FoodBanter.com - View Single Post

wrote:
> I have a question for ya'll. My husband and I get together with a
> group of friends every week to play games and hang out, and we all take
> turn making dinner. Several of us in the group like to cook and enjoy
> trying out new recipes, but some just bring sandwich meat and bread or
> pizza or something easy like that. It happens occaisionally (and most
> often when one particular group member is in charge of dinner), that we
> run out of food. I was wondering if anyone has any good websites I
> could forward to the group that give estimates of how much to buy/cook
> of various things (e.g. "x pieces of chicken" or "y lbs meat" per
> person)? .
>
> What got us thinking is recently, the member in question picked up
> fried chicken and sides for dinner. No big deal, except that there are
> 7 adults (4 men, 3 women--1 man was absent so total of 6 for the
> night), and she got 12 pieces of chicken and two tiny sides (one might
> have fed 2 people and the other maybe 4) plus a loaf of bakery bread.
> There might have been 2 chicken breasts in the batch, and the rest was
> legs, wings, and maybe a thigh. Several of us basically had bread for
> dinner that night. She actually asked as we were all leaving if there
> were any leftovers!
>
> I don't usually have trouble, since I grew up in with 4 siblings, so
> cooking for a group is easier than cooking for 2. But others just
> don't know portion sizes (or they think "serves 4-6" means they can
> feed 7 adults??). I found a couple of websites that talk about feeding
> crowds, but they're talking 20-50 people, not 7-8.
>
> Any help or pointers that I could pass on would be great! My challenge
> will be to find a way to bring it up without embarrassing anyone....

In catering, we generally figured a gross weight for all the food and
prepped to get to that point. For the kind of group and the kind of
sedentary setting, I'd figure a total weight for the meal per person at
about 1 1/4 pounds. Menu comes after that. Includes everything to be
eaten. Beverages extra.

If it were a group of lumberjacks, I'd go 1 3/4 to 2 pounds And if an
over-80, knitting club, 3/4 pound per person.

Pastorio