A safe estimate for how much pulled pork to offer is:
- An Adult will eat: 1/3 lb or less (roughly 1-2 sandwiches)
- A Child will eat: 1/4 lb (roughly 1 sandwich)
The calculators below are for both uncooked and cooked pork butt (boneless).
Pork butt will lose roughly 40-50% of its weight when cooked.
- If you’re smoking the pork butt – use the uncooked weight calculator.
- If you’re buying from a caterer – use the cooked weight calculator.
Calculator for the Amount of Raw Pork Butt Needed to Make Pulled Pork
*This calculator assumes a 50% weight loss.
Amount of Cooked Pulled Pork Calculator
Why 4oz for Pulled Pork Sandwiches?
If you’re making pulled pork sandwiches, 4 oz fits perfectly on a bun and leaves enough room for:
- Slaw
- Pickles
- Onions
- Finishing sauce
The picture below also uses a large King’s Hawaiian sweet roll, which are huge:
Other Weight Variables to Consider
Another factor to consider is the weight of the blade bone (scapula) found in bone-in pork butts.
The above calculator is based on a bone-less pork butt.
Pork butts typically weigh anywhere from 4 to 10 lbs and the blade bone will weigh anywhere from 0.5 to 0.75 lbs.
Are You Using Boston Butt or Picnic?
This entire article has been based on the Pork butt or Boston butt. Some folks might consider using the picnic roast instead.
In my opinion, the Boston butt is superior in terms of taste due to the fat marbling.
There are also differences in taste and texture – the picnic tastes more like ham.
You could even equate these differences to white and dark meat on chicken – dark meat being more forward. Pork butt is fairly neutral and takes really well to barbecue and vinegar sauces.
The picnic will typically offer you less yield too as there’s more bone.
They’re almost always sold with the bone-in, sometimes skin on, and just like pork butt, will experience moisture loss.
BUT if you like pork cracklin’, it’s one of the only pork cuts sold with pig skin on it.
