Meat Per Person Calculator
Calculate how much raw meat to buy for any number of guests.
Planning meat for a gathering means accounting for cooking shrinkage. Most people plan 170-225g (6-8 oz) of cooked meat per person for a main course, but you need to buy more raw weight to account for the 20-45% loss during cooking. This calculator does the math for any meat type and guest count.
Explore all our meat yield calculator tools, or browse the full cooking converters & calculators.
Frequently asked questions
For 20 people at 200g cooked each, you need about 5.33 kg (11.7 lb) of raw chicken breast. Chicken breast has a 75% yield.
A whole turkey yields about 55% cooked meat. For 12 guests at 200g each, you need about 4.36 kg (9.6 lb) raw, so a 10-12 pound turkey is ideal.
Pork roast yields about 60% cooked weight. For 30 people at 200g each, you need 10 kg (22 lb) of raw pork shoulder.
Plan for 225-340g (8-12 oz) of raw steak per person. After cooking, a 340g steak yields about 238g (8.4 oz) of cooked meat.
Fish fillets retain about 85% of their raw weight. Plan for 170-200g (6-7 oz) raw per person for a generous cooked portion.