Tailgate Food Calculator
Enter adults, kids, the meal style and hours in the lot. The calculator returns pounds of raw meat, cups of sides, and cans of drinks - the three lines of the shopping trip, sized to who is actually coming.
Party food advice speaks in vague handfuls, and tailgates punish vagueness: there is no corner shop at the stadium. The arithmetic here is the deli counter standard - half a pound of raw meat per adult - with honest dials for snack-only mornings and second-helping crowds.
How to use
- Count adults and kids coming to the spread, not the invitation list.
- Pick the meal style and hours out; drinks scale with both.
- Buy the three numbers as given - and round the ice up on the cooler page.
Frequently asked questions
How much meat do you need per person for a tailgate?
Half a pound of raw meat per adult and a quarter per child is the standard, before cooking loss - six adults and two kids take 3.5 lb raw, about 2.6 lb cooked. Bone-in cuts like drumsticks need a third more weight for the same eating.
How many drinks per person for a tailgate?
Two per person in the first hour and one each hour after - the first-hour rule. Eight adults out for four hours drink about 40 cans, which is why the calculator rounds to six-packs and lets the cooler page size the ice.
How many sides should a tailgate have?
Two is the sweet spot: half a cup per person each, so a dozen eaters want 12 cups across both. One side feeds the meal and none feels like a stall - a third side mostly becomes landfill.
How much food for a 6-hour tailgate?
Food does not scale much with hours - people eat one meal, maybe seconds. Hours scale the drinks: at six hours, plan four cans per adult. The snack-only morning toggle covers the early kickoff when the meal is the stadium's problem.