calculating food requirments

[Paddy Q]

how much food would you cook for an event that averages 1500 people? Just butts and brisket for the meat and there are other (non BBQ) food vendors.

 

[bbquzz]

BW or one of the other experts will have to weigh in on your question, but welcome to The Forum!

 

[Old Dave]

Mr Paddy Q,
A fellow would need much more info to get you a good answer on your question...but maybe I will try...

!500 folks thru the gate= maybe 40% or 600 folks might eat depending on the event.

Assume 9 other venders might mean that your booth might get 10% or 60 folks.

Ok, we now must cook for 60 people. With butts and brisket only, your food will probably be priced higher than the other booths. So I would figure out of the 60 folks that visit your booth, about 20 of them would only purchase something like a coke and maybe some chips.

For the remaining 40 people, you would need about 5 oz of finished meat for each person. That would total about 200 oz of finished meat or 12.5 pounds.

I would start with 13 pounds of pork butt which will give you 6.5 pounds of finished meat or about 21 sandwiches.

The brisket would be the same at 6.5 pounds of finished meat or 21 sandwiches.

Your total meat would be about 13 pounds of pork butt and 13 pounds of brisket.

 

[boozer]

It depends on how you will serve/sell your food. 1500 is a lot of people, and with other vendors there too who knows? I would usually count on a half pound of meat and a quarter pound of each side for each guest, better to have too much..

 

[bigwheel]

Think a little more info on the scenario would be helpful. According to my vending guru the best strategy is to offer a wide range of products..if thats allowable under the constraints you might be facing of course. His strategy is if the customers dont want bbq..you might can sell them a funnel cake or a cotton candy or a bottle of piddle water..french fries etc. He had a fancy vending trailer and worked 1st Monday Trades Day in Canton, TX which is a whopper of an event. For bbq sandwiches he packed his brisket bagged up in two pound increments which could be kept frozen until needed..thawed and reheated on a flat griddle in the trailer with a little club soda added to keep it moist. He said the smell of the heavy smoked meat warming up on the griddle was a big drawing point. Unused bags of sliced/pulled meat went back in the freezer to be served again another day. The vendors who were more specialized..such as the corn roasting crowd..tended not to make as much money. Normal amount of meat for a sandwich..and/or the sides is 4 oz..or half a cup for stuff like coleslaw..tater salad etc. Did learn from the catering guru..different guy.. if you have both those sides..the tater salad will get hit twice as hard as the slaw..so you would need 2 oz of that if you have both. Have learned the hard way most folks like tweaked up Bushes beans more than some kind of exotic version of home cooked pintos. What would it take to get rights for the Turkey Leg concession? Those are money makers for not much manuel labor. Keeps us posted.

 

[Max1]

I just got done doing an event for like 50 people, only about 30 showed and we went through 6 racks of ribs and 2 pork shoulders. and lots of sides.

 

[bigwheel]

Dang you had some eager eaters.

 

[Max1]

yeah tell me about it!

 

[bigwheel]

Well let see...thinking 6 racks of ribs should feed twelve folks..when served as the main course..and the butts should handle 20 more. Sounds like you came pretty close to right. Did you ration out the meat or let them try help selfy?

 

[Max1]

Ration, in my family LOL good luck with that brother.

 

[bigwheel]

Hmmm..well glad nobody got trampled.

 

[TAC1]

I've cooked a few events, I never did any large meats though. Mostly cooked smoked hamburgers, smoked polish sausage, and other meats as such. I will tell you that you should make friends with the other vendors, they will help you with ideas and knowing how food sales are for future references. I have made friends with the other vendors that were there and even drew attention from a group of appreciative chefs that were judging a fire department chili cook-off, as well as drew attention from the fire department, telling me to tone it down a notch... I Q'd for show, lol. there's more but i'll have to add it later.

 

[TAC1]

Well, it wasn't quite for show, but I wanted to give our customers something to be pleased with while they were waiting for their orders. I rubbed shoulders with the vendor next to me enough I was able to learn a few things about butts and briskets from him, and he learned a few things about using a smoker pouch with a gas grill from me...

 

[TAC1]

Depending on the size of your buns if you are doing sandwiches, I'd figure around a 1/4 pound for regular buns and on up toward 1/2 pound for jumbo buns, about like they do at Coleman's Barbecue in Hernando, Mississippi. At least it felt like they put that much meat on their sandwiches. Also, think about doing BBQ Nachos, (tortilla chips, I prefer On the Border regular not cantina thins; BBQ pork/beef; Spicy BBQ Sauce, not sweet, sweet makes it strange; A quality canned nacho cheese sauce; jalapenos to top it, and my personal twist some kind of smoked bacon cooked crispy and crumbled over the top (but the bacon is optional, as it raises cost)

 

[Max1]

I don't agree with the portion, seems a bit high for me. I mean with the slaw maybe, but just meat, damn man that is a big portion.

 

[TAC1]

Like I said I am just going by experiences of eating out, I didn't actually weigh the meat, I was guessing. I mean it seriously felt like they put that much meat on there. But that's the magic of good food.