BBQ Tools: Calculators, Planners and Temperature Charts
Eleven free BBQ calculators and charts, no sign-up and no paywall on any of them. Seven plan a whole cook backward from the hour you serve. Four answer one question in a single screen: how much meat, what temperature it is done at, how long the leftovers keep, and where the probe goes.
Plan the cook
Turkey planner
Bird weight and dinner time in. Out comes the hour to start thawing, the brine window, cook time, rest and carving, with a calendar export for the whole schedule.
Thanksgiving dinner planner
The whole meal, not one dish. Pick your menu and headcount, and it back-plans every dish across the oven, smoker, grill, flattop and stove, flags what will not fit, and builds the shopping list.
Turkey cooking time calculator
Bird weight, stuffed or not, oven or smoker, and the hour you carve. Out comes the cook time, the hour the turkey goes in and when to start checking the temperature.
Meat smoking calculator
Cut, weight, pit temperature and dinner time in. Out comes when to light the fire, when to wrap, a stall buffer, the pull temperature and the rest window.
BBQ meat calculator
How many pounds of raw meat to buy for your headcount, adjusted for the cut, the appetites and whether the meat is the main event.
Cookout party planner
The rest of the shopping list: sides, buns, drinks and ice for the number of people you are actually feeding.
Equilibrium brine calculator
Exact salt by weight for a wet or dry brine, the volume equivalent for your salt brand, how long the brine takes to even out, and the cure limits under federal rules.
Look it up
Smoking times and temperatures chart
Every cut in one sortable table: smoker temperature, estimated time, the USDA safe minimum and the pitmaster pull temperature, with a CSV download.
Steak and burger doneness chart
Temperatures, colors and resting times for every level of doneness, plus the ground-beef rule that has no exceptions.
How long does BBQ last
Refrigerator and freezer storage times for smoked meats, sauces and sides, and the two-hour rule that governs all of it.
How to use a meat thermometer
Where to put the probe in each cut, how to calibrate it in ice water, and the safe temperatures it has to read.
Which BBQ calculators do I need?
| If you are asking | Use |
|---|---|
| When do I take the turkey out of the freezer? | Turkey planner |
| How do I get everything on the table at once? | Thanksgiving dinner planner |
| What time does the turkey go in the oven? | Turkey cooking time calculator |
| What time do I have to light the smoker? | Meat smoking calculator |
| How much brisket do I buy for 20 people? | BBQ meat calculator |
| What else do I need besides the meat? | Cookout party planner |
| How much salt for the brine? | Equilibrium brine calculator |
| What temperature is this cut done at? | Smoking times and temperatures chart |
| Is this steak medium rare yet? | Steak and burger doneness chart |
| Where does the probe actually go? | How to use a meat thermometer |
| Can I still eat the leftovers? | How long does BBQ last |
How these BBQ calculators are built
Every number in every tool comes from a named source, and the source is printed on the page that uses it. Safety temperatures come from USDA and FDA. Cook times come from our own smoking chart, which is compiled from ThermoWorks, Smoked BBQ Source, Smoking-Meat.com and Hey Grill Hey. Anything we cannot source does not go in. Where a figure is our own planning allowance rather than a published number, the page says so in plain words.
Nothing here asks for an email before it answers you. The planners show the result first, then offer to send you a copy. Every one of them can be embedded on your own site, with a credit link, from the button under the results.
Data updated September 2026.