How much pork for tamales
Plan on about 1 lb of raw boneless pork shoulder per dozen tamales, and buy 0.75 to 1.25 lb to have room. I opened seven pork tamale recipes on 2026-10-13 and divided each pork weight by its yield. They run from about 0.4 to 1.5 lb per dozen, with the middle near 1.
| Recipe | Pork as printed | Yield | Raw lb per dozen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hola Jalapeno, pork tamales | 2 1/2 lb boneless shoulder | 48 tamales | 0.63 |
| PBS Food, pork tamales | 2 1/2 lb boneless butt | 4 to 6 dozen | 0.42 to 0.63 |
| Sunset, pork red chile filling | 2 lb bone-in shoulder or chops | about 3 dozen | 0.67 |
| Food Network Kitchen, red chile pork tamales | 2 1/2 lb boneless shoulder | 32 tamales | 0.94 |
| Crisco, traditional pork tamales | 3 lb pork shoulder | 32 tamales | 1.13 |
| Food Network Kitchen, pork tamales | 2 1/2 lb boneless shoulder | 24 tamales | 1.25 |
| Edible Austin, tamales de puerco | 3 lb pork butt | 24 tamales | 1.50 |
Per-dozen values are my own division of each printed weight by its printed yield, sorted from least pork to most.
Why the recipes differ
The same 2 1/2 lb of shoulder makes 24 tamales in one recipe and 48 in another. A likely cause is how much filling goes into each tamale and how much red chile sauce is stirred through the meat, though none of the pages says so.
You can work out the filling directly. At 2 tablespoons per tamale, a dozen takes 24 tablespoons, which is 1 1/2 cups. 5280 uses 1 1/2 tablespoons, or about 1 1/8 cups per dozen. The planner allows 1.1 to 1.4 cups. Filling is meat plus sauce, so the pork is only part of that volume.
Bone-in needs about 15% more
Destination BBQ's pork butt yield page, which credits the USDA Food Buying Guide, lists 0.60 lb of cooked lean meat per lb of raw boneless butt and 0.52 bone-in. Divide 0.60 by 0.52 and bone-in comes to 1.15 times the weight. The last column below applies that. Sunset's filling uses bone-in shoulder, so its 0.67 lb per dozen is already counted with the bone.
Pounds of pork by dozens
| Dozens | Tamales | Boneless, lb raw | Bone-in, lb raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 24 | 1.5 to 2.5 | 1.7 to 2.9 |
| 3 | 36 | 2.3 to 3.8 | 2.6 to 4.3 |
| 4 | 48 | 3 to 5 | 3.5 to 5.8 |
| 5 | 60 | 3.8 to 6.3 | 4.3 to 7.2 |
| 6 | 72 | 4.5 to 7.5 | 5.2 to 8.7 |
| 8 | 96 | 6 to 10 | 6.9 to 11.5 |
| 10 | 120 | 7.5 to 12.5 | 8.7 to 14.4 |
| 15 | 180 | 11.3 to 18.8 | 13 to 21.6 |
These are the planner's numbers for standard tamales. A dozens link opens the planner with that many tamales at 1 per guest.
What I added myself
The range of 0.75 to 1.25 lb is my pick from the table. The low end sits near the leaner recipes and the high end near the two heaviest, which leaves room for trimming fat. By Destination BBQ's figure cooked boneless pork is 60% of its raw weight, so 1 lb raw gives about 0.6 lb to shred. Open the tamalada planner for the pork line at your own guest count, or see how much masa per dozen tamales and how many tamales per person.