Ribs are the soul of any BBQ party and having the right amount is of utmost importance. After all, nobody wants to be left out and didn’t get enough food. On the other hand, there’s no need to buy and cook extra food, since that is not only wasteful but expensive too.
Thus you need to know the ways to calculate how many ribs per person is required. There are certain meat planning guidelines that you should follow and in this article, we are gonna discuss all of that. So, stop guessing the number of ribs per person and learn math. Just kidding! It ain’t no rocket science but just basic calculation.
Meat Planning: General Guidelines
There are certain rules that you need to follow to calculate how many ribs per person should you prepare. Now, these are not slatted on stone and results may slightly differ from time to time. Let’s say if some of your guests don’t turn up or some do not wish to eat. Even then, if you religiously follow the guidelines you will be on a much safer side of the bet.
Measurements to Use When Cooking For A Crowd
When you’re cooking for a lot of people, planning safe cooking with maintaining specific temperatures is always essential. The average serving of meat for an adult should be half a pound or quarter of a kilo. So you have to determine how many pounds of ribs per person will you need, according to the number of guests.
And if you also serve drinks then make sure to calculate two drinks for each person per hour. In that crowd you may have a pregnant lady that can’t drink alcohol and an uncle that loves it way too much, so they balance out each other.
Important Factors That You Must Consider
To correctly determine how many pounds of ribs per person you are going to order, consider:
- What else do you have on your menu? For example, if you have a lot of snacks and larger meals, people gonna grab a bit of this, a bit of that, and won’t be as hungry anymore. In this case, you may need to keep bbq safe and delicious.
- Is your BBQ part happens during lunch, breakfast, or dinner? Because people will be more hungry during, let’s say, breakfast and dinner than lunch.
- Count the heads of guests and how many of them are men, women, and children. Children will eat way less than adults. So if you count them all together, there is a high possibility that a lot of your meat would go waste.
How Many Ribs to Serve Per Person
There are so many types of ribs and depending on the type they can be bigger or smaller. So if you are calculating how many baby back ribs per person you should buy, the number will be completely different from full-grown back ribs.
Also, consider if you are serving the ribs as the main dish, or more of an appetizer. However, of course, the ribs are usually served as the main dish, due to their high calorie and nutrients content.
Thus if you plan to keep this meal as the main course, then keep this in mind to determine how many ribs to cook for each person:
- For baby back ribs, count 6 ribs for each guest.
- In case you are serving spare ribs, assign 4 or 5 per 1.
- For beef back ribs, 2 or 3 for 1 should suffice.
Of course, make sure to consider some special details about each person:
- What age are they? (Kids won’t eat many ribs, or will want them at all)
- What is their sex? (Mostly, men tend to love and eat more meat than women)
- Are there any vegetarians/vegans among your guests?
What About Other Meat?
| Meat Type | Amount Per Adult |
| Brisket | Half a pound |
| Pork | Half a pound |
| Pulled pork | Five ounces |
| Chicken | Four to five ounces |
| Steak | Three-fourth of a pound |
| Salmon | Three-fourth of a pound to one pound |
Barbeque Planning Tips and Tricks
- First of all, make sure you have enough wood for smoking ribs.
- While you cook, don’t forget about BBQ safety!
- Prepare the food in advance, so your guests wouldn’t have to wait for the food to cook.
Final Word
As you see, calculating how many ribs per person you should serve is not difficult, is it? So next time when you plan your backyard party keeps these guidelines in mind and you can be certain that none of your guests will be left out, and you will be seen as a considerate and amazing host!
So best of luck, and don’t forget to let us know if you have some of your own methods to calculate how many ribs to cook for each person!
