I have smoked Pork Shoulders for 60 - 70 people no problem. I am about done with my new smoker, and my wife wants me to cook for a school event, that is going to have 300 - 400 people. I know my new smoker could handle around 30 or so Pork Shoulders, is there a bigger piece of meat I should be smoking to make this a little easier(besides a whole hog)? Not sure I want to tear apart that many shoulders.

The bone-in boston butt's still the best choice. I cook at large festivals and have done 10's of thousand of pounds of them. We use a buffalo chopper made by Hobart. If you could borrow one of them that would be ideal. Otherwise you'll have to recruit some help in chopping that many butts or shoulders.

Don,

What is a "buffalo chopper"? How does it work? Sounds like something I can maybe use part time in my wood shop? ;)

Mike

Edit: Okay - Google answered my own question! http://www.shortorder.com/products/hobart-...od-cutter-84145

For about $6,000 I don't think I need one! ;)

Don - How do you deal with the fat/collagen in the shoulder when you are processing it? As much of a pain hand-shredding is it lets me remove all the fat and grissle that people might not enjoy chewing with their pork.

the 12 hour/220deg cook cycle usually renders out 90% of the fat. I cook the butts fat side up and let it filter down through the meat. Of course we've always got a lot of liquid fat in the bottom of our cooker in the end.

Just what I was about to say. I've had very little fat left when pulling ours, as long as they are left in long enough - for mine, usually more like 14 hours. But like you - we have a ton of fat grease, my drip pan usually overflows, and I have a supplemental pan placed on the floor under the stock pan. The hardest smoke session to clean up after! ;) Easiest done while it's still hot. I usually throw the shelves on my grill and burn the fat off them, but the walls are difficult. My smoker doesn't ever get hot enough to really burn that off, so it's a perpetual (flavorizing) issue.

Mike

I've had one for 10 years I paid $600 for. The Buffalo Chopper is a horse of a piece of equipment. You have to work real hard to kill one of them.
Unfortunately, the parts for the older one's are hard to come by. But this picture tells you why you need to have one in my business.
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Don,

What's the big deal? I thought that's what you invite Bluesin along for?

Hmmm, the price has really come up in a decade, huh? There is a Hobart repair facility right down the street from my shop. I'll have to stop in and see if they sell refurbs. For a couple of hundred bucks - I'd buy one. Maybe on eBay.. I didn't know about these "toys". I don't enjoy doing mine by hand. Other than eating most of the bark in the process! And I smoke enough it would come in handy.

Mike

I'm sure Don is the expert here but I will add from my experience. Butts are definately the way to go. They give the best flavor and split the job into managable pieces. As long as the butts are cooked long enough, they will pull very easily so with the help of some friends, you should be able to get through those butts in no time. Keep in mind, it takes a while to overcome the mass of cold meat you are going to put into the smoker so allow time for this. DAMHIKT! ;?D I don't know what Don uses for a smoker but I'm guessing it's a gas fired commercial smoker that's thermostatically controlled? In a charcoal and wood smoker, YOU have to control the temp so plan on extra fuel at the beginning. I got caught cooking for a large group one time. It only took one time.... The butts will hold in coolers for a long time so make sure they are done ahead. The steaming in the cooler will help with the pulling too. Make sure you have enough cooler room for all the butts.

Good luck! It should be a great learning experience! May want to do a dry run first????

Sink

When my smoker was still a novelty to me in 1993 I would have recommended cooking a good sized hog for that many people. But today with all that greese behind me, cook 30 or 40 pork butts for the gig. You'll be much better off.

Here is the production trailer pic. Southern Pride SPK 700 and an old smoker box I use for a warming oven.
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Good guess??? Nice unit! How many butts can you cook in that???

70 butts or 198+ slabs of ribs with the rib racks

Why not just round up to 200 ribs, Don? I was impressed when I moved up from two half-racks of ribs setup (Terra Cotta smoker) to doing 7-8 racks of ribs (Yoder smoker). I think we all just got handed some smackdown. Heck, add all of our smokers together and it might just MIGHT equal the number of ribs you can do in a single sitting. Definitely impressive. Now I know why you have that buffalo chopper.

Don,

How long can that smoker last on the two tanks of fuel? Will it cook the 198 racks on just one tank? I've no idea - but it looks huge and I'd assume it would go through a lot of propane.

Do you haul it with just a pickup truck? I know you have the booth which must be a trailer also, right? Are you a caravan traveling to the shows?

Mike

Don,

Thanks for the info and picutres. Great set up. Some day I'd like to hit the competition circuit but that will be a while.

I can do about 30 racks total on my smoker with the rib racks. I don't have a thermostat or gas fire with mine. Just have to stay up all night when doing butts. Every 2 hours I have to mess with the fire. Butts make for a long day with serving the next evening.

Sounds like you need my CyberQ II more than I do. Present from Mrs. Clause this year perhaps? Put away $25 a week and it can be yours. I highly recommend it especially for those long thru-the-night sessions. Other models don't have the computer connection but that is why I liked this one.

Thanks all for the replies. I seem to be able to find about 6lb pork butts, do you see bigger ones usually? I'm wondering if I should go talk to a local butcher, instead of grocery stores, etc. See if I can't get a bigger cut around 8 - 10lbs.

I will be doing a 2nd burn in on my smoker this week, and maybe just smoke some brats for kicks while i'm doing it. My first true test-run will be for a family reunion at the end of this month, I will use my new smoker and do about 35lbs of Pork butts, I need to feed about 75 people.

Then my huge first time test will be for about 350 people, so I will do about 175lbs of Pork butts.

I will be using my Big Daddy Triple Barrel smoker I just made, at least that's my name, based on a different version of Big Baby Double Barrel

I will be posting some new pictures of it, now that I have added smoke stacks, fire box door, and a 2nd temp guage.

Have you tried going to Costco.
They tend to have large cuts of meat.
Also is there a slaughter house near you or any farmers.
You should be buying whole hogs for that kind of cook

I tow a 20 foot "kitchen" with my F250 v10 and we use a 14 foot box truck (with hydraulic lift gate) to tow the smoker. I thought I posted this overhear pic of all my stuff in one spot before, but here goes. Have pity on me
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Have pity on you?!?!? With that line of people with their hands stuffed full of cash just waiting to hand it to you? Geez - I've never seen a line like that at my door! ;)

Okay - I see your equipment. Like I said - a caravan (or is it convoy)?

Thanks for clearing that up!

mike

We have a Sam's Club membership, I could check them out. Also, about 20 min from my house there is a huge butchershop, one of these days i need to go there and ask them what they can supply.

Also, as far as the whole hog, I've done that before, and it was pretty messy cleanup. I'm sure I'll do a hog again some day in the future, but not this time around.

Sam's Club will sell boston butts by the case, little lower price than at the counter.