Meals for a Crowd; Types of Meals & Cooking for a Crowd RecipesLarge meals for a crowd require a plan. Picking what type of large crowd event you are having is always the first step. In my family, when I was growing up, cooking meals for a crowd was a common occurrence. It was always hard to find a seat to eat dinner with such a large family. I remember many times that Dad would place a board between two chairs so more people could sit at the table. Back then, we didn’t expect much. The only requirement was to have good tasting food, and plenty of it. If we could not find a place to sit, we would sit out on the back porch. Today, we expect more, both from ourselves and from others.
Today we can have just as much fun cooking meals for a crowd when entertaining, if we make a PLAN. Even with no experience, anyone can do it, if you follow a written plan. FIRST QUESTION: Who will you invite? Remember, with paper and pen, start writing down names. Don’t leave anyone out, who is connected with the others. Gossip moves quickly. This will start problems, before anyone arrives.
SECOND QUESTION: What types of meals to prepare? Who are these people? Are they your family, who will overlook your mistakes? Are they your in laws or work colleagues who are more likely to find your flaws? This makes a difference when trying new recipes. I would suggest trying new recipes prior to the big event, especially if the guests are other than family.
THIRD QUESTION: An important question to answer when choosing cooking for a crowd recipes is are there any special dietary needs. Are there any diabetics on your guest list? This is not a great problem until it comes to dessert time. It would be extremely inconsiderate not to serve a desert that all your guests can eat. Provide an alternative desert, and by all means make it clear which dessert is for your special guests. Consider also, that some guests may be on a salt free diets, low fat, or even vegetarian diets. These are all things that a good host or hostess will find out at the beginning of the plan.
Next, try to find out some foods that the group would like. If you want to impress someone in the crowd, ask what their favorite food is. A little extra effort at this point will win you many “brownie points”. Remember to write everything on your meals plan. The PLAN will remove stress from you, and make the party a success. When you decide that you will be cooking for a crowd, you must decide what type of meal you want to provide. First decide the time of day. Will you be entertaining for breakfast? Maybe a lunch? Or will you be serving a dinner? This should be a pretty simple question for you to answer, considering the work schedule of most of your guests.
A more important question is, “What types of meals will you serve?” Do you want to have a sit down dinner? If this is the case, you must be able to comfortably seat the number of guests that you listed on the “plan”. I have done this before in my home. My dining room table was not large enough, but my dining room connected to my living room by a huge opening. I simply added more tables from the end of my dining room table, and extended them into my living room. After covering with many white tablecloths, everyone thought I had an enormously long table. Extra chairs can be rented to accommodate the guests.
In doing a sit down dinner, measuring for each meal is extremely important. It would be terribly embarrassing if you ran short on the food. Always allow for extra to avoid this. Having other people come in to help with the serving of the meal is a good idea, also. If you do all the preparations and the serving, you will have no time to enjoy your company.
A typical sit down dinner for each of 25 guests could consist of the following menu:
In a meal such as this, the bean bundles, Marsala sauce, soup, dessert, and garnish can all be prepared a day ahead. If you mash the potatoes and add cream cheese to them, put them in greased baking casserole dishes, they can also be prepared a day ahead. Delicious rolls can be purchased in many local bakeries to save time.
This only leaves the tenderloin to be prepared right before serving, which takes only a few minutes. The other dishes can be heated in the oven.
Unlike carry-ins or picnics, paper plates are not appropriate at this dinner. - On your “plan “make note of the necessary plates and bowls that will be required.
BEEF TENDERLOIN: Buy whole large fillets and slice into individual servings. Sprinkle with a good quality steak seasoning before grilling. Remember your guests will like their meat cooked to different degrees.
I, personally, prefer a buffet meal, if I am doing the meal by myself. Buffets can be very beautiful and very accommodating. The guests can fill their plates and find a seat in various places. Usually, they will congregate in smaller groups, which work out fine. A buffet allows the host or hostess to prepare many dishes ahead of time and frees them up for more important tasks, such as visiting with their friends. More foods need to be prepared for refills, but it allows for more economical bowls of food to be available. These could be many salads or pasta dishes which are very appealing to the pallets.
With a buffet, there are very informal occasions when paper plates will pass. I, personally, never like to use paper products. They seem to deduct from the quality of your work.
Below, I am including a typical buffet. The following is plenty for 25 extra hungry adults:
On your “plan”, whichever selection you choose, make note of the added bowls, trays and platters you will need. Remember the better your plan is written out, the easier and more successful it will be to produce the final outcome.
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