Everyone loves pulled pork right? It's a great source of protein, plus some good vitamins and minerals. As well as being delicious, pork is a relatively cheap meat, ideal for parties and barbecues. Working out how much pulled pork per person when planning an event can be tricky. Nobody wants waste, or to run out of food.

This article will help you to do a little bit of mathematics to decide on the correct quantity of pork to buy, and what you'll end up with after cooking. Don't panic, the math is simple, but before we get into it, giving some consideration to the type of people you will be inviting, what else is on the menu, and your ability to cook pulled pork in sufficient quantities will give you piece of mind before you start.

I like to really experiment with different flavors and recipes, I picked up a couple of great books from Amazon which I love. This one has 66 awesome recipes, this one by Martha Stone has some great recipes, she is also an excellent writer.

This really is so simple, I don't know what you were fretting about 🙂

A good rule of thumb for pulled pork per person is around 6 ounces of finished product. When I talk about 'finished product' I mean the amount of weight of meat after cooking, not before. Meat loses weight during the cooking process as water is released and evaporates.

6 ounces of finished pulled pork is around 2 normal servings of meat, not a huge amount for a good party, and it's important that people feel full and satisfied, and aren't searching around for something else to fill them up later.

Here we go, lets insert the numbers into our calculation

25 guests

25 x 6 ounces per person = 150 ounces finished pulled pork

150 ounces divided by 16 = 9.5 pounds of cooked pulled pork

9.5 pounds x 2 = 19 pounds raw pork meat

Cool er? And simple. But let us get some ballpark figures for other party sizes. Do take your guest demographic into account though. 30 football players are going to eat a lot more pulled pork that 30 kids at a birthday party.

Giving you a bunch of calculations isn't the end of it 🙂 Other things to think about include:

• Style of meal: Is it a sit down, where you serve up the portions, a buffet, are there appetizers or snacks before the main event? Buffets usually require more pulled pork as people routinely go up for seconds (and often thirds) over the course of the event. Better to plan for more pork and have some left over than not enough.
• What other foods are you serving? If you have other meats, then less pulled pork will be needed. If it's a 'pulled pork banquet' then you'll need more.
• What size are your buns (hehe, that sounds a bit personal!). A small bun will hold 4 ounces of pulled pork, a large bun could hold 6 ounces, which will be a single serving as per our calculations.

If the idea (and cost) of large amounts of meat scares the hell out of you, then plenty of salads and other side dishes will keep the cost down.

I always calculate my pulled pork requirements slightly on the high side, as it's simple to save if you end up with leftovers.

To be honest, I like leftover pulled pork. Everyone gets what they need, and I can enjoy it reheated later. Here's some ideas:

• Free the extra pulled pork and reheat later.
• Send guests home with a bag of pork, better than a piece of cake right?
• Throw the leftovers into a curry or stew, the marinade will impart some great flavors.

Now you know how much to cook, how about a quick and easy perfect pulled pork recipe to get you going. This video is awesome and super simple.

Merry Porking! (Ooops, I did it again!)