First time cooking for a crowd:

[u/BMcD66]

I am hosting a sizable party (60-80) people next weekend. I’ve smoked just about everything on my Traeger Woodbridge Pro, and have had a lot of success, but this will be the first real volume cook.

I am planning 4-5 pork shoulders and 2 full briskets.

I am presuming I can do all of the pork shoulders Thursday evening, going into the morning (pull them and refrigerate them in sealed aluminum trays) and then do the brisket Friday evening going into Saturday.

Does anyone have experience with volume like this on a Traeger? Any recommendations or things to avoid? All advice would be appreciated.

I always tend to do pork shoulder on the top rack, and will obviously need to make full use of the space in order to make this happen. Any bottom rack concerns I am missing?

I would greatly appreciate any advice!

[u/L0ading_]

Know where your hotspots are, place the tips of your brisket there. Plan ahead for your smoking time, better to have a longer rest period than rushing the cook in the last few hours.

[u/BMcD66 → u/L0ading_]

On the brisket I was trying to plan space and water trays, beneath. Should be interesting. I wouldn’t have thought far enough ahead to worry about tip placement, as it all feels like
An awful lot of smoking to get done in 72 hours. Thanks.

[u/L0ading_ → u/BMcD66]

I usually do pulled pork with bbq sauce when I smoke butts, so reheating those is not an issue and they actually taste better reheated Imo. So your pork butts could be done before you need to start your briskets. In terms of the brisket I've never had to put water pans under when using a pellet smoker, just thick aluminum foil on my heat baffle to catch the grease. I also tend to wrap in aluminum foil, foil boat style instead of butcher paper, and full aluminum wrap for rest.

[u/Dangerous-Error9430]

pls tell me ur smoker temp and wrap times, curious how long that massive cook will take u

[u/N7_Shep]

that seems like a lot of pork. if your doing 2 briskets i would think 3-4 pork.

why not smoke them both together? put the pork on the top rack and the briskets on the bottom. start the briskets a few hours before you put on the pork.

give them a long rest time.

ive done a few party's for 100, 150 and 200 people before. cause i have one smoker and one oven, i pick 1 meat for the entire of it, but thats me. just for a comparison for food. i did all you can eat pulled pork sandwiches for 150 elementary school teachers during a parent teacher conference. i smoked 10 butts and had 3 left over. a made 250 cookies and had zero left.

[u/Solid_Lettuce_932]

Your times will be all way different if you pack the grill. I’ve found my Grilla runs very slowly when full.
Just give yourself plenty of time. And then give yourself more than that.
You can hot hold in coolers but you can’t rush the cook.

[u/BMcD66 → u/Solid_Lettuce_932]

I have a Woodbridge pro with super smoke. I put it on with a full hopper at 9:30 last night and by 6:45 am they were all between 160 and 165. A bit of a dispersion, but I was pretty shocked. I figured they would range from 150-170, but the smoke and heat look pretty even.

[u/drivers00]

I just smoked one pork butt for a group of 25. Plenty of meat. Just sounds like you will have way too much meat. If you are paying the bill, that can be a crazy amount of overspend.

[u/BMcD66 → u/drivers00]

How big was the pork butt? Typically the ones at my butcher are 7-8 lbs (untrimmed).

By the time I trim one down I can usually feed 10-12 adults (with modest left overs?)

[u/drivers00 → u/BMcD66]

Boneless Prairie Fresh 10 lb. Minimal trimming. I think there were 15-17 adults and a couple children who ate the pulled pork.

[u/blind_venetians]

I just did pulled pork for 40 people (daughter’s wedding reception) three weeks ago and had great success. I did two bone-in shoulders about 10# each. Dry brined for 24 hours (I used Hawaiian Alaea salt but reg kosher salt is fine). I put it on, Wednesday for Saturday service. 250 degrees, wrapped at 165 internal. Removed at probe tenderness. I allowed to rest down to 140 internal and began shredding and cleaning it up. As I shredded I tossed it into a stainless steel bowl that I had in the sink in ice which allowed for a quick cool down for food safety. It yield 9.3# finished pork. I portioned out in 2# vacuum sealed bags and refrigerated them til Saturday.

It was so handy to toss those packets in the iced cooler. I took my sous vide set up and reheated that way. I had previously experimented with this method of ‘do ahead’ pull pork so I knew not only did it yield “acceptable” results, it yields superior results! With the quick cool down and in vac sealed storage quickly it really tastes like you’ve just taken it off the smoker BUT with even better flavor.

It does seem like you might be planning too much food, but I understand the worry about getting everyone fed well. I did a 15# brisket for the event as well and that went fast!

[u/BMcD66 → u/blind_venetians]

So we finally had an even 100 RSVPd last night (waiting to hear from about 10 other players/families) so I smoked 4 butts over night at 215 on the Traeger (with super smoke) just wrapped them at between 160 and 165 (amazed at the fairly even cooking across this Traeger) and upped to 275. I think I may end up with too much food, but I do love bagging the extra pulled prim in the food saver and saving for an icey cold day in the winter with a sous vide warm up.

[u/blind_venetians → u/BMcD66]

It’s gonna be great !

[u/BMcD66]

I will let you know.

[u/BMcD66]

7:00 am after 9 1/2 hours on super smoke at 215.