How much food to make for 40 people?!
How much food to make for 40 people?
I need to know how much meat I need for a BBQ for 20 adults and 20 children. We are serving Burgers, Brats, and Hot Dogs, but have no idea what people will actually eat. Is there a "rule of thumb" for this situation?
Answers:
well i feel you pain lol ,but this is what sounds pretty good to me ,people will eat what is there and if you run out they will understand
so go with depending on how big you want the burgers 1/4 each is standard and amke them up ahead that size
get a 10 lb pkg of hamburger
5 pkgs of brats if their are 4 to 5 in each
and about 6 pkgs of hot dogs
this will leave you with plenty and probably have some left over ,but like i said make the burgers ahead and freeze them with wax paper in between this makes them easy for the grill while still frozen and they stay juicer,then if theirs left overs it wont go bad for setting out ,, the brats would be good soaked a day ahead in beer and onions bring them out let them simmer on the fire for a bit then grilled
I betcha most kids will go for hot dogs, at least one a piece unless they are all preschool age. I'd have about 30 hot dogs (they keep if not eaten), 15 burgers, and 15 brats.
15 of each will not be enough for 40 people. Imagine what people will think when you run out of food, and you will. Because your cooking realatively cheap meats, buy a lot. I would plan on 1 hot dog and 1 sausage for each person plus a few extras, so go for about 60 each. Extras can always be frozen and used later. For the burgers, I would plan on buying about 18 lb of beef. Sounds like a lot, but if you make 1/3 lb burgers, thats 64 burgers. Enough for those that may want 2. Good luck!!
How about 50 each ?
Pulled Pork for 40 people
Here goes! When cooking a pork shoulder or pork butt, the first thing that you have to do is the math. You wants to feed @ 40 people and didn't know how much meat to buy. In your finished product, you are roughly going to get only half of what you put in the smoker (that is called "yield"...the other term is "shrink" which accounts for the 50% loss during cooking). So in essence, if you put 40 lbs. of meat in you will only end up with 20 lbs. of finished product.
A normal serving on a catering (if you are not cooking for big eaters) is 4 oz. ...or 4 people to the pound. When feeding big eaters, you generally figure 3 people to the pound.
Glenn wants to feed 40 people. 40 people x 4 oz = 160 oz divided by 16 oz to a pound. Therefore, you need 10 pounds of finished product...so he would need to start with 20 pounds.
You have to think in these terms rather than the original question, "How many shoulders should I cook?" You buy enough to yield 10 lbs. of finished product...and if you are like The General it would never hurt to have extra in the freezer.
Let's do technique....After purchasing the shoulders or butts, rub them generously with your rub or another. Recently someone generously gave me a large quantity of Bad Byron's Butt Rub and I have used it quite successfully. Using olive to liquefy the rub (you don't want it 'cakey') and yellow mustard (a generous slather) massage it into the meat along with some brown sugar if you want to experiment. Put your meat in the smoker cooking between 220* and 240* for @ 10 plus hours to reach an internal meat temperature of 190*.
Let the meat rest for an hour and here are some tips as to how to get your finished product pulled. I use what is called a pastry cutter or a dough scraper. I like it much better than a cleaver. Put your butt/shoulder(s) in a Rubbermaid dish pan to minimize mess on your counters. Make 4 or 5 good stabs with your pastry tool to break the meat apart and let the heat out so you can handle it. Continue to make stabs until you get the meat fairly well broken down. Then just pretend that you are 'shuffling a deck of cards' by holding the larger pieces in one hand and the other hand is shuffling the smaller pieces from the larger piece. You will also be able to pull out any gristle etc. at this time.
1/2 cup portion per person for evry sidedish
Kids usually go for hot dogs, adults for the hamburgers and brats. count on at least two per person, plus sides. you want to have a margin of error, so get more rather then less. you can always heat them next weekend.
For 40 people, you might need 50 servings. (That means they can have more than one serving!!!!!)
The way we figure at our catering service is 1of each for each person but remember not everyone is going to eat 1 of each so you will have extra for the adults that will eat more. If you know you will have a couple heavy eaters just add a couple more of each and you should have plenty. The rule of thumb is "It's better to have to much then not enough" Plus BBQ is great warmed up the next day