The Only BBQ Quantity Chart You Need

The master conversion: raw weight to cooked weight

Every BBQ quantity guide fails because it ignores the raw-to-cooked weight conversion. Beef burgers lose about 25 percent of their weight when cooked. A 180g raw patty becomes a 135g cooked patty — which is exactly the correct size for a burger. Do not order on cooked-weight assumptions.

Chicken thighs lose about 30 percent. A 200g raw thigh becomes approximately 140g cooked. Bone-in pieces lose less than boneless because bone prevents moisture loss. A 280g bone-in thigh yields roughly 200g of edible meat.

Pork ribs lose approximately 30–35 percent, and the calculation is complicated by bone weight, which is a large fraction of a rib rack. Plan for 350–400g of bone-in rack per person for a main serving, knowing that about 40 percent of that weight is bone.

Quantity chart for 10 guests

Burger patties (180g raw each): 16 patties (1.5 per person with a safety buffer) Chicken thighs (200g raw each): 15 pieces Pork sausages (110g raw each): 20 sausages Pork ribs (bone-in): 3.5kg raw rack weight Corn on the cob: 12 cobs (allow for halves) Coleslaw: 1.2kg dressed Potato salad or chips: 1.4kg Buns (for burgers/hot dogs): 18 Mustard: 250ml Ketchup: 350ml Mayonnaise: 250ml Barbecue sauce: 300ml

Note: these quantities assume two proteins per person (e.g., one burger and one sausage). If you are running a single-protein cookout, multiply by 1.8 not 1.5.

Scaling for 20, 30, and 50 guests

The quantities above do not scale linearly because grazing increases with party size. At a ten-person cookout, people eat predictably. At fifty people, the social dynamics of the grill queue, the varying arrival times, and the children-who-only-eat-three-bites effect all reduce average consumption per person.

For 20 guests: multiply the 10-guest quantities by 1.85 (not 2.0) For 30 guests: multiply the 10-guest quantities by 2.6 (not 3.0) For 50 guests: multiply the 10-guest quantities by 4.0 (not 5.0)

The progressive discount is real and I have validated it across multiple events. The main exception is coleslaw and salads, which do scale linearly because they are not eaten standing in a queue — people fill plates at a table and take deliberate portions.

The ice problem

Ice is the most underestimated BBQ logistic. You need ice in three places simultaneously: in coolers keeping raw meat cold before cooking (critical for food safety); in coolers keeping cooked meat warm if you are holding it (less common but sometimes necessary); and in drinks bins keeping beverages cold.

For a four-hour summer cookout in direct sunlight, plan for 1kg of ice per guest in drinks bins. Add another 0.5kg per guest for raw meat storage if you are not cooking everything immediately. In a sealed cooler, ice lasts about four to six hours in direct summer sun, two to four hours longer in shade.

Buy ice on the morning of the cookout, not the night before. The thermal mass of a fully loaded cooler with pre-chilled drinks takes significantly less ice than a cooler at room temperature.