I teach AP US History here in Las Vegas. One of the things I've done through the years regardless of where I'm at is throw a BBQ for my AP students the Sunday before the AP test. Back when I lived in Warrenton, MO, this was a group of less than ten kids. This year, I have 81 AP students. 61 RSVPd for the BBQ, and 56 showed up. Once you add in my lovely family, I made dinner for 60 yesterday.
The kiddos have been fascinated by my growing grill obsession this year, and this was a fun opportunity to show off some grills and skills...I think.
I started off on Saturday night, trimming and seasoning the pork shoulders.
Woke up at 3:45 yesterday morning, got the grills going (quietly...my neighbors must think I'm nuts) and got the pork out of the fridge. I had the meat on the grills by 4:30AM.
(54 pounds!)
Used the mini WSM, the $50 14.5 WSM from Walmart, and the 26er for smoking. Two butts in each.
Used the snake on the 26er.
As reported elsewhere, the mini WSM was troublesome again. At 10am, I transferred it all over to my trusty performer with another snake. It ran at about 300 all day, but I was OK with that, as the shoulders needed to get moving.
By the way, smoked it all with an applewood/pecan mix.
Then I prepared the appetizers...moinks and ABTs stuffed with my homemade breakfast sausage.
The real star of the day was the 26er. Everyone said I'd love smoking on it, and it's true...it rocks. I made a snake, not terribly well organized, dropped in those coals at about 4. It stayed at 250-270 from 4:30 all the way until 2pm when it dropped to 220, and I checked and noticed the coals were nearly out. Added a couple handfuls of coal, and away it went...this time usually between 270-290. I LOVED smoking on the 26er.
Kids were scheduled to come at 5pm...pulled the meat off the WSM at 200 degrees at 4:30, and the 26er probe showed 198 degrees. Put it in a cooler with a couple towels on top. Pulled meat of the performer at 5pm. It was at 195. In the meantime, I pulled off the ABTs and Moinks which I glazed with BBQ sauce.
Here's the meat before I pulled it off the 26er:
Finally, the lovely wife I shredded it all around 5:30, and we were eating by 5:45. Sadly, I didn't take any final pics! I was exhausted and hungry. But to get an idea of the crowd, here's a few pics. The kids LOVED it. Many took seconds. I bought 84 buns, and we ran out so many took seconds.
Served it with baked beans, chips, cole slaw, potato salad, watermelon, grapes, and strawberries. The lovely wife made homemade chocolate chip cookies while we played a review game. A few kids were vegetarian/kosher and I made a handful of black bean burgers and Hebrew National Hot dogs as well...When it was all said and done, I have one gallon sized bag 3/4 full with pulled pork left.
It was a blast, but I don't plan on opening a BBQ joint any time soon!
Well done team.
Topic: Cooking for 60! (Read 3380 times)
