Crowd Calculator
Tell it who is coming and what you are serving. It works out the portions, the raw weight to buy for every meat, and hands you a shopping list you can take to the store.
Open now to anyone with the bundle or this tool
Why it exists
Buying meat for a crowd is where money gets wasted in both directions. Buy short and you are slicing thin and apologising. Buy long and you have six pounds of brisket going grey in the fridge. The fix is not a rule of thumb, it is doing the arithmetic on yield, appetite and what else is on the table.
What it does
Counts heads honestly
Adults and kids counted separately, with kids at half an adult, and an appetite setting from light through to a pitmaster's table. A third of a pound of meat each is the right call for most backyard cooks, and it is the default here.
Turns portions into raw weight
Meat loses weight on the pit. Brisket gives back about half. The list tells you the cooked weight you need and the raw weight to buy, which are two very different numbers.
Sides, bread and drinks too
Pick what is on the menu and the per-person portions shift. Two meats means smaller portions of each, and the tool knows it.
A list in shopping order
Grouped so you can walk the store with it, with the totals already added up. Print it or copy it into your notes.
Three steps, start to finish
Put in adults, kids and how hungry the crowd runs.
Tick the meats and the sides you are serving.
Read the buy column. That is what goes in the cart.
Who it is for
Anyone cooking for more than about eight people, and anyone who has ever stood in front of the meat counter doing sums on their phone.
What it will not do
It cannot know that your brother-in-law eats like two people, so the appetite setting is there for you to use. Leftover buffer defaults to ten percent, because a little left over is a feature and a lot is money on the floor.
Questions
How does it handle two or three meats?
The per-person total gets split across them. Serve brisket and pulled pork and you need less of each than if you served one alone, which is where most over-buying starts.
Does it include bones?
Yes, where bones matter. Ribs are figured by the rack and by bones per person, not by raw pounds, because nobody eats a rack by weight.
Can I use it for catering?
For the shopping side, yes. For what to charge, the Cost and Profit tool is the one that gives you the margin.
Crowd Calculator opens shortly
The store is not open yet. Tools will sell one at a time, or as a bundle that keeps feeding you the rest as they land. One payment either way, and up to three devices.
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Works alongside
These three come up most often on the same cook.
Yield & Portions
A 14 lb brisket does not feed 14 people at a pound each. It feeds about 21 at a third. This tells you what a raw cut turns into, and what to buy for the plates you need.
See what it does ›Cook Timeline Planner
Tell it what you are cooking and when you want to eat. It plans backward and hands you every clock time that matters, with the rest built in so you finish early instead of late.
See what it does ›Cost & Profit
Know what a cook really costs before you light the fire, then price a plate or a catering job with the margin spelled out.
See what it does ›