Brisket, pulled pork, ribs, chicken or burgers: choose the cooked meat per guest and get the raw weight to buy, using measured cooking losses from USDA and a Texas A&M brisket study.
BBQ Meat Calculator - Raw Weight to Buy per Person
Brisket, pulled pork, ribs, chicken or burgers: choose the cooked meat per guest and get the raw weight to buy, using measured cooking losses from USDA and a Texas A&M brisket study.
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BBQ meat per person, worked back to the raw weight
Pick the cooked meat each guest should get and this BBQ meat calculator tells you how much raw meat to buy. A brisket loses about 43% of its weight on the smoker, so 6 oz of sliced brisket per adult means about 10.5 oz raw, and 13.2 lb for 20 people. The losses come from measured cooking yields: USDA tables for ribs, chicken and burgers, a USDA Foods figure for pulled pork and a Texas A&M study for brisket.
Quick start: 20 adults, 6 oz of cooked meat each, brisket only, pounds. The result: 7.5 lb of cooked brisket on the table, 13.2 lb (6.0 kg) raw to buy, 0.66 lb raw per person. Swap the brisket for pork spareribs and the raw weight drops to 9.9 lb, because ribs lose less.
Six choices between the guest list and the butcher
- Adults - up to 1,000.
- Children - optional; each one counts as half an adult portion, the rule The Old Farmer's Almanac party planner uses.
- Cooked meat per adult - 4, 6 or 8 oz, or your own number from 1 to 32 oz.
- Result in - pounds or kilograms.
- Main meat - brisket, pulled pork, spareribs, baby back ribs, chicken thighs, whole chicken, wings or burgers.
- Second and third meat - optional; the cooked total is split evenly between the meats you pick.
Cooking yield by cut, and what one raw pound gives
Raw to buy = cooked meat / cooking yield. The yield is the cooked weight of a piece divided by its raw weight. For ribs and chicken the bone stays in both weights, which is how USDA measured them.
| Meat | Yield | 1 lb raw gives | Measured by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket, trimmed, smoked | 57% | 9.1 oz | Texas A&M, about 43% cook loss |
| Pork shoulder or butt, boneless | 60% | 9.6 oz | USDA Foods, 1.67 oz raw = 1 oz cooked |
| Burgers, 80/20 | 69% | 11.0 oz | USDA ARS, grilled patty, 12-22% fat |
| Chicken thighs, bone-in | 69% | 11.0 oz | USDA ARS, roasted |
| Chicken wings | 74% | 11.8 oz | USDA ARS, roasted |
| Pork spareribs | 76% | 12.2 oz | USDA ARS, roasted |
| Whole chicken | 78% | 12.5 oz | USDA ARS, roasted |
| Baby back ribs | 82% | 13.1 oz | USDA ARS, roasted |
Eight cookouts and the raw weight each one needs
Each card is one run of the calculator, in pounds.
Brisket for 20
6 oz cooked each: 7.5 lb sliced, buy 13.2 lb trimmed brisket.
Pulled pork for 100
4 oz each for sandwiches: 25.0 lb pulled, buy 41.7 lb boneless shoulder.
Pulled pork, 30 adults and 10 kids
8 oz per adult, half for kids: 35 portions, 17.5 lb pulled, buy 29.2 lb.
Ribs and thighs for 12
6 oz each, split: 3.0 lb spareribs and 3.3 lb thighs, 6.2 lb in all (each part is rounded on its own).
Three meats for 50
4 oz each: 7.3 lb brisket, 7.0 lb pork shoulder, 6.0 lb thighs, 20.3 lb raw.
Burgers, 8 adults and 4 kids
6 oz cooked each: 3.8 lb on buns, 5.4 lb of 80/20 ground beef.
Baby backs for 25
8 oz each off the grill: 15.2 lb of raw racks.
Wings for 15
8 oz each: 10.1 lb raw wings.
Raw ounces per person at 4, 6 and 8 oz cooked
The same yields as a per-person shopping figure. Multiply by the number of adults, and by half for each child.
| Meat | 4 oz cooked | 6 oz cooked | 8 oz cooked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket, trimmed | 7.0 oz | 10.5 oz | 14.0 oz |
| Pulled pork, boneless | 6.7 oz | 10.0 oz | 13.4 oz |
| Burgers or chicken thighs | 5.8 oz | 8.7 oz | 11.6 oz |
| Chicken wings | 5.4 oz | 8.1 oz | 10.8 oz |
| Pork spareribs | 5.3 oz | 7.9 oz | 10.5 oz |
| Whole chicken | 5.1 oz | 7.7 oz | 10.3 oz |
| Baby back ribs | 4.9 oz | 7.3 oz | 9.8 oz |
Trim, bones and end temperature: where the yield moves
The brisket figure is for briskets already trimmed to about 1/4 inch of fat with the deckle removed, cooked in commercial smokehouses. A whole packer brisket trimmed at home loses fat before it goes on, so buy more than the result if you start from untrimmed. Within the Texas A&M tests, yield ran from 55.2% to 70.2%: lower end temperatures with no hold kept the most weight, a 194 °F finish with a 3 hour hold the least.
Bone-in yields count the bone on both sides. The cooked weight of a rib rack is what you carry to the table, bones and all, so 8 oz of baby backs per person is less meat than 8 oz of pulled pork. The pork figure is for boneless shoulder; a bone-in butt also loses its blade bone.
Brisket, pulled pork and rib questions
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