how many meatballs are in a 2 pound bag

If you are planning a party or event for a large group of people, you should have some meatballs on the menu. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Meatballs are one of the best things to serve for a large crowd.

How many meatballs do you need for 50 people? That depends on a few different factors. I’ll explain that to you in this article.

I’ve been in the catering business for a long time and I love when people order meatballs for their parties. I think meatballs are the best food for a large gathering.

5 Reasons Why Meatballs Are Perfect for A Large Crowd

Here are 5 reasons why meatballs are the perfect food for a large crowd.

• Meatballs are very budget friendly compared to other food that can be served at a large event. A pound of ground beef is usually much less expensive when compared to a pound of prime rib or filet mignon. That’s one of the reasons that Italian immigrants gravitated to meatballs when they couldn’t afford more expensive cuts of meat.
• You can make a large number of meatballs at a time. When you are cooking for a large group of people you want to make something that can be prepared in a large batch. You can also cook several at a time if you put them on a large baking sheet and pop them in the oven. Your meatball mixture can be scaled up depending on the amount of people that need to be served. After that it’s just a matter of rolling your meatballs and baking them off.
• You can make meatballs in advance which gives you time to do other things on the day of the event. Some food needs to be prepared right before serving or the quality won’t be good. Examples of these types of food are certain roasts, filet mignon or even baked fish. Meatballs on the other hand can be cooked a day or more in advance so that on the day of the event you can just heat them up in a big pot of marinara sauce.
• Meatballs are easy to plan. The numbers of meatballs you will need to make for your event are pretty easy to figure out with some basic math. All you will need to know is how many people you are feeding, how big your meatballs will be and what else is being served at the party.
• Meatballs are a great food for hot holding over extended periods of time. Meatballs can be served in a chafing dish, slow cooker or in a pot on the stove at really low heat in tomato sauce for a long time. You don’t have to worry about the meatballs drying out over time. A roast beef or most other meats will need to be served right away to ensure quality.

How to Figure Out How Many Meatballs You Will Need

The number of meatballs you will need at your event depends on the size of the meatballs you are serving.

When planning a large dinner, the standard main course serving size is 6 ounces of meat per person. This is based on what the average person will eat at the event.

A quick guide to figure out how many meatballs you need is as follows:

If you are serving 2-ounce meatballs you should plan on having 3 meatballs per person. Therefore, for 50 people you will need 150 2-ounce meatballs. These will also be 2-inch meatballs or the size of a golf ball. This size makes the perfect meatballs if you are serving as a main dish.

If you prefer to serve large meatballs, the number of meatballs you need to prepare will be different. You don’t want to make them too big because they won’t soak up all the flavors of the sauce and they could be dry.

I believe that 3-ounce meatballs are on the larger side, but are still a good size to serve at a catered event. Based on the rule of thumb regarding 6 ounces of meat per person, you will need 2 meatballs per person or 100 meatballs for 50 people.

If you are serving meatballs as appetizers you probably want to make small cocktail meatballs. The best size for appetizers are usually 1-inch meatballs. When I cater an event I measure out 1-ounce meatballs for this purpose. Since this is not going to be the main course, I calculate 3 small meatballs per person. Therefore I would make 150 one-inch meatballs for 50 people.

If you are making 1-ounce meatballs for a main course you should make 6 meatballs per person. If you have some big eaters at the party I suggest making 6-10 bite sized meatballs per person.

As you can see, the number of meatballs you need depends on their size.

It is safe to say that no matter what size meatballs you make, you will need between 18 and 20 pounds of meatballs for 50 people.

If you are buying frozen meatballs for your event, it’s still easy to figure out. If the meatballs come in a 5 pound bag, you will need 4 bags of frozen meatballs.

If they come in a 1 lb bag you will need to get 20 bags.

On the other hand, if you want homemade meatballs at your event I am going to share a delicious meatball recipe with you. It’s designed to make enough meatballs for 50 adults to have as their main course.

Gordon Ramsay Meatball Recipe: A Classic Mixture of Beef and Pork

FAQ

How many meatballs are in a pack?

How many meatballs in 5 pounds?

How much does each meatball weigh?

How many meatballs are in a 2 pound bag?

These meatballs are usually about 1 inch in diameter. There are 16 ounces in 1 pound or 32 ounces in 2 pounds, so we can estimate that most average 2 pound bags or packages of frozen meatballs contain about 32 meatballs. If you’re making meatballs, it’s a good idea to weigh each meatball on a food scale as you prepare it.

How many meatballs in a pound of ground beef?

A pound of ground beef will make roughly 24 1 inch meatballs which are considered medium size. You should get 46 meatballs out of a 2lb bag if they are 1 inch round. In a 5 pound bag from commercially made meatballs, you will get approximately 80 meatballs. What is the best size for meatballs?

How many meatballs will a recipe make?

The number of meatballs a given recipe will yield varies according to the size of the balls you shape and the amount of meat, egg, breadcrumbs, liquid, and other ingredients. This quick and simple meatball calculator allows you to approximate how many meatballs a recipe will make and compare the yield of different recipes.

How many meatballs per person?

If the meatballs are 2 inches in diameter, you’ll probably want to serve two to three meatballs per person. If the meatballs are the main course, such as in a Swedish meatball dish, you might want to increase your numbers to between eight and 10 meatballs, particularly if they’re small.