B-Day Party pulled pork/food ?'s

[mrsksmithvt]

I find it is easier to cook pulled pork in a crock pot than roasting in oven. I make pulled pork every few weeks in my crockpot. I use pork butt, loin, chops, etc whatever boneless is on special at the grocery store. I use apple juice or apple cider cook on low for 12 hours. Pull it when it is ready, use enough for dinner and then freeze the rest.

When is the party? You can do the pulled pork before the party and then add the sauce on the stove the day of the party.

 

[luvmy3]

I usually do buffet style but i do agree with you. I was thinking of serving the sandwiches and guest can serve themselves the sides.

One issue I do have and it annoyes me a lot so how do I handle it. The parents let the kids serve themselves and like you said they get food just to get and I end up throwing away plates full of food. I was thinking of telling the parents to please serve their own kids. But the 2 families have 5 kids and 3 kids that range 8-12 so i know they'll have the kids do it themselve. How do you all handle that?
and
same thing if i serve do i say to the kid " are you sure your gonna eat that? or just serve small portions and tell them they can get 2nd if they eat it all.

There will be 12 kids and out of those 12... 9 wont eat bbq. I do have nachos that I always have as appetizers but I was thinking of not brining it out right away and just annouce it those that dont like bbq and make nachos.

looking at my list theres about 76, 32 have rsvp'd, 16 are usually a no show so I'm looking at 51 who will be eating bbq but I'll cook for more than that

When I have a party I do it with the knowledge that half of what I make, and half of the drinks I buy are going to be thrown out. It stinks but I don't want to sit around serving everyone, or policing them.

I would figure at least 1/4lb per person, per sandwich, and if you aren't serving another meat or entree option you might want to add a bit more. You can always freeze the leftovers.

Grab a big pork butt. Rub with salt and pepper. Toss it in a slow cooker. Throw in 1c of brewed coffee per 3lbs. Throw in a few beef bouillon cubes. Add a few dashes of liquid smoke and cook away!

I usually cook it 12 hours and it falls apart and is delicious! It makes so much, and it's the best pulled pork I've had and get kudos on it all the time.

I don't BBQ it since a few family members are anti-sauce (THE HORROR!), but guests can just slap on their on BBQ sauce.

My 5lb butt usually feeds around 20 people with some eating more than one, but I'd definitely try to have extra instead of falling short!

That recipe sounds great, the next time I do pulled pork I'm going to try it.
I normally use the McCormick spice pack which is good, but your recipe sounds better

 

[njcarita]

When I have a party I do it with the knowledge that half of what I make, and half of the drinks I buy are going to be thrown out. It stinks but I don't want to sit around serving everyone, or policing them.

sounds better

exactly?????? i mean if there is a kid that wants a glass of milk...what is the big deal?????.......... I want my company to have a nice time...........not worry whether they have finished everything on their plate.............

 

[lovemygoofy]

I'm keeping a list of all the stuff I need for the party which is basically food. I've never really keep track of dollar amount so i'm doing it this time and OMG! I told dh we need to have smaller parties. Its hard because everyone is family and close. We see each other on the holidays or bdays. Both of dh's parent sides of the family come and just my one side of the family come.

Does anyone make their pulled pork in an electric roaster oven, if so do you put your pork on rack that came with roaster or just set in roaster oven with liquid?

I've read different recipes....some say....
season or put rub on and place on rack in roaster with no liquid.
another said place in roaster and add liquid and one said no rack and no liquid I thought it would burn if theres no liquid.
one said no liquid so pork doesn boil in liquid.

I'm confused on the time. I've read cook the pork buttt slow @ 200 so if anyone has cooked a 20lb or 25lb at 200 how long did it take to cook. Party @ 2pm

I don't use a roaster oven just use my crockpot. I would put SOME liquid down in the bottom of the roaster, add the rack and the roast, so the fat is dripping down from the pork and can be drained. Pour out the drippings and the liquid, shred the pork and add your sauce and then put back into the roaster.I would do all this the day before the party so you aren't trying to do everything the day of the party.

When I shred anything, I just throw big chunks into my food processor and let it tear it apart. I'm making bbq shredded beef for 50 tomorrow so I understand your pain.

 

[daughtersrus]

I make pulled pork a lot but I buy the pork loin roast at Sam's Club. I've found it's worth paying a little extra per pound instead of spending so much time pulling it off of bones.

I cook mine in a slow cooker ahead of time. Once it's done it pretty much falls apart on it's own or I use to forks to shred it. Once it's done, I add Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ to some and add Italian Beef juice to some. I cook that as well on the stove. I will bag what I think that we'll use at the party and then make smaller bags that can be used for dinner. I freeze them but they can easily be pulled out and heated for the party if need be. If you freeze them flat, they defrost quickly in the microwave. I have a vacuum sealer but you could use zip-loc.

At the party, I have two slow cookers with the heated meat. One for the BBQ and only for the seasoned.

It sounds like you're going to have a big party. Have fun!

 

[mrodgers]

Going to go against the grain and say, pork shoulder cooked in any way other than a smoker is terrible. I tried it in a roaster. It was horribly greasy and tasted that way. It was such a disappointment since I cooked 2 shoulders from Sam's Club and threw most of it out.

I've since gotten a smoker, but haven't tried pork yet.

We cook tenderloin in a crockpot for pulled pork, but that would be quite expensive for that many people.

It's going to take a lot longer than 8 hours to cook a pork shoulder. I cooked mine for 14 hours at 225° in the roaster and it still wasn't to temp yet. You want to slow cook something like this to 200°. That is how you render all the fat out. I pulled mine at 195° and it still had a lot of ribbons of fat in it.

 

[dreamin_disney]

exactly?????? i mean if there is a kid that wants a glass of milk...what is the big deal?????.......... I want my company to have a nice time...........not worry whether they have finished everything on their plate.............

A Glass of milk wouldnt be a big deal but theres a large family that comes that has 5 kids that family is the picky one that makes a lot of request so 5x kids that fill there plate and waste food is a big deal and a lil rude(family). Normally we dont serve we let everyone serve themselves(buffet style). This year I've had several people tell me I should serve the food because it best for a big group. I plan on serving the 1st round, then once EVERYONE has been served they can serve themself. I've gone to parties and they have the marker ready for guest to write their names on cups. I was taught you serve what your going to eat and not waste food. Like I said this will be the 1st year that I will serve food to guest.

I don't use a roaster oven just use my crockpot. I would put SOME liquid down in the bottom of the roaster, add the rack and the roast, so the fat is dripping down from the pork and can be drained. Pour out the drippings and the liquid, shred the pork and add your sauce and then put back into the roaster.I would do all this the day before the party so you aren't trying to do everything the day of the party.

When I shred anything, I just throw big chunks into my food processor and let it tear it apart. I'm making bbq shredded beef for 50 tomorrow so I understand your pain.

Thank you, do you put just water or broth liquid?
I work and I wont leave the raoster or crockpot on while no one is home. But I'm going to try it another time because making it ahead of time would be great for 4th of july

 

[sherry7]

I wouldn't put salt on the raw meat, because the BBQ sauce has more than enough. I usually buy a whole boneless pork loin from Sam's Club, for around $2.00 to $2.30 a lb. It has much less waste than pork butt, and is leaner. I have the butcher cut it into 1 inch slices for me. I toss it all in the crockpot and sprinkle on garlic powder, onion powder, some black pepper, add a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's, a bit of water, and cook it on low for about 10-12 hours. After it's tender, I shred the meat with 2 forks, and add additional BBQ sauce and sometimes a little water.

For that large of an amount, I would cook the meat the day prior in the roaster. On the day of the party, put it in a crockpot to warm up, and add some additional diluted BBQ sauce to moisten it if it dried out a little overnight.

I don't think that 20 lbs is enough for that many guests, because the meat really cooks down. Cooked pulled pork freezes well for a couple of months, so you can always make extra and have the leftovers at a future meal. I love pulled pork on baked potatoes with melted cheese. Mmmmm.

 

[sayheyrenee]

Super Easy

5lbs of Polish Kielbasa (smoked not fresh)

3-4 jars (depending on ounces, I buy the cheap $1.00 brand) of Apricot preserves


Put into oval crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours.


It goes! Ypou can have on roll or plate with potatoes. The preserves thin out with the grease from the meat and makes a delicious sauce.

 

[sayheyrenee]

For the kids:

crock pot hot dogs and separate crock pot mac and cheese.

If you need recipies, I can post them.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Update

The party turned out great and so did the food. I got lots of compliments on how good the food was.

I also got a lot of compliment by other who throw lkots of parties on how organize it was and how smooth everything went. People thought it was a good ideas serving the food. Everyone sat outside and food was delivered to them eliminating the crowd around the food. I also did the bday cake outside, we sang then i bought the cake in to cut and delivered to guess. I hated doing the cake because i'd have a huge crowd around me being pushy especially the kids, this time it was stress free. oh and at start of party we had one of those HUGE themos with country time lemonade and we bought out the sodas when the food was served. People we still drinking the lemonade at the end of the party until it finished

The following weekend we went to a party and guess what i noticed...they also had the lemonade ...they sang happy birthday in one area and cut the cake in a another area....they had pizza and only about 17 people compare to our 60 but the person throwing the party gave me lots of compliments about dd's party and said she snagged a few of our ideas. They are having party another next month with more people and she said she's going to serve and copy us on a few thing because she liked how organized our party was-lol!

Funny thing was i told dh it was a lot more calmer but we are doing pizza next year-lol! I will keep the cake idea sing in one area and cut in the kitchesn and handout. If we ever have parties were its meat as main dish then i will serve.

 

[dreamin_disney]

For the kids:

crock pot hot dogs and separate crock pot mac and cheese.

If you need recipies, I can post them.

yes please post the recipes. I have 3 parties to throw next year.

1. Do the hot dogs cook in the crock pot or to you use the crock pot to keep warm? I'm thinking chile cheese dogs-since we always have nachos with cheese or chile cheese nachos plus something else

2. Would love the mac recipe- i'm thinking that with some fried chicken

3.any other recipes would be appreciated


if anyone has a good mexican meat recipe for large crowds-i would love it

also some main dish food recipes in the roaster. I have a 22quart so i wanna use this as much as possible but theres hardly any recipes.

 

[nsmith]

I usually do buffet style but i do agree with you. I was thinking of serving the sandwiches and guest can serve themselves the sides.

One issue I do have and it annoyes me a lot so how do I handle it. The parents let the kids serve themselves and like you said they get food just to get and I end up throwing away plates full of food. I was thinking of telling the parents to please serve their own kids. But the 2 families have 5 kids and 3 kids that range 8-12 so i know they'll have the kids do it themselve. How do you all handle that?
and
same thing if i serve do i say to the kid " are you sure your gonna eat that? or just serve small portions and tell them they can get 2nd if they eat it all.

There will be 12 kids and out of those 12... 9 wont eat bbq. I do have nachos that I always have as appetizers but I was thinking of not brining it out right away and just annouce it those that dont like bbq and make nachos.

looking at my list theres about 76, 32 have rsvp'd, 16 are usually a no show so I'm looking at 51 who will be eating bbq but I'll cook for more than that

I buy small buns or rolls. We call them catering rolls. Guest can have more than one but many will only have 1 and sides.

I had a party once and the kids didn't make sandwiches just loaded their plates with meatballs (I had figured on 3 per sandwich and figured I had plenty) We ran out. After that I changed the menu to hotdogs with all the fixings, less work, less money and the kids could eat all they wanted.

 

[csharpwv]

Crock dogs are AWESOME!

When I used to work in an office I either made crock dogs or pork BBQ to take for parties!

For crock dogs, all hot dogs all already cooked - so you just need to heat them. SO, you just have to make sure you have the crock hot on long enough to heat the dogs all the way through - AND make sure that you have enough liquid to allow the crock to heat long enough and allow some liquid to cook off.

DO NOT cook frozen meat in a crock pot - food safety experts say that is a major NO NO! I know, I know - people do it all the time - but they saw not to do it!

 

[foreUT]

So glad you posted an update, dreamin' disney! I am so happy that it was a great success for your dd's special day!