How Much Brisket for 30 People?

Thirty people means two packers minimum and a real timeline. Plated, thirty adults need 15 pounds cooked and 30 pounds raw. Most home smokers hold two packers if you're willing to rotate them, and rotating is not optional — the rack nearest the firebox will run 15 to 25 degrees hotter than the far end. Stagger your start times by an hour so both briskets don't hit the stall together and stall your whole schedule with them. If half the crowd is kids, recalculate. Ten kids and twenty adults is a meaningfully smaller cook than thirty adults.

The math, worked out

Every number on this page comes from the same two steps. Here it is longhand for 30 adults eating brisket as the main dish:

1. 1. Cooked brisket needed
   30 adults × 0.5 lb = 15 lbs cooked
2. 2. Raw weight to buy (about 50% is lost to trimming and cooking)
   15 lbs × 2 = 30 lbs raw

Want leftovers? Add 15 percent and buy 34.5 lbs instead — that's about 8 extra meals once the party's over.

30 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 30 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 30 takes roughly 2 lbs off your raw weight. Worth doing properly rather than guessing —put your real split into the calculator.