Do you want to know how much meat per person BBQ will eat? You came to the right place. It’s crucial to know how much meat each will eat so that you don’t end up making either too much meat that gets wasted or too less that your guests go home with an empty stomach.
However, finding out how much meat will be enough for your guests is tough. Because you don’t know how much eating capacity one has.
But, after researching harder for a couple of days, I finally came to an average amount of meaning a person may eat. But, you won’t get it this way; you’ll have to go through the details as well.
So, ensure you go through the article thoroughly, so you can learn about the topic in a good way.
Without lecturing more, let’s flip over to the topic.
How Much Meat Per Person BBQ?
It’s a difficult question to answer as the amount of meat one eats depends on a lot of factors. Like, such as the type of meat you’re serving, desserts, drinks, main dishes, starters, salad, side dishes, appetizers, and also, the capability of the person of digesting.
Let’s say you’re serving your Guests boiled eggs and potato salad, then the chances are that your guests won’t eat so much meat because the Deviled eggs and salad are quite heavy and can easily fill the stomach.
At the same time, if you’re planning to serve side dishes to your guests, For instance, mashed potatoes or baked beans, then your guests will love to eat your grilled meat.
And if you’re rich enough and want to serve just grilled meat to your guests, then obviously, they’ll eat more than usual. Because this time there is no side dish that can fill the stomach of your guests and save the life of your meat.
Therefore, there is not such a clear-cut answer to this question, but there are some factors that will help you to get the answer. Let’s go through each of the factors profoundly.
1) The Role Of Meat In Your Party
No matter how many foods you put on the tables, the meat is usually served as a main dish at the party. And the other things, like, Drinks, appetizers, salad, deserts, deviled eggs, and mashed potatoes, are side dishes that you serve with the BBq.
But, how will you know how much meat you have to purchase for the party? To know this, you’ll have to create a complete menu first. In which you’ll put everything, like the main course, the side dishes and other foods.
This way, you’ll have a better idea of how much your guest may end up eating, and then you buy the raw meat accordingly. Make sure your menu is ready before you even think of getting your eyes on the grocery.
Planning The Menu of the BBq
2) If Meat is not the main course.
If your Meat is not the main course or just has to be used as an ingredient in any dish, then your guests won’t need it so much.
Let’s say, your guests like Curry, so the quantity of the meat used to make curry is not so much; it’s just used as an ingredient in curry, not the main course.
Now you may ask, how much meat should you purchase? So the answer is, on average, if the curry is the main course instead of the meat, each person may end up eating around 1/4 and 1/3 pounds Of meat.
This means that if there are 30 people who are coming over to the party, then you should purchase around 7.5 to 8.5 pounds of meat. To plan this menu, you first have to make sure how many guests are coming to the party.
Because only then you’ll be able to come up with the right quantity. let’s say, if the guests are more than 30, then you can add more pounds considering 1/4 and 1/3 pounds for each person.
Also, ensure the menu doesn’t change having bought the grocery items, or else the things will change a lot.
2) If Meat is the Main Course
What if you’re planning to serve meat as a main dish to your guests? How much meat will you have to cook for each person? The ideal amount of meat for one person should be 1/2 pounds. Then you can multiply the number of guests coming over to your party. For instance, if 30 people are your guests, then you should purchase 10 pounds of meat and get it ready to be served. But what if there are two types of meat you’re planning to serve your guests?
Like, cut steaks and Wings? In this case, remember that your guests will eat the same amount of both the meats.
So, it’s better to serve a minimum of 1/4 pounds of both types of meat to every person. And when it comes to buying raw meat, you should buy 5 pounds of cut steaks and 5 pounds of wings.
But, how will you know how much meat you’re serving to the guest because you’d not be measuring while serving it to the guests? Don’t worry, I have a little hack for you that will help you to measure the meat.
The thickness and size of your palm are equivalent to 4 to 6 ounces of meat servings. It implies that two little palms will make 8 ounces of meat which is equivalent to 1/2 pound.
So, you can easily measure the meat by using your palm. Isn’t it an amazing trick I came up with?
Meats For Kids And Adults
This is an important factor to consider how many of your guests are going to be kids and how many of them would be adults. It’s obvious that the amount of food a kid eats is way less than an adult person.
Because the kids have a small appetite compared to the adults and teenagers, so, if all of your guests are kids, then you’re lucky as you would not have to purchase so much meat.
What if the kids and the adults are mixed up? In that case, you better not count the kids as they will eat too little.
However, if there are teenagers coming to the party, then they may end up eating a lot of meat, especially when they’re not full already.
Usually, teenagers eat more than adults. So, you’ll have to consider them. if the teenagers are the guests, you better bring 1 pound of meat for each person. For 20 people, 20 pounds of meat in total.
Meat With Or Without Bone
I hope now you’re able to find out how much meat you will have to buy for each person BBq. But, there is another most crucial factor that you have to consider, which is boneless or bone meat.
So, what meat should you go for, you may ask. Ideally, you should go for the boneless meat as it’s easier for your guests to consume. However, The meat with bones has its own flavor too, so you can’t neglect bones either.
SO, if you’re planning to buy meat with bones, hike up the quantity of the meat a little. When there are bones in meat, usually, you should serve 3/4 pounds of meat to every guest.
Keep the above-mentioned things in your mind and increase or decrease the meat according to the age, number, and appetizer of the guests.
Meat Loses Its Weight When You Cook It
This is something you must know before going to the shop to purchase the meat. The amount of meat you buy from the shop doesn’t remain as much as it was by the time you bought it.
It loses its moisture and fats after being cooked. So, now, how much meat should you buy considering this thing? To know this, it’s important for you to know the yield of the meat you’re planning to cook.
What’s a yield? Yield is the amount of meat that remains when you put out bones from it, and it loses weight. The amount of yield would be different for different types of meats when you cook them. Like;
- Spare ribs are 75%.
- Brisket has a 50% yield.
- Pulled pork has 65%
- Beef has a 70% yield
Another question may hit your mind, how do you find out the amount of the yield? It’s a bit challenging, but there is an easy trick for you.
Head over to Google, and search for the yield of your meat; you’ll get the answer from there. To get the exact answer, you can add the pounds of meat you have to buy to the number of yields you got from the internet, and the sum will be your yield.
I hope now you guys know how much meat per person BBq will eat at the party. Still, if there is any confusion in your mind, you can put it down in the comment section. I’ll surely help you out.