How Much Brisket for 25 People?

At twenty-five you are cooking for a room, and rooms eat differently than backyards — people take smaller first plates and more of them come back. Twenty-five adults plated need about 12.5 pounds cooked, so 25 pounds raw, which is two full packers with a little headroom. This is also the first size where holding matters more than cooking. Two packers won't finish at the same minute, and a cooler lined with towels will hold a wrapped brisket at serving temperature for four hours without drying it. Cook them early and rest them long.

The math, worked out

Every number on this page comes from the same two steps. Here it is longhand for 25 adults eating brisket as the main dish:

1. 1. Cooked brisket needed
   25 adults × 0.5 lb = 12.5 lbs cooked
2. 2. Raw weight to buy (about 50% is lost to trimming and cooking)
   12.5 lbs × 2 = 25 lbs raw

Want leftovers? Add 15 percent and buy 29 lbs instead — that's about 6 extra meals once the party's over.

25 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 25 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 25 takes roughly 2 lbs off your raw weight. Worth doing properly rather than guessing —put your real split into the calculator.