Serving in bulk

[Grouperman941]

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?

[TomW]

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

[GusRobin]

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.

[Sailor]

No sauce on mine please!  I may not like the sauce that is being served.

[beefmann]

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

[mez]

you could toast the inside of the bun on the griddle to help prevent soggyness.i would leave the sauce off

[Quarlow]

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.

[CDN Smoker]

Planning some larger cooks this summer. Looking for a better way.

[Habanero Smoker]

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

[Grouperman941]

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.

[Grouperman941]

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.

[NePaSmoKer]

What Gus said

Mark, Larry, Pat and Hal have XP on this other than just blaa blaa.

[GusRobin]

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)

[Tenpoint5]

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.

[Grouperman941]

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.






Got a set of Bear Paws, which were totally worth the 12 bucks I paid.