How much sauce?

[Rory]

Was hoping someone could give me an estimate of how much BBQ sauce I should have on hand for about 300 people.

I will be doing a number of company BBQs over the summer and want to buy a big stockpot to make and serve sauce. Just trying to figure out how big to go. I'm thinking like 40 qts, but I really have no idea. Most BBQs will feature some combination of ribs, chicken, brisket, pork butts, etc. To start I'm probably just going to do one big pot of sauce for everything. I already have a pretty good assortment of smaller sizes (6-16 qt) in case I want to do something for just one specific meat (e.g. a vinegar-mint sauce for lamb).

Thanks in advance for any help!

[WBC]

If the BBQ is good enough you shouldn't need any. :wink:

[bigwheel]

I think the general rule of thumb for sauce is one gallon per 50 folks. So 3 gallons for you be about right..if the first part be true of course. I would not want to bet my life on it in other words..but Im purty sure. Serve the sauce in platic squirt bottles. Or actually you get them one gallon jug pump dispensers and screw it on the jug and let em pump it themselves. You got way too a collosal and wasteful undertaking in mind with them home brewed gallonages of sauce I think. Expend them creative energies concentrating on the meat. Folks do not come to eat bbq for the sauce. They looking for meat which reeks of smoke and they most times aint real picky less you dont give em enough. Get the sauce from the Best Maid Pickle Company in Foat Wuth, TX. Usually less than 5 bucks a gallon retail. They prob give it away on the wholesale level. Very good bland sauce. Tweak it to suit yourself. Just my .002 of course. :)

bigwheel

[SCOTT]

What Bigwheel said...
But you are from Calif.... maybe you could just cook and serve sauce and forget the meat :D :D

[deputynrc]

Rory, I just did 120lbs of tri-tip on the Gator on Friday. I had 1 gallon of BBQ sauce on hand. Only 4 people used it. Everyone loved the tri-tip without it.

[Bad Santa]

I agree with BW on bypassing the large cauldron sauce making thing...too much waste and where you gonna store the leftovers if ya got gallons of it? Will need to be kept cold.
Buy a gallon jug of commercial sauce of choice and start experimenting with additions of personal preference to make the sauce your on unique one. Rule of thumb for sauces is 2 oz per person..so whatever the math is....some will use it, some won't....but if your Q is good, it should stand alone...NO SAUCE..... have it available...but above all let the person serve it to themselves if they want it or not......don't put it on meat if your serving it......esp. if you live here in Texas....could start a fight real quick..... :lol:

[Rory]

Wow, sounds like people are suggesting a lot less than I had expected. I still want to make my own, but I'll probably just get a 20 qt stock pot to start. Don't worry, I'll use the smaller pots at home to test recipes before I make a big batch. Will definitely allow people to serve themselves (or not if they so choose). Thanks for the input, glad I asked before buying a big couldron.

[droller]

What Bigwheel said...
But you are from Calif.... maybe you could just cook and serve sauce and forget the meat :D :D

Goodness, goodness, man. And forget the wine?

[1044]

I have always found a gallon per 100 is too much.

[david brace]

I think that your estimates of many many gallons is also way too high. Although I love good Q, i also like to taste the moistness and liquidity of the sauce, especially on pulled pork. I think that considering there might be others out there like me, you have to have SOME sauce for them.

As far as making it yourself, if that's what you want to do, then do it. But just don't do it in huge multiples. Personally I might take Bad Santa's advice and get some commercial sauce and doctor it up...it works, and you didn't have to shop, prep, cook, mix, stay awake, taste, doctor, and more silly things.

DB

[Rory]

it works, and you didn't have to shop, prep, cook, mix, stay awake, taste, doctor, and more silly things.

DB

What, and miss all that fun?!? :shock:

[deputynrc]

Try a jug of Cattlemans suace and add a jar (or 2 :D ) of TPJ!!!

[Bad Santa]

Making bbq sauce is fun and ya get to try different flavors to see which works best for you...in small batches for your family and friends. I do it all the time....but, if you're going to feed a large crowd of folks at once and getting paid for it....do some rough cypherin' on the cost of buying the different ingredients you're going to need to make your sauce from scratch in large quantities. What kind of shelf life does it have, does it contain ingredients that will quickly sour if not kept properly, do you have enough cold space to hold sauce til needed, 1 or 2 days etc,....you will soon see that you can be making some sauce that will cost out to be very expensive, with left over half used jars of this and that along with the extras that you added. Cuts pretty heavily into your profit margin for something you're gonna give away, and if they don't use as much as you made for the cook....there is always the real possiblity it'll end up getting tossed out....mi dos centavos

[droller]

Speaking of sauces, has anyone tried KC Masterpiece? If you "kicked it up a notch," what did you do?

[Rory]

Cost and profit margins aren't really a concern, the company will be paying for all of the food and I'm cooking for free. Will definitely fine tune my recipe in small batches at home before scaling up for the crowd. The pit we are getting has a high pressure burner, so I was figuring I'd make the sauce while cooking the meats and serve it hot. Although now that I'll only be making a few gallons, that shouldn't be too hard to refrigerate if I want to make it in advance and serve cold.

[Bad Santa]

Well if money is no object then..."Knock 'em out....John!"
:D

[Rory]

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say money is no object. There will be a budget and if the decision comes down to buying more meat or buying sauce ingredients, I'll definitely favor the meat. Just saying I don't have to worry about cost per portion, profit margin, etc. It is good to be spending someone else's money though :D

[jshively]

In California I would assume they would drench their bbq sauce so I would assume atleast 1 cup per person.

Honestly very few people will probably use it so I would just maybe offer a gallon container full for 300 people.

For clients I offer sauce on the side not on the meat so I just tack another item to the bill based upon how much they want. Mostly though I have found people have their own favorite sauce they like to use and it is cheaper for them to run to Sam's Club and buy the big containers of sauce vs me charging them to make it.

[Rory]

Oh yeah, that's the other thing. In California, the choices of big containers of BBQ sauce are severely limited. I know Costco only has Cattleman's. Then again, the cost may not be prohibitive to buy a dozen bottles of something better at the grocery store. I'll have to look into that too I guess.

[bigwheel]

Notice you mentioned trying to make that sauce on a high pressure burner? Not a good plan. Them things pumps out a lot of BTU's..mostly designed of bringing large amounts of grease rapidly up to frying temps. You need a nice simmering type fire for ho made sauce in book. If you just got to do it outdoors try a nice pump up Coleman type camp stove and snag yourself a simmer ring aka heat diffuser gizmo.

bigwheel

[Rory]

Ooh, good tip bigwheel. Guess I'll have to make it in advance, which is probably better anyway so it's one less thing to do on cook day. But now you got me thinking about frying stuff, which could be trouble...

[david brace]

Between what Santa and JShively said, I agree that 1 gallon of a commercial sauce that you have doctored up is the way to go. No fuss about finding all the ingredients like I said before, and you can make it to suit your taste. Cattleman's is a good basic sauce to start kicking up some.

DB

[Woodman]

I figure 2 oz per person. Some eat more, some none at all.

[david brace]

so at 2 oz per person and 300 people attending that equals 600 oz. divided by 128oz. /gal. = 4.6875 gallons.

That still sounds like a lot, altho I have not had to feed 300 people in a group before. So it's up to better minds than mine to decide...

DB

[Buckeye]

If there's no sauce..they'll still eat it. (an problee like it better)
BBQ sauce iz like a conspiracy.......it covers up tha true taste of good Q. 8) :P

[Woodman]

David (s), I didn't say they ever actually eat that much sauce. I always want to have enough on hand though. I can always pop it back in the fridge for the next gig. I find that the stuff keeps for months!. My batch size is generally 5 gallons.

[Buckeye]

I used ta take 4-5 of thoze 24 oz. squeeze bottles of sauce when I served 80-100 folks. Uzualee come back home with 3 1/2 - 4 bottles of sauce left. Now I only take 2 bottles of sauce. Thoze that come lookin fer good Q ain't gunna use any sauce. :wink:

[Zeeman]

I used ta take 4-5 of thoze 24 oz. squeeze bottles of sauce when I served 80-100 folks. Uzualee come back home with 3 1/2 - 4 bottles of sauce left. Now I only take 2 bottles of sauce. Thoze that come lookin fer good Q ain't gunna use any sauce. :wink:

Uzualee about same here. Ya know dat stuff don't freeze solid :roll:
z