Number crunching.
Someone asked how I'm portioning things, so I figured I'd post it here.
Start with the assumption of a 500 person event. We've gotten fairly close to that number in the past few big 12th Night events, and we have a full compliment of shiny gold hats. There were 118 pre-reg. I'm feeding people all day. This isn't an unreasonable starting number.
Roughly 2/3 of the people are likely to eat at any given time. If I round up, that gives a total of 334 people. That's the baseline number I'm using for portioning things out.
For main/side dishes, I generally run with the assumption that people will eat 1/4lb per. Some will eat more, some won't eat any, and I've found that this is a good average to work with.
Here's what the poundages for the meat dishes have worked out to:
Roman Roast: 66lbs = 264 servings
Sauerbraten: 20lbs = 80 servings (I may up this - it was a calculation error - I thought I had 4 10-lb roasts, but they turned out to be 5.)
"Partridge" in Pear Sauce = 44lbs = 176 servings
Chicken cooked with honey and spices = 44lbs = 176 servings
Mushroom pies: 50lbs sliced mushrooms. 1lb = roughly 3c. 150 cups total. Each pie will use roughly 1/2 cup. 300 pies. (Note: Pies are cooked in muffin tins.)
Stuffed mushrooms: 50lbs whole mushrooms. 1lb = roughly 8 caps. 400 portions.
Meat pies: 80lbs ground beef = 1lb = roughly 2c. 160 cups total. Each pie will take roughly 1/2cup. 320 pies.
Rice: 50lbs of rice. 1lb = 2 quarts cooked rice. I'm not even doing the math on this one. We have enough rice to feed a legion.
Eggs: 180 eggs to a crate. 4 crates. 360 stuffed egg portions, 180 tea eggs, some plain hardboiled eggs.
In addition to that, there will be other types of quiches/tarts, grilled vegetables, pasta dishes, and rice dishes. Not to mention fruits and sweets and breads and sweetbreads on the table.
Afterward, there's a dessert buffet.
The reason there is less chicken per dish than beef is that chicken is traditionally the meat people are more hesitant to trust at an SCA feast, especially if it's in a sauce, and I cry if people waste food. I'd rather run out of any one dish than risk overflow. That being said - All the chicken is being pre-cooked and a meat thermometer is being used.
The only number that is likely to change is the sauerbraten. Right now, I'm concentrating on other dishes, because there's plenty for the carnivores as it is.
More portions as things are cooked up.
Start with the assumption of a 500 person event. We've gotten fairly close to that number in the past few big 12th Night events, and we have a full compliment of shiny gold hats. There were 118 pre-reg. I'm feeding people all day. This isn't an unreasonable starting number.
Roughly 2/3 of the people are likely to eat at any given time. If I round up, that gives a total of 334 people. That's the baseline number I'm using for portioning things out.
For main/side dishes, I generally run with the assumption that people will eat 1/4lb per. Some will eat more, some won't eat any, and I've found that this is a good average to work with.
Here's what the poundages for the meat dishes have worked out to:
Roman Roast: 66lbs = 264 servings
Sauerbraten: 20lbs = 80 servings (I may up this - it was a calculation error - I thought I had 4 10-lb roasts, but they turned out to be 5.)
"Partridge" in Pear Sauce = 44lbs = 176 servings
Chicken cooked with honey and spices = 44lbs = 176 servings
Mushroom pies: 50lbs sliced mushrooms. 1lb = roughly 3c. 150 cups total. Each pie will use roughly 1/2 cup. 300 pies. (Note: Pies are cooked in muffin tins.)
Stuffed mushrooms: 50lbs whole mushrooms. 1lb = roughly 8 caps. 400 portions.
Meat pies: 80lbs ground beef = 1lb = roughly 2c. 160 cups total. Each pie will take roughly 1/2cup. 320 pies.
Rice: 50lbs of rice. 1lb = 2 quarts cooked rice. I'm not even doing the math on this one. We have enough rice to feed a legion.
Eggs: 180 eggs to a crate. 4 crates. 360 stuffed egg portions, 180 tea eggs, some plain hardboiled eggs.
In addition to that, there will be other types of quiches/tarts, grilled vegetables, pasta dishes, and rice dishes. Not to mention fruits and sweets and breads and sweetbreads on the table.
Afterward, there's a dessert buffet.
The reason there is less chicken per dish than beef is that chicken is traditionally the meat people are more hesitant to trust at an SCA feast, especially if it's in a sauce, and I cry if people waste food. I'd rather run out of any one dish than risk overflow. That being said - All the chicken is being pre-cooked and a meat thermometer is being used.
The only number that is likely to change is the sauerbraten. Right now, I'm concentrating on other dishes, because there's plenty for the carnivores as it is.
More portions as things are cooked up.
posted by Peregrine | 12:07 PM
2 Comments:
This is absolutely brilliant!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! OH--if we did this for very feast can you imagine the data base?? YOU are a genius!
I hope they will start doing this. Most feastocrats keep the numbers, recipes, etc, but they're never published anywhere. Thanks for the comment!
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