I am planning on making pulled pork sandwiches to sell at our little league's opening day.
Serving speed is important, as we have just a few (often less than skilled) people serving a lot of food, so what we usually do, with burgers and dogs, anyway, is pop in a bun, wrap in foil, and stick in a warmer.
How would pulled pork sandwiches stand up to that treatment? Would the buns get too soggy? The entire lunch run would last 2-3 hours, so it is not a long-term storage deal. I would love to mix batches with sauce, then bun and wrap, but I suspect the sauce would really get soaked up by the bun.
Advice?
As an informed eater.... I would prefer (in order):
1) Made "live"
2) Dry pork on bun wrapped and heated, with sauce for me to apply after purchase
3) A hot dog
Tom
Maybe SouthernSmoked (Mark) will jump in. His daughter used to sell his homemade pork sammies at her college football games. If he doesn't you may want to try giving him a PM and ask. If I remember correctly she used a scoop (ice cream?) to scoop the pork, slap in a bun and wrapping as they were ordered.
Either case I would not pre-apply sauce as people have different tastes regarding the type and amount of sauce.
No sauce on mine please! I may not like the sauce that is being served.
do the pulled pork a day or two ahead, reheat in a large crock pots or 18 quart roasters and serve with sauces on the side / available to the ones who want it
you could toast the inside of the bun on the griddle to help prevent soggyness.i would leave the sauce off
What about putting your pulled pork in ziplock bags and keep them hot in a slowcooker filled with water, boil in bag style. Then scoop it out as needed. I think your way would get soggy.
Planning some larger cooks this summer. Looking for a better way.
I always mix my pulled pork with vaunted vinegar sauce made with Nakano Rice Vinegar. Nakano is a mild sweet rice vinegar. Just enough to enhance the flavor of the pork; then people can add additional or different sauces to it. For a butt that starts out at 8lbs green weight. that will generally fill a half steam pan, and I will use about 2 cups of sauce.
I would not make the sandwiches too far in advance, but if you have too you may be able to reduce sogginess by using a thin layer of oil based spread on the sliced rolls; such as mayonnaise, butter, margarine etc. Surprisingly Parkay Squeezable Margarine, has a pretty good taste. If I had some helpers, just before the crowd is expected, I would have a bunch made up shortly before serving, and have the helpers keep making more sandwiches at the same time. That should allow you to keep up with demand. Using an ice cream scope is a good idea, and should speed up the sandwich making.
Vaunted Vinegar Sauce (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?124-Vaunted-Vinegar-Sauce-For-Pulled-Pork&p=146#post146)
Thanks for all the replies.
I think what we'll do is try and get 20+ sandwiches done right before serving time and just keep making them, hopefully just enough to stay ahead of the crowd, so we have about 20 sandwiches ready during the whole rush and none sit too long. After that, we'll make to order.
I'll go with the majority and keep the sauce on the condiment table. I like that recipe though, Habs.
Quote from: CDN Smoker on February 12, 2013, 06:10:09 PM
Planning some larger cooks this summer. Looking for a better way.
If you're not selling and/or worrying about portioning, just setting the pork out in some kind of warmer with tongs and dishers works great. The last time I did this was for a picnic, and that's what we did. We had a couple different kinds of bread and a few sauces.
What Gus said
Mark, Larry, Pat and Hal have XP on this other than just blaa blaa.
I would think if you had the pork in a warmer (crock pot even), One person taking money, 1 person opening the bun, 1 person scooping pork, you could make a sammie in about 10 seconds. Have a condiment area with sauce available and some slaw if you are so inclined. It shouldn't take any longer than when you order a hot dog. You could even do it with 2 people, I would just have 1 making the sammie and the other handling money. (You want the food handlers to wear gloves, and the money handler would have to keep changing gloves if they were also handling food.)
But with that set up I don't think it will be that difficult. But then again I was only on the eating side of the booth so I can't speak with authority for the serving side. (unless it was the beer tent)
Having done this several times. Your on the right track with the different bbq sauce options on the side. When serving to large crowds keep the pulled pork warm in a roaster oven. If the pork appears to be drying some around the edges add some bottled apple juice. Just dont get heavy handed with the juice. I always have a dedicated sandwich maker who can put the right amount on a sandwich. Then there is one to two runners getting the sandwiches, not only do they get sandwiches they also make sure the buns are out and ready to be filled. By that I mean out of the wrapper and pre opened so the filler isn't fighting to open buns. The filler can grab a bun and open it with one hand and stuff/fill with the other. We use tongs which makes it easier to do.
Thanks for all the tips. I'll let you know how it goes. Butts are all cooked and pulled and ready to be frozen until needed on Saturday.
The first four I finished in the oven, The last two spent the night in the Bradley.
(http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x407/grouperman941/Smoked%20and%20Cured/DSC_5144_zps78618962.jpg)
(http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x407/grouperman941/Smoked%20and%20Cured/DSC_5145_zps27d56ddc.jpg)
(http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x407/grouperman941/Smoked%20and%20Cured/DSC_5149_zps4ab78ea1.jpg)
Got a set of Bear Paws, which were totally worth the 12 bucks I paid.
I see $$$ for the Little League.
They look great.
Nice job, I am sure everything will turn out great! There are going to be some very happy ball players this weekend!
Those look great! Nice job.
Those look great, good luck. I agree with you 100% on the Bear Paws, they make short work of shredding meat and work well for handling the meat also.
Looks good. I'm doing close to that amount of pulled pork this summer. If you don't mind me asking what was the total approximate cook times? Just looking for a guide so I can plan out my cooking. Thanks in advance. Looks delicious.
Quote from: SnellySmokesEm on February 19, 2013, 06:53:19 AM
Nice job, I am sure everything will turn out great! There are going to be some very happy ball players this weekend!
Hey Matt,
How you been? Haven't seen you in a while. Hope all is well. (Now back to our regular scheduled program)
That's a load. I may be doing some charitable cooking this summer. What do you charge for you sandwiches?
Quote from: BAM1 on February 19, 2013, 09:14:34 AM
That's a load. I may be doing some charitable cooking this summer. What do you charge for you sandwiches?
I would get $5 to $6 for mine, but maybe you should ask $3.50. HeHe
Quote from: classicrockgriller on February 19, 2013, 09:27:26 AM
Quote from: BAM1 on February 19, 2013, 09:14:34 AM
That's a load. I may be doing some charitable cooking this summer. What do you charge for you sandwiches?
I would get $5 to $6 for mine, but maybe you should ask $3.50. HeHe
You haven't tasted them Sonny, $2.50 at best IF he is using Icemans Sauce!!
Them Butts turned out great looking Grouperman!!
You guys shouldn't be picking on the fat kids >:(
Quote from: BAM1 on February 19, 2013, 10:02:05 AM
You guys shouldn't be picking on the fat kids >:(
I resemble that remark!!
BAM, I think we are going to charge 5 bucks. I am going to cost it out before deciding,
Right at 60 pounds uncooked ===> 42 pounds pulled pork. Not too shabby.
Great yield!
Quote from: Skishy on February 19, 2013, 07:45:02 AM
Looks good. I'm doing close to that amount of pulled pork this summer. If you don't mind me asking what was the total approximate cook times? Just looking for a guide so I can plan out my cooking. Thanks in advance. Looks delicious.
The four that I finished inside took about 22 hours. They stalled for a really long time. The two in the Bradley took 16.
Rats!! I just caught this post. I would have sent some sauce down to help out. :o
Quote from: iceman on February 21, 2013, 11:56:45 AM
Rats!! I just caught this post. I would have sent some sauce down to help out. :o
That would have been AWESOME! Maybe next time. :-)
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on February 19, 2013, 10:03:04 AM
Quote from: BAM1 on February 19, 2013, 10:02:05 AM
You guys shouldn't be picking on the fat kids >:(
I resemble that remark!!
All I got to say is "never trust a skinny cook/chef".
Quote from: Tiny Tim on February 21, 2013, 05:20:48 PM
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on February 19, 2013, 10:03:04 AM
Quote from: BAM1 on February 19, 2013, 10:02:05 AM
You guys shouldn't be picking on the fat kids >:(
I resemble that remark!!
All I got to say is "never trust a skinny cook/chef".
Hay now,,,,,,,,,,,I resemble that remark ;D
I ended up using a triple warmer to heat the food through indoors. (It is like a crock pot, but with 3 ceramic bowls.) I had frozen the pork in 2-pound blocks in the shape of the bowls. I microwaved the blocks to get them started and then moved to the bowls for a few minutes. We served outside with no power, so I used half pans with sterno. It worked great. I used a disher that held about 3.5 oz of pork. It made a great sandwich. We made them all fresh, but I did test one premade and wrapped in foil and it was good after 30 minutes. The only problem was the sandwich was too big for my foil squares (!).
My bud Rudy serving it up. I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of an actual sandwich.
(http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x407/grouperman941/119_zps4237c4f6.jpg)
(http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x407/grouperman941/118_zpsf6b32fdd.jpg)
Glad it was a Home Run.
What did you end up charging ? Leftovers?
Looks yum. Tried to convince my Cub Scout pack to do this but are not biting. Their loss.
Quote from: Swim Dad on February 25, 2013, 09:42:05 PM
What did you end up charging ? Leftovers?
Looks yum. Tried to convince my Cub Scout pack to do this but are not biting. Their loss.
"If you Feed them . . . They will bite."
Glad to see you had a successful event.
Glad to here everything went well.
Dont ya love it when a plan comes together,,,,,,,,and works as its suppose to ;D
Quote from: Swim Dad on February 25, 2013, 09:42:05 PM
What did you end up charging ? Leftovers?
Looks yum. Tried to convince my Cub Scout pack to do this but are not biting. Their loss.
I charged $5. I had actually only planned on serving 4 butts worth of meat, but I 'donated' two more to be safe. Only served three (about 20 pounds of meat). But there's a bunch for me and a bunch frozen to sell at a later date.
Looks like you hit it out of the park. ;D Nice job.