How Much Brisket for 50 People?

Fifty people is an overnight cook. Plated, that's 25 pounds cooked and 50 pounds raw — call it four packers. Nobody fits four packers on a backyard offset and gets even results, so this is where you either borrow a second smoker, rent one, or accept that you're cooking in two rounds and holding the first. Held properly in a warm cooler, wrapped and undisturbed, brisket keeps beautifully for four to six hours, which is longer than most people believe. Slice to order at the line, never in advance — sliced brisket dries out in about fifteen minutes.

The math, worked out

Every number on this page comes from the same two steps. Here it is longhand for 50 adults eating brisket as the main dish:

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

Want leftovers? Add 15 percent and buy 57.5 lbs instead — that's about 13 extra meals once the party's over.

50 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 50 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 50 takes roughly 2 lbs off your raw weight. Worth doing properly rather than guessing —put your real split into the calculator.