How Much Brisket for 100 People?

One hundred guests is a commercial cook, and the honest advice is that most people at this number should hire it out or borrow a rotisserie smoker. If you're doing it yourself: 100 adults plated need 50 pounds cooked and 100 pounds raw, which is seven or eight whole packers. Almost everyone serving a hundred switches to sandwiches, and they're right to — sandwiches drop the same crowd to about 33 pounds cooked, a third less meat and dramatically less slicing at the line. Add a full spread of sides and you're down near 26 pounds cooked. That's the difference between a manageable event and a very long night.

The math, worked out

Every number on this page comes from the same two steps. Here it is longhand for 100 adults eating brisket as the main dish:

1. 1. Cooked brisket needed
   100 adults × 0.5 lb = 50 lbs cooked
2. 2. Raw weight to buy (about 50% is lost to trimming and cooking)
   50 lbs × 2 = 100 lbs raw

Want leftovers? Add 15 percent and buy 115 lbs instead — that's about 25 extra meals once the party's over.

100 people, by how you're serving

Serving style moves this number more than anything except sides. Here's all three, with and without a full spread of side dishes:

If some of your 100 are kids

Kids eat about a quarter pound of cooked brisket each, half what a plated adult puts away, and they fill up on sides and rolls faster than you expect. Swapping four adults for four kids in a group of 100 takes roughly 2 lbs off your raw weight. Worth doing properly rather than guessing —put your real split into the calculator.