If you’re hosting a big barbecue party for your family and friends, you must serve them some delicious and juicy pulled pork. It’s a great dish and welcome addition to any barbecue because pulled pork is not only great protein but is also full of flavor. However, the one thing that worries home chefs is that they don’t know how to correctly figure out how much pulled pork to cook per person.
If you’re in the same boat, don’t worry, because our guide will help answer this all-important question. Correctly estimating how much pulled pork you will need for your barbecue event will mean that you consider several factors. If you want to know how much pulled pork to cook per person, you have come to the right place.
What You Should Know About Pulled Pork
One of the first things you should know about pulled pork before you buy it in the market is that it is generally made from the top half of the pork’s shoulder. When you’re buying the pork shoulder in the market, you will find that it typically weighs around four to eight pounds. Each butcher will have a different amount of weight for the pork shoulder, but it should be around that ballpark figure.
The pork shoulder’s lower half is known as the picnic shoulder, and you can purchase both halves of the pulled pork together. That will mean you get to cook with a whole shoulder of pulled pork for your guests. However, when you buy the pulled pork’s whole shoulder, it gets harder to estimate precisely how many portions your guests will like to eat.
The best part about the pulled pork shoulder is that it is incredibly tender, and you should use the smoker method when cooking it. You will find that it is extremely juicy and full of flavor, mainly because of the pulled pork’s high-fat content.
Calculating Pulled Pork Servings Per Person
When preparing a barbecue feast for your guests, you should plan to serve about 1/3 pounds of pulled pork per person. That is the ideal serving size for an individual, and when you have a hefty pound of pulled pork to cook, you can buy around three pounds of meat for a party of eight people, and you will be set for your barbecue party. However, it doesn’t work that way all the time, and you need to consider other factors when calculating pulled pork servings per person.
You should be prepared for all considerations when deciding your serving size for each person, and most of the time, you will not know what is enough until you are about to serve the food. To ensure that you don’t get into a muddle and no one ends up with less food than they had hoped to get, we will help highlight the various factors you must consider when calculating pulled pork servings per person. These include the following:
1. Time of Your Barbecue
People tend to eat more later in the day, and if you are hosting your barbecue at night, you should plan on serving a healthy amount of pulled pork shoulder. You can serve smaller portions if you are hosting your barbecue during the day, as people aren’t inclined to indulge themselves at that time.
2. The Setting of your Barbecue
If you are hosting a formal sit-down barbecue party, people will eat more when compared to a casual gathering in your backyard. If you are hosting a formal barbecue event, you must ensure that you have enough dishes to serve your guests. You can even try and scale back on the portions because when your guests are busy mingling with others, they will care less about how much food they have to eat.
3. What Other Items Are On Your Menu?
Your star attraction will be the pulled pork, but if you plan to serve something alongside it, you don’t need a large portion size. Will you be serving side dishes? Will you be serving hot dogs or burgers alongside the pulled pork? If you’re planning to serve cornbread, grilled sausages, coleslaw, and baked beans along with your pulled pork, you can get away by scaling back the portions.
However, if you are only serving a few bowls of chips alongside the pulled pork, you will need to go with bigger servings to ensure that everyone eats their fill. The other items on your menu will help you decide how much pulled pork you should serve each person.
4. The Size of the Buns
Are you thinking about serving buns with your pulled pork? It is a smart idea because buns will fill up people faster, meaning you will have less pulled pork to serve them. They won’t make repeated trips to the table to eat more when they are already full from the first serving. You must think about the size of the buns you will be serving them.
If you go with regular hamburger buns, they will comfortably hold one serving, but if you are going with smaller buns, you must adjust your portions’ size.
Our Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, you want to ensure that everyone enjoys their time at your barbecue party and don’t want to end up without any pulled pork to serve. Therefore, it is best to cook more pulled pork per person than you would need at the event. As pulled pork is so delicious, even if you are leftover with the meat, you won’t have any problems reheating it later and eating it.
