bockert
07-13-2009, 10:27 AM
My daughter got married a couple of days ago. In an effort to keep the costs down we decided to "cater" the event ourselves. Everyone who had tried my brisket recipe raved about it so I decided to do brisket sandwiches for for 300, plus or minus...
Here is what I learned or things that were notable
1. There is not much information out there on how much to prepare for a crowd and whats there tends to be very contradictory. I decided to figure it myself so I figured about 4 oz cooked per person and about 1/3 cooking loss on the briskets. This figured out to around 10 10 - 12 lb briskets. I added 2 in case more folks showed up than RSVPed. This turned out to be about 1/3 more than was needed for the actual event so about 3 oz cooked per person and 1/3 cooking loss would have put the formula right there. I would probably use my original formula again if doing it for myself as we got some more buns and served it at the gift opening. We also got some small containers and gave a lb or two to a few people who helped out alot with the wedding, this was WELL received so it was worth making the extra.
2. When I ordered the briskets I specified that I wanted 10 - 12 lb briskets, I was expecting to get around 130 - 140 lbs of meat to start. When I got them several of them were in the 16 lb range and I should have rejected them. I ended up with 180 lbs before cooking, alot of extra work and no extra end product. These were too big for the smoker, they were to big for the roasting pans and there was really no extra meat on them, the excess was just about all fat that ended up being trimmed (after cooking) and discarded. Be firm with you butcher and very clear about what you want for product.
3. I prepared the brisket in advance to cut down the effort the day of the event. I did the smoking, cooking, cleaning and slicing about 2 weeks ago, I defatted the juices from the cooking pans, added a little extra spice to it and put it in with the sliced brisket. I froze it all in the insert pans for table top roasters covered with a double layer of foil. The night before the wedding I took it out of the freezer to start thawing, it was still froze solid sitting on my counter the next morning but had "warmed" considerably from the 0 degrees F in my freezer. I set the roasters (with a few cups of water between the roaster and the insert pan) to 300 to start. It took about 2 hours for the center of the foil on top to start feel warm so after about 3 hours I turned the roasters down to 150 and let them simmer until the reception. I started the process at 9am, the reception was at about 6:30pm and the meat was in great shape for it. Between the smoker, oven and cleaning I spent 2 days doing the briskets with maybe 6 hours of active time.
4. Have some containers available for the cooked off fat, there will be alot of it and you do not want to put it down your sink. It took two 2.5 gallon oil jugs to store the grease from this until it could be disposed of properly.
5. Keep the rest of the meal simple, the brisket speaks for itself. We served buns, chips, smoked nuts, M&Ms, an "Easy Abrosia Salad" (recipe came from online and it took less than half an hour to mix three batches that was enough for the crowd) punch and homemade wine. We got rave reviews on the meal and my daughter was very happy with it.
6. Food was set out at the head table but other than that we set this up buffet style and people seemed to like that, they could take as much or little of everything as they want and were free to go back for more. This way we did not need wait staff which again helped keep costs down.
7. Don't forget to designate someone to keep things full. We kinda forgot about that until the last minute but fortunately the host couples were willing to step in and got a few people to help keep things full while they directed traffic to the buffet.
8. This is a great way to keep costs down. When we checked the costs of catering it was anywhere from 25 to 50 bucks a plate... multiply that by 300, add a tip and the cost gets WAY out of hand real fast. We chose to use plastic service and with that and the briskets, sides, homemade wine, etc I think we ended up around $4 plus or minus a plate and people were very, very happy. It WAS alot of work but like alot of things a some sweat equity paid off.
My absolute favorite comment about this was from my neice who said her friend woke up the next morning and the first thing he said was "I'm dreaming about a brisket sandwich for breakfast." I sent him home with some...
And the best part of this was it gave me something to say when my daughter asked me to say a few words at the reception. My comments were titled "Life and Marriage like Cooking Brisket." It must have been OK because people laughed alot and my daughter took my notes to put in her scrapbook.
Here is what I learned or things that were notable
1. There is not much information out there on how much to prepare for a crowd and whats there tends to be very contradictory. I decided to figure it myself so I figured about 4 oz cooked per person and about 1/3 cooking loss on the briskets. This figured out to around 10 10 - 12 lb briskets. I added 2 in case more folks showed up than RSVPed. This turned out to be about 1/3 more than was needed for the actual event so about 3 oz cooked per person and 1/3 cooking loss would have put the formula right there. I would probably use my original formula again if doing it for myself as we got some more buns and served it at the gift opening. We also got some small containers and gave a lb or two to a few people who helped out alot with the wedding, this was WELL received so it was worth making the extra.
2. When I ordered the briskets I specified that I wanted 10 - 12 lb briskets, I was expecting to get around 130 - 140 lbs of meat to start. When I got them several of them were in the 16 lb range and I should have rejected them. I ended up with 180 lbs before cooking, alot of extra work and no extra end product. These were too big for the smoker, they were to big for the roasting pans and there was really no extra meat on them, the excess was just about all fat that ended up being trimmed (after cooking) and discarded. Be firm with you butcher and very clear about what you want for product.
3. I prepared the brisket in advance to cut down the effort the day of the event. I did the smoking, cooking, cleaning and slicing about 2 weeks ago, I defatted the juices from the cooking pans, added a little extra spice to it and put it in with the sliced brisket. I froze it all in the insert pans for table top roasters covered with a double layer of foil. The night before the wedding I took it out of the freezer to start thawing, it was still froze solid sitting on my counter the next morning but had "warmed" considerably from the 0 degrees F in my freezer. I set the roasters (with a few cups of water between the roaster and the insert pan) to 300 to start. It took about 2 hours for the center of the foil on top to start feel warm so after about 3 hours I turned the roasters down to 150 and let them simmer until the reception. I started the process at 9am, the reception was at about 6:30pm and the meat was in great shape for it. Between the smoker, oven and cleaning I spent 2 days doing the briskets with maybe 6 hours of active time.
4. Have some containers available for the cooked off fat, there will be alot of it and you do not want to put it down your sink. It took two 2.5 gallon oil jugs to store the grease from this until it could be disposed of properly.
5. Keep the rest of the meal simple, the brisket speaks for itself. We served buns, chips, smoked nuts, M&Ms, an "Easy Abrosia Salad" (recipe came from online and it took less than half an hour to mix three batches that was enough for the crowd) punch and homemade wine. We got rave reviews on the meal and my daughter was very happy with it.
6. Food was set out at the head table but other than that we set this up buffet style and people seemed to like that, they could take as much or little of everything as they want and were free to go back for more. This way we did not need wait staff which again helped keep costs down.
7. Don't forget to designate someone to keep things full. We kinda forgot about that until the last minute but fortunately the host couples were willing to step in and got a few people to help keep things full while they directed traffic to the buffet.
8. This is a great way to keep costs down. When we checked the costs of catering it was anywhere from 25 to 50 bucks a plate... multiply that by 300, add a tip and the cost gets WAY out of hand real fast. We chose to use plastic service and with that and the briskets, sides, homemade wine, etc I think we ended up around $4 plus or minus a plate and people were very, very happy. It WAS alot of work but like alot of things a some sweat equity paid off.
My absolute favorite comment about this was from my neice who said her friend woke up the next morning and the first thing he said was "I'm dreaming about a brisket sandwich for breakfast." I sent him home with some...
And the best part of this was it gave me something to say when my daughter asked me to say a few words at the reception. My comments were titled "Life and Marriage like Cooking Brisket." It must have been OK because people laughed alot and my daughter took my notes to put in her scrapbook.