How Much Brisket for 20 People?

Twenty guests is where brisket stops being dinner and starts being logistics. Plated, you're looking at 10 pounds cooked and 20 pounds raw — two packers, not one, and this is the number where most people under-buy. The good news is that twenty is also the crowd size where sandwiches start making sense. Switch to sandwiches and the same twenty people need about 6.6 pounds cooked instead of 10, which drops you back to a single large packer plus rolls. Decide how you're serving before you decide what to buy, not after.

The math, worked out

Every number on this page comes from the same two steps. Here it is longhand for 20 adults eating brisket as the main dish:

1. 1. Cooked brisket needed
   20 adults × 0.5 lb = 10 lbs cooked
2. 2. Raw weight to buy (about 50% is lost to trimming and cooking)
   10 lbs × 2 = 20 lbs raw

Want leftovers? Add 15 percent and buy 23 lbs instead — that's about 5 extra meals once the party's over.

20 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 20 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 20 takes roughly 2 lbs off your raw weight. Worth doing properly rather than guessing —put your real split into the calculator.