This is the first thing almost everybody asks, and most answers you will find online are a single number with no working shown. Here is the actual arithmetic we use when Adam sizes an animal for a booking, along with the two things that shift it more than headcount ever does.
The short answer
Allow around 200g of cooked pork per adult for a main meal in a bap, or roughly 300g if the hog is the whole dinner with sides and people will be going back for seconds. A whole hog yields about 45 to 50 per cent of its live weight as edible meat once the bones, skin and rendered fat are accounted for.
| Hog weight | Main meal in a bap | Full dinner with sides |
|---|---|---|
| 35–40kg | 70–85 guests | 50–60 guests |
| 45–50kg | 90–110 guests | 65–80 guests |
| 55–60kg | 120–145 guests | 85–105 guests |
| 70kg+ | 160–190 guests | 115–140 guests |
Those bands overlap on purpose. Anyone quoting you a single exact figure for a whole animal is guessing with more confidence than the job deserves.
The two things that change it more than headcount
1. What time you are eating
A crowd eating at half past seven, having had nothing since a light lunch, will get through noticeably more than the same crowd at a three o'clock afternoon reception where canapés went round at one. Evening service reliably eats more per head than daytime service. It is the single biggest variable and it is almost never mentioned.
2. Whether there is anything else on the table
A hog on its own with baps and apple sauce is doing all the work. Put four salads, herb-roasted potatoes and a dessert table alongside it and pork consumption drops by something like a third. This is why our Full Feast menu feeds more people from the same animal than the Classic Hog does.
What about children?
Count two children under twelve as one adult for portioning, and do not count under-fives at all — they will have three mouthfuls and a bread roll. For charging, children under twelve are half the per-head rate and under-fives are free.
Do you need a whole hog at all?
Below about 60 guests, honestly, no. There is more animal than event, and you end up paying for pork that goes home in a box. A rolled shoulder or loin roast does the same job beautifully for 30 to 50 people, cooks in a fraction of the time, and costs less. Ask and we will quote it — we would rather do that than sell you a whole hog you do not need.
Above about 250 guests the answer flips the other way: two smaller animals beat one enormous one, because they cook more evenly and you can start service from the first while the second finishes.
What actually gets eaten first
The crackling. Every time, without exception, and it is not close. We put it out in paper cones alongside the carving board rather than on the plate, because otherwise the first thirty guests take all of it. Plan for that and nobody at the back of the queue is disappointed.
“In thirty years I have never once had someone complain there was too much crackling. I have had plenty tell me there was not enough.”
The leftovers are yours
Whatever is safe to keep gets boxed up and left with you. We take away anything that has been standing out, and every bag of our own waste. You should not be finding pork in your fridge in three days' time wondering whether it is still good, and you should not be carrying our rubbish to the bins either.
The menu this article is about
Written by Adam Skinner, who has cooked professionally for 30 years and is the one who turns up. Questions about any of this? Ask him directly or ring 07946 773421.