Cooking for a large crowd can be intimidating. Here are some hints that can make it easier.
1. Shop at a restaurant supply store or a warehouse store. You can buy foods packaged for commercial cooking, making them cheaper per serving and easier to prepare. Sometimes a recipe will ask for a #10 can of something. These are those big cans that hold almost 1 gallon. You can get many standard canned items in this size.
2. Don’t be afraid of the pre-prepared foods. These have gotten much better in recent years.
For instance, if you are planning to serve biscuits and sausage gravy for 50 buy the frozen biscuit dough - available in packages of 36 (buy two), white gravy mix (in a pouch - makes 1 gallon), and 2 lbs breakfast sausage. The gravy is easily made by boiling 3 quarts of water, dissolving the mix into a fourth quart of cold water, pouring the cold mixture into the boiling water and stirring for 1 minute. Just add the browned sausage to the gravy and let it cook on low heat until you are ready to serve. Spray pans with pam, and bake the biscuits as the package directs.
This is much simpler than making biscuits and gravy from scratch, and your guests will love it - I promise!
3. Buy the large commercial size aluminium pans at Sams or most party supply stores. These are sometimes referred to as counter pans. They run about $1 each for the large multi-pack, and can be thrown away after use!! You don’t even have to feel guilty about it. Since there is no way to be sure that you can get all the food out of all the creases - trying to reuse them would be a food safety hazard. The resident food safety expert said so.
These pans can go into sterno type food warmers. You can rent them or buy a disposable version at most party supply stores. The pans will fit into a standard oven and as a rule of thumb - when full of a casserole, for instance, will serve about 40.
Check out the recipes in “Recipes For A Crowd”. Many of these recipes are adapted from ones found elsewhere in this site.