# cooking for my reherasal dinner



## sdfisherman1995 (Feb 14, 2014)

Hello everyone im  a first time poster long time reader. i have decided i am going to smoke some meat for me and my soon to be wifes rehersal dinner. im expecting between 75-100 people. im wanting to do pulled pork and im debating between ribs or brikset i will have baked beans mac and cheese coleslaw potato salad corn and cornbread. im trying to budget so i know how much meat ill need to buy thanks for any help that can be offered.


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## mdboatbum (Feb 14, 2014)

One word of advice, DON'T DO IT!! I did the cooking for my rehearsal dinner. Did a Low Country Boil for 50 people. That was really easy compared to BBQ and given the opportunity to do it again, I wouldn't. It's a pain in the neck. You'll have a million things on your mind already, and adding BBQ for 100 people is just gonna make what should be a fun time a stressful and miserable one. Let others do the cooking. You're there to get married, not to cater the party.

If you really NEED the validation of being the one that does the cooking, at least do the long cooking meats ahead of time and reheat. Then you can do ribs or chicken the day of and mitigate some of the stress. Or delegate it to a couple of your grromsmen, unless you don't think they can handle it.


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## sdfisherman1995 (Feb 14, 2014)

i hear you i have the week before we get married off and was planing to cook the butts up 2 to 3 days before the rehersal dinner the sides are being handled by my mom and mother in law and a few other people. i was planning on reheating the pulled pork in the oven then using a roster to keep it warm and ribs where a thought but thinking if i could do a brisket a couple of days before that would lessen the stress. 100 people would be the max im really thinking close to 65 any help on how to figure out the ammount of meat ill need would be awesome


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## dirtsailor2003 (Feb 14, 2014)

I'm with MD don't do it! The days leading up to my "Simple" wedding were full and left no time for smoking!

But if you must I figure 1/3 pound pulled pork per person, 2-3 ribs per person, and several slices of brisket. This assumes there are ample sides. Keep in mind that you will lose 40% pre- cooked weight on your pork.


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## sdfisherman1995 (Feb 14, 2014)

i understand everyone saying dont do it the fact is its with most my family and they will be up  the whole week i will have the extra time to put into smoking all the meat as i have a propane smoker that holds temps really well. im looking at pulled pork and propally brikset was thinking ribs but decided here not to so i can do all my smoking early so if i need to feed say 70 people with pulled pork brikset and mac and cheese, colslaw, potato salad, corn and cornbread. how many precooked pounds off pp and brisket should i be getting.


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## sqwib (Feb 14, 2014)

I was going to post a long-winded post as I usually do... but will leave you with one little tip.

Small rolls = less waste!


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## africanmeat (Feb 14, 2014)

You just need a good plan .

first what smoker do you have ? big smoker less time small smoker more time.

you need +- 12 hours for the pork 

you need +- 12 hours for the brisket 

start with the smoke and work in be twine .

than potato's than the mac ,beans and at the end the coleslaw .

that will be my plan of action .

SQWIB got a great point with the small rolls.

hope it will help

PS don't forget to defrost the meat on time .


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## demosthenes9 (Feb 14, 2014)

Just to throw it out there,  you could do ribs in advance just as easily as brisket.   They don't have to be done the same day


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## sdfisherman1995 (Feb 14, 2014)

thanks for the advice i have the sides handled by my mother and mother in law are making all the sides so all i have to worry about is the meat i like the idea of doing ribs my ribs are awesome and my family loves them how would you handle doing them before and reheating. also any estimates on how many lbs i should be getting precook. im not the best with math lol


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## sdfisherman1995 (Feb 14, 2014)

also as for the smoker i will be using the masterbuilt xl propane smoker i can fit alot of meat in it.


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## demosthenes9 (Feb 14, 2014)

sdfisherman1995 said:


> thanks for the advice i have the sides handled by my mother and mother in law are making all the sides so all i have to worry about is the meat i like the idea of doing ribs my ribs are awesome and my family loves them how would you handle doing them before and reheating. also any estimates on how many lbs i should be getting precook. im not the best with math lol


Cook the ribs the way you regularly do, just pull them off a little bit sooner than you normally would.

For serving later, wrap the ribs in foil or covered in pans with a little bit of apple juice and heat them up in an 250 degree oven for about an hour.   You basically want to steam the ribs while bringing them up to serving temp.  This prevents them from drying out.  At the same time, you don't want to steam them too much as they can get soft/mushy.

A quick search will show you a bunch of threads here where people discuss other ways that they reheat their ribs.  Might be beneficial to look through some of them and then decide which method you want to use.  For example, some vacuum pack the ribs and just drop the bags in warm water to heat them up.

As for how many ribs you should get, for baby backs / St. Louis style spares, I generally go with 3 bones per person.   For full spares, 2 bones per person.


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