How to Determine the Serving Size of Pork Butt

A pork roast will shrink greatly as it cooks.

Choosing the right serving size is a big part of a successful dinner, especially if you're serving a large piece of meat like a pork butt. Serve too much, and you'll have piles of leftovers. Serve too little, and you'll cause tension around the table. Determining the proper serving size of a pork butt isn't difficult, but does demand that you understand how the meat behaves as you cook it. Understanding how much meat you'll need for different dishes also makes a difference. The calculations themselves are easy.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator
• Scale

Instructions

1. Count the number of guests you will have dining on your pork butt.

2. Multiply that number by standard serving sizes. The recommended serving of meat is 3 oz. This, though, is only about the size of a pack of playing cards. Many guests will expect more, so you may want to calculate 2 servings per person (6 oz. per person) or even more. For example, with six guests eating 6 oz. each, the total pork butt required would be 36 oz., or 2.25 lbs. If you're making pulled pork sandwiches, count on about 4 oz. per sandwich.

3. Multiply the total weight of served meat required by 2 to get the weight of untrimmed pork butt you'll need to buy from the butcher. Between trimming the fat, cooking and wastage, you can count on an edible yield of around 50 percent of the uncooked weight of the roast. If you need 2.25 lbs. of cooked meat, plan on cooking around 4.5 lbs. of meat.

4. Adjust for the type of meat you are buying. If your pork butt comes with the fat trimmed off, you will need slightly less uncooked meat for a given serving size.

References

• That's Fit: Portion Sizes
• Virtual Weber Bullet: Pork Butt Selection and Preparation