How Much Brisket for 15 People?

Fifteen is the awkward number. It's too many for one modest flat and not quite enough to justify two packers, so you end up buying one large packer and hoping. You should stop hoping — fifteen adults served plated need about 7.5 pounds cooked, or 15 pounds raw, and that is one big packer trimmed lightly, or a packer plus a small flat if your crowd skews hungry. The thing that actually saves you at this size isn't more meat, it's sides. Three solid sides pull your meat requirement down by about a fifth and nobody notices except your wallet.

The math, worked out

Every number on this page comes from the same two steps. Here it is longhand for 15 adults eating brisket as the main dish:

1. 1. Cooked brisket needed
   15 adults × 0.5 lb = 7.5 lbs cooked
2. 2. Raw weight to buy (about 50% is lost to trimming and cooking)
   7.5 lbs × 2 = 15 lbs raw

Want leftovers? Add 15 percent and buy 17.5 lbs instead — that's about 4 extra meals once the party's over.

15 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 15 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 15 takes roughly 2 lbs off your raw weight. Worth doing properly rather than guessing —put your real split into the calculator.