Quantities
How much pulled pork do you need for 100 people?
For pulled pork sandwiches as the main dish, plan on 27.5 lb of cooked pork for 100 people. That is 4 oz a head, plus ten per cent so the last person in line still gets a full sandwich. Pork shoulder loses about half its weight as it cooks, so buy about 55 lb raw.
Fifty-five pounds is six bone-in pork butts of 9 to 10 lb each. Pork butt is the shoulder cut, and it is what every pulled pork recipe means. Boneless shoulder loses a little less, closer to 40 per cent, so you can buy about 46 lb of boneless instead. Either way, check the weight printed on each package and add them up. Butts vary by a couple of pounds, and six small ones can leave you short.
The whole table, for 100 people
| What | Amount | In ounces | What to buy | Working |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulled pork, cooked, as the main dish | 27.5 lb | 440 oz | 55 lb raw, bone-in | 4 oz a head, plus 10%; half is lost in cooking |
| Pulled pork, cooked, alongside another main | 20.6 lb | 330 oz | 41 lb raw, bone-in | 3 oz a head, plus 10% |
| Buns | 110 | — | 14 × 8 pack | one a head, plus 10% |
| Barbecue sauce | 7.9 lb | 126 oz | 7 × 18 oz bottle | about 1 oz a head |
| Coleslaw | 21 lb | 336 oz | 21 × 16 oz tub | 3 oz a head |
| Potato chips | 7 lb | 112 oz | 14 × 8 oz bag | 1 oz a head |
| Pickle chips | 4 lb | 64 oz | 2 × 32 oz jar | half an ounce a head |
| Plates | 110 | — | 2 × 64 pack | 10% over the headcount |
| Napkins | 330 | — | 2 × 200 pack | three a head; it is a messy sandwich |
Package sizes for buns, sauce, chips, pickles, plates and napkins are the ones actually stocked in American supermarkets: sandwich rolls come in packs of 8, 6 and 4; barbecue sauce in 18 oz, 17 oz and 18.5 oz bottles; pickles in 16 oz, 24 oz and 32 oz jars. Pork butts and deli coleslaw are sold by weight, so those rows are the weight to ask for rather than a shelf size.
Why four ounces a head
A pulled pork sandwich at a barbecue restaurant is usually 4 to 6 oz of meat. At a serve-yourself event with coleslaw, chips and a dessert table, most people build a sandwich at the low end of that. Four ounces cooked is the number that comes out about right when the pork is the meal and there are two or three sides.
It moves with the crowd. A football team or a men’s breakfast group eats closer to 6 oz, and plenty of them come back for a second sandwich. A school lunch or a crowd with a lot of small children eats closer to 3. If the pork shares the table with hot dogs or a second main, 3 oz a head is enough. Leftover pulled pork freezes well, so when in doubt, cook the extra butt.
What actually goes wrong
- The cook takes longer than anyone planned. A 9 lb butt at 225°F takes 12 to 14 hours, and it can stall for hours near the end. Cook the day before, pull it, and reheat it covered with a little of its own juice.
- Buying the cooked weight instead of the raw weight. This is the most common mistake. Buy 27.5 lb raw and you end up with about 14 lb of meat, enough for half the room.
- Not enough oven or smoker space. Six butts need a full-size smoker or two home ovens. Work out where they will all cook before you buy them.
- Food safety on the way to the event. Cooked pork that sits between 40°F and 140°F for more than two hours has to be thrown out. Transport it hot in insulated carriers or cold and reheat it on site.
If you are organizing this with other people
The arithmetic above is the easy half. The hard half is turning it into asks that one person can carry, keeping track of who said they would bring what, and reminding them before the day. That is what Event Wranglr does. You describe the event in a sentence, it works out the quantities and the package counts, and it produces a sign-up sheet your volunteers claim from a link with no account and no advertising.
Describe your barbecue and see what comes back.
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