Count the eaters for every dish
A guest count is not a dish count. Someone may skip stuffing, sauce or pigs in blankets while eating potatoes and vegetables; another guest may choose only one vegetable. Record the likely eaters for each selected row rather than copying the household total into every box.
The calculator uses one adult-equivalent for adults and young people aged 11 or over, 0.6 for ages 3–10 and 0.35 for ages 1–2. Those are disclosed Unflustered Host planning conventions—not official requirements, nutrition advice or predictions about a particular child. What a known guest actually eats is better evidence.
The six starting rates are assumptions, not standards
The form begins with six editable Unflustered Host shopping assumptions: 250 g raw roast potatoes, 160 g raw vegetables in total, 75 g prepared stuffing, 150 ml prepared gravy, two pigs in blankets and 30 ml sauce per adult-equivalent. They are planning prompts, not official serving standards, nutrition targets or guarantees.
Total vegetables means the combined raw total across the vegetables that person is likely to eat. Do not apply 160 g independently to carrots, sprouts, parsnips and every other vegetable. Reduce or change any rate when the actual menu, known appetite, recipe or exact product makes another quantity more appropriate.
The tool deliberately excludes turkey and alternative mains. Use the exact-label turkey size planner or the mixed-main allocation ledgers because bones, recipes, prepared products and supplier serving claims cannot be reduced to the six side-dish formulas.
Add leftovers as a named second job
Leftover equivalents use the same selected row rate and sit outside the dinner eater count. Add them only where there is a named use, suitable storage and a later admission decision—for example, “two portions of potato hash”. Do not add an unexplained percentage to every dish.
The arithmetic cannot prove that food will remain after serving. Appetite, cooking loss, spillage and portioning change the real outcome. The printed brief therefore calls this a planned extra quantity, not a leftover guarantee. After the meal, use the leftovers admission plan before retaining or reusing anything.
Compare like with like when entering a pack yield
Enter an exact pack yield on the same basis as the row: raw net grams for the raw potato and vegetable targets, prepared grams or millilitres for stuffing, gravy and sauce, and a whole-piece count for pigs in blankets. Dry stuffing-mix weight is not its prepared yield, and a gravy container’s pack weight is not automatically millilitres of prepared gravy.
The total-vegetables row may contain several different foods. Enter one yield there only when one exact mixed-product pack covers the whole combined target. Otherwise leave its yield blank, allocate the raw total across the chosen vegetables in the shopping list, then round each different product separately. For a homemade recipe, leave the pack field blank and convert its ingredient requirements separately.
When a usable yield is present, the tool rounds the total target up to whole packs and shows the arithmetic surplus created by that rounding. That surplus is not promised leftovers. Recheck the exact label, ingredients, allergen information, preparation method, storage instructions and use-by date. A substitution is a new pack comparison.
What the printable shopping brief does not decide
The brief preserves the numbers entered and the resulting arithmetic. It does not price the shop, choose a brand, test refrigerator or oven capacity, assess dietary suitability, give cooking or cooling instructions, or decide that food is safe. It cannot tell whether six side dishes form a sensible menu.
- Confirm every intended eater and every dietary requirement separately.
- Check current exact labels and complete recipes after every substitution.
- Measure the real packs and containers in the four-snapshot fridge planner, then physically prove the arrangement.
- Use the storage-first shopping workflow to assign the packs, dates, storage places and substitution rule.
- Copy exact cooking and checking instructions into the one-oven timeline; this quantity tool supplies no time or temperature.
Free tool and current product boundary
The current Christmas Host Pack prototype has a broader blank quantity worksheet and shopping pages, but it does not contain this exact six-row calculator, its server validation or a pre-filled result. Checkout, delivery and email collection remain disabled while the prototype, seller information, support, licence and purchase terms are tested and completed.
If you want to see how a wider paper plan may later carry confirmed guest, quantity, budget, shopping, room and timing decisions, see the current Christmas Host Pack scope and launch status. You do not need it to calculate or print this brief.
Version and test status
Version 0.1, 19 August 2026. Automated checks cover strict nested input validation, per-dish eater limits, visible editable rates, named-leftover requirements, unit-preserving arithmetic, whole-pack rounding, hostile values, linked error output, route behaviour and print-result contracts.
Before production reliance, the human publisher must compare a complete result with manual arithmetic and current exact packs for all six rows, including one prepared-yield mismatch and one substitution. A second person must reproduce the shopping brief without verbal coaching and refuse to treat arithmetic surplus as verified leftovers.
Questions people ask
How many roast potatoes should I allow per person?
The editable starting assumption is 250 g raw potato per adult-equivalent. Change it for the real menu and known eaters, especially when several other starches are served. The figure is not an official standard.
Does the vegetable amount apply to every vegetable?
No. The 160 g starting rate is the combined raw total across the vegetables that guest is likely to eat. Split that total across the chosen vegetables rather than multiplying it by every vegetable on the menu.
How does the calculator count children?
It uses disclosed factors of 0.6 for ages 3–10 and 0.35 for ages 1–2. Ages 11 and over count as one. These are planning conventions, not age-based nutrition advice; use what you know about each guest.
What should I enter for pack yield?
Match both the unit and basis printed on the row: raw net grams for a raw target, prepared yield for a prepared target, or exact whole pieces. For example, do not assume dry stuffing-mix weight is the finished yield. Recheck after any product change.
Does the pack surplus mean I will have leftovers?
No. It is only the arithmetic difference between whole packs purchased and the entered target. Real serving and cooking change what remains, and any food still needs a separate post-meal storage and admission decision.
Does this calculator include turkey or vegetarian mains?
No. Use the turkey size planner or mixed-main allocation ledgers. Different cuts, complete recipes and prepared products need their exact supplier or recipe yields rather than a generic side-dish rate.
Sources and assumptions
- Safefood — Christmas dinner shopping planner — External quantity context and the explicit boundary that its turkey figure is raw meat and excludes leftovers; the six editable side rates remain Unflustered Host assumptions.
- Food Standards Agency — Christmas food hygiene — Official storage, defrosting, cooking and leftovers boundary for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; it does not supply this tool’s six rates.
- Food Standards Scotland — Christmas food safety — Official Scottish Christmas food-safety route; it does not supply this tool’s six rates.