BBQing whole top butts.

[Peachcreek]

I just got done doing a bbq for 150 people. Nothing too elaborate- pasta salad, potato salad, 3 bean salad, breads, chips and salsa, Buffalo wings, baked beans. Something I have never done before was bbq a whole top butt. So to save time instead of cutting 150 steaks- I did the tops whole, then cut them on the grill. Oh, I forgot to mention- I prepped it all yesterday and today and I didn't have any help.
I trimmed the fat cap off the top to a thickness of @ 1/8 inch. I trimmed the silver and the small muscles off the bottom side, rubbed the entire top butt in blackening spice and put it in my convection oven at 325F. I did 5 tops with a trimmed weight of @ 60 lbs. I baked them for an hour and a half then transferred them to the bbq. The charcoals were perfect, I let the tops bbq fat side up for another 45 minutes and then cut them in thirds to plank out steaks. I used an old cheap knife since you tend to hit the grill fairly often. I set out my cold salads and went to work carving meat. The cool thing of carving big pieces- I rotated off of 6 pieces and that I could carve continuously off of one piece or another, pre-carve a few well dones and never have more than 3 or 4 people in line. Really slick. Total prep and service time- 10 hours. Definately one to do again.

BTW they loved it. LOTS OF COMPLIMENTS! lol.

[CookinErnie]

wow i wish i could cook for that many people it would be awesome the most people ive ever cook for was 7 - ya i know its pretty obvious im a newbie buy hey what can ya do- well g2g