Turkey Size Calculator

Turkey weight = guests × grams per person · Kilograms = grams ÷ 1000 · Pounds = kilograms × 2.20462 · Roast minutes = from the weight, at 40 minutes per kilogram for most birds

guests

How many people you are cooking for

grams per person

Your serving size — 450 by default, about a pound of raw bird per person

1000

Grams in a kilogram

2.20462

Pounds in a kilogram

Use it when the turkey is still to be ordered or bought and the guest list is the thing you actually know. It is also worth running twice with different serving sizes — 350 g for a table with plenty of side dishes, 550 g if you want leftovers — because the difference between those two answers for twelve guests is a 4.2 kg bird and a 6.6 kg one, and the larger of the two is where a standard domestic oven starts to complain.

1. Eight guests, 450 grams each

   1. 8 × 450 g = 3600 g, which is 3.6 kg
   2. 3.6 kg in pounds: 3.6 × 2.20462 = 7.94 lb
   3. The serving size in pounds: 450 g = 0.99 lb, which is where the one-pound-per-person rule comes from
   4. 3.6 kg is under 4.5 kg, so the timetable gives 45 minutes per kilogram plus 20 minutes: 3.6 × 45 + 20 = 182
   5. 182 minutes is just over three hours

   0.99 of a pound per person is close enough to one that the rule of thumb and this page agree at the default. Change the serving size and they stop agreeing, which is the point of making it an input.

2. Twelve guests, 350 grams each

   1. 12 × 350 g = 4200 g, or 4.2 kg
   2. 4.2 × 2.20462 = 9.26 lb
   3. A 350 g serving is 0.77 lb per person — three quarters of the usual rule
   4. Still under 4.5 kg, so the same band applies: 4.2 × 45 + 20 = 209 minutes
   5. 209 minutes is 3 hours 29

   Four more guests and a lighter plate came out at 4.2 kg against the 3.6 kg of the previous example, so the bird is bigger while each portion is smaller. That is the arithmetic worth checking before ordering: a 350 g serving is the lean end and assumes a lot of side dishes.

The serving size is a cook's rule of thumb and nothing more. No food authority publishes a figure for how much turkey a person eats — the United States' reference-intake regulations and its poultry grading standards were both checked and contain no per-person weight — and the "one pound per person" version of the rule is simply 450 grams restated. That is why it is an input here rather than a constant: the honest version of an unsourceable number is one the reader controls. It is also worth knowing what the figure is made of. A whole bird is roughly half meat and half bone, skin and cavity, so 450 grams of raw turkey per person yields far less than 450 grams on the plate; the figure is generous partly for that reason and partly because a holiday meal usually wants leftovers. Two smaller weights follow from the same table rather than from measurement: the pound figures come from the standard kilogram conversion, and the roasting times come from the same UK Food Standards Agency timetable the cooking-time page uses, which assumes an unstuffed bird and a 180°C oven. A table with two birds at different weights can also show the same roasting time twice, which is not an error — see the note under the table.

How many pounds of turkey do I need per person?

One pound of raw bird per person is the usual rule, which is the 450 grams this page starts from. It sounds like a lot because a whole turkey is roughly half bone, skin and cavity, so a pound of turkey in the bag is well under half a pound of meat on the plate. For twelve people that is 12 lb, or 5.4 kg, and it leaves enough for sandwiches the next day.

What size turkey for 12 people?

5.4 kilograms, or about 12 pounds, at 450 grams per person — and 216 minutes of roasting at 180°C, since 5.4 kg falls in the 40-minutes-per-kilogram band. If your table has a lot of other food, 350 grams each gives 4.2 kg instead; if you want leftovers, 550 grams each gives 6.6 kg, which is the point at which a large domestic oven starts to be a problem.

Is there an official serving size for turkey?

No. The per-person figure is a cook's rule of thumb: the US reference-intake regulations and the poultry grading standards were both checked and neither gives a weight of turkey per person, and no other government source publishes one either. The one-pound figure is 450 grams in different units. Treat any per-person number, including this page's, as a starting point rather than a standard — the number that matters is how many people, how many other dishes, and how much you want left over.

Why do two weights in the table have the same roasting time?

Because the timetable's bands overlap in a way that cancels out. 14 guests at 450 g is 6.3 kg, roasted at 40 minutes per kilogram, which is 252 minutes; 16 guests is 7.2 kg, roasted at 35 minutes per kilogram, which is also 252. Heavier birds roast faster per kilogram, so a 0.9 kg difference in weight can come to the same time. The times are correct as computed, not rounded to match.

Should I buy a bigger turkey than the calculator says?

Only if you want leftovers, and then add about 20%: 550 grams per person instead of 450. The two things that argue against going bigger are the oven and the fridge — above about 7 kg a bird starts to crowd a standard domestic oven, and a bird that large needs four days to defrost. Buying two smaller birds is a reasonable answer for a very large table, provided both fit side by side.

• Christmas food hygiene — defrosting, cooking times and temperatures — UK Food Standards Agency
• Approximate Conversions from U.S. Customary Measures to Metric — National Institute of Standards and Technology