If your mind works like mine, right about now you’re considering how much it’s going to run you. And it’s true, entertaining can be a costly proposition. As the gods of thrift would have it, though, many of the staples of backyard barbecuing—beans, coleslaw, iced tea—are built from peasant-level ingredients that can be had for spare change. So we set out to throw a barbecue for a dozen people and see how little we could spend while serving up a meal that nobody would suspect cost little more per person than their subway ride over. For tallying purposes, we’re assuming you’ve got a number of basic ingredients in your kitchen: oil, white vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, mustard and milk.
For the long version of how it’s done, click here. The short version is this: after seven hours bathing in wood smoke in the confines of my vented grill, a pair of 5-lb. pork butts that cost a mere 99 cents a pound at the local C-Town emerged smoke-blackened outside, tender within, and flavorful throughout, ready for shredding, dousing with vinegar sauce (or not), heaping on a cheap white bun (or not) and otherwise devoured by an appreciative crowd. Cost, including $2.78 for the buns and $2 for dry-rub ingredients (chili powder and paprika): $14.78.
In the green division: Mustard-based spicy coleslaw modified from Mark Bittman’s recipe in How to Cook Everything, which other than kitchen staples like vinegar calls only for green and red cabbage (which isn’t a standby of the penniless for nothing) and a red pepper. (I skip the scallion and parsley). Total cost: $4.35. To really lay on the dog with a second vegetable, I added marinated cucumbers and onion, an inevitable crowd-pleaser whose ingredients ran a whopping $2.61.
To drink: As the host, you, of course, ask your guests to bring beer. But for a classic BBQ accompaniment you ought to also brew up some iced tea, which runs only the cost of a few teabags. I tossed in some mint from my herb garden, but will spot you the cost of a lemon if you’re lacking a fresh mint supply. Total cost: 60 cents.