My youngest daughter graduated from high school recently, and for the grad party, I decided to take up the challenge of smoking BBQ for 70+ people. (A couple years ago, my older daughter graduated high school, and for her party, we hired a BBQ catering service for a similar number of attendees. (I had not started my BBQ journey yet.) They charged almost $3k for the food......now that I'm comfortable smoking BBQ, I decided I wanted to give it a try for a big crowd.)
This, by far, would be the most people I have ever attempted to smoke meat for at one time. The main challenge was that my Traeger smoker can only hold 1 brisket at a time. And I didn't want to cook anything beforehand and fridge it. So, the logistical challenge was to figure out how to rotate meats on the smoker and have everything ready and fresh for a 4PM party.
I went to Sam's Club and got two prime briskets and three pork shoulders for $150. Once trimmed, it was 50 lbs of meat. hehe way better than $3k.......
I came up with a schedule that would start meats on the smoker, and then move them to ovens in the kitchen. Of course, the smoke started the evening before party. It took 21 hours to cook everything. But I was ready for the 4PM start!
The food worked out great! The food was more than enough. People definitely attacked the brisket more than the pulled pork. Didn't have much brisket left--less than half a brisket. I vacuum sealed and froze the leftovers. Been snacking on them ever since.
Pork ready to wrap:
Briskets ready to wrap:
I really enjoyed making the food for this large event. Would do it again. Gonna make some Dino ribs for the 4th.