 
Jim


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## bigfurmn (Jul 17, 2022)

That is a crazy amount of cooking. Really well done!


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## pi guy (Jul 18, 2022)

Thanks to all for the kind words and encouragement! I love cooking, but it really was too much for us to handle on our own.  Even though we pulled it off, I think it almost killed us.

On to the next adventure!


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## tbern (Jul 18, 2022)

congrats on all that great looking food!!  glad the party was a success, hats off to you and all your helpers!


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