How Much Brisket for 40 People?

Forty guests is the line where home cooking becomes catering, whether or not you call it that. Forty adults plated need 20 pounds cooked and 40 pounds raw — three packers, realistically, because you should never plan to serve every last ounce. At this size, buy your briskets from the same case on the same day if you can. Packers vary enormously in thickness and fat cap, and three from one lot will cook far closer to each other than three collected over two weeks. Sides are no longer optional at forty; they're what makes the math survivable.

The math, worked out

Every number on this page comes from the same two steps. Here it is longhand for 40 adults eating brisket as the main dish:

1. 1. Cooked brisket needed
   40 adults × 0.5 lb = 20 lbs cooked
2. 2. Raw weight to buy (about 50% is lost to trimming and cooking)
   20 lbs × 2 = 40 lbs raw

Want leftovers? Add 15 percent and buy 46 lbs instead — that's about 10 extra meals once the party's over.

40 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 40 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 40 takes roughly 2 lbs off your raw weight. Worth doing properly rather than guessing —put your real split into the calculator.