Have to cook for a crowd (35 people). How?

[digimark]

We're in a situation and I was hoping to get some good advice. Normally when we cook meals while camping, it's just the four of us, and sometimes the 6-8 of us (when we go with a friend or two.) No problem -- between the firepit grate and our 2-burner camp stove we can put it together.

In two weeks we'll be camping in the midst of 13 Cub Scout families, about 35 people. We're responsible (along with another familiy organizer) for coordinating a dinner and a breakfast. While the meals will be simple (foil packet meat/veggies/fruit for the main course, smores for desert, eggs/sausage/hash browns for breakfast), can anyone offer advice or tips on handling a large crowd relatively simultaneously? Websites where they give advice on managing mass prep, cooking and cleanup while camping?

It will be cold (late October in Maryland), probably middle 40's to 50's and ten or more degrees cold at night). I'll have a large water urn for hot water to make cocoa and coffee plugged in (we'll have electricity). The little Coleman dual-burner stove I have only puts out 11K BTU/burner.

Thanks in advance. -Gary

[High Desert]

you may want to check with a local rental company, they often have larger stove top burners and other items for doing events and things. We fed 40+ at a family reunion this summer. We prepared as much in advance as possible, and started way before the meals were scheduled. Good Luck!

[madjack]

Gary, if you have no experience doing this, try googling "cooking for fifty people" and "recipes for fifty" for ideas...I have been cooking for large groups, going back nearly 40yrs...over the last few years, we have cooked for over 100 folks for the LCG...what I do, is decide what I want to serve...find or create a recipe for a "normal" amount and then size up for the number of folks fed...once I get to that point, I look over the recipe and adjust as I see fit for my "pinch and dash" cooking style...paper and plastic makes for fast cleanup, if you wanna go greener, have everyone bring their own plate/utensil/cup and set up a 3 tub washing station, with wash water, rinse water and bleach water...make 'em wash their own...good training for the little cubbies(and their parents).........
madjack

[jplock]

Gary
Have you thought about using multiple dutch ovens, they can be stacked. You might be able to borrow them from a Scout Troop since you all are Cub Scouts. Also you might supply fixin's for folks to do their own foil packs. Breakfast you might do Oatmeal astronaut style in ziplock bags. All you need to supply is instant oatmeal hot water and zip lock bags.
jplock


You could do mountain man breakfast in the dutch ovens.

[jplock]

Gary,
I also thought of Frito pies they are easy. Get individual packets of Fritos fill packets with Chili onoins and cheese Mm Mm Good! Being up in Maryland it might be cold the warm frito bags will warm their hand while eating, and the same with the oatmeal.
jplock

[Wig]

I would go buy or borrow a big pot.the turkey frying ones are cheap for the size.then make a big stew,soup or chili.when I was growing up poor here in texas my mom would make a big pot of stew with ground meat and can vegetables.I love the stuff.when I made it for large groups of my freinds,I buy 10 pounds of ground beef with 4 med cans of stewed tomatoes.6 or 8 cans of corn and green beans,2 cans of carrots ,3 onions ,3 lbs of potatoes. I use fresh potatoes and put the in near the end because they shrink up if you don't.serve with corn bread and crackers and some hot sause.not a bad meal at just at or a little over a dollar a head.My mom makes it for us on cold weekends and just keeps it warm so we can eat on it all day.

[TomW]

Prep. work, prep. work. If you are making the trail pot roast, (Hamburger pattie, cream of mushroom soup, sliced potatoes, wrapped in tin foil). Consider making them early and freezing them before hand. Take them out of the freezer just before you leave the house, (I assume you are leaving after school or early on Saturday morning). They will be thawed before you are ready to use them.

As for breakfast, eggs, crack and mix them before you leave, Pour them into a clean 1/2 gallon milk container, then keep it cool. That is what "egg beaters" does.

I have used the burner from a turkey fryer setup when I needed the extra burner. Dutch ovens are great, you may not want to cook in them due to space, time, etc. but they are great at keeping things warm after you do the main cooking and also serve as a serving container.

I was a scout leader for many years. Do not worry about the small things. It will happen and no matter what happens, everyone will be fed. Sort of like the story of the loaves of bread and the wine. Have faith and it will be fun!!

Thanks for taking time with the children in your area. Nothing better than scouting in my book!

[madjack]

...try RV omelets...the kids(and parents) will have a blast making their own...right tasty as well..........
http://tnttt.com/viewto ... 036#538036

[bobhenry]

Sister and I catered for corporate gatherings and it IS a challange to coordinate everything.

In the cold of fall I have to agree the stew or chilli is tummy warming and much easier to fix , serve and clean up after. Nothing worse than a helping of this and that turning stone cold on a plate as you try and eat. It should be a learning experience its time to introduce these kids to the "strange vegatables" Rudabages, parsnips, and such. Get some help to prepare the stew in advance if needed in large stock pots on the home stove and reheat over the campfire. Placing the stew in a cooler hot off of the stove in sealed containers will retain a great deal of it's heat during transport. A trick I was taught with stew was to add brown gravy (mix or canned) and beef boullion cubes or canned beef stock. Get a couple 12 inch D.O. and drop in 3 loves of frozen bread you have allowed to thaw in advance.

Breakfast , don't forget pancakes there is not a kid in the world that will turn down pancakes and with 2 or 3 big skillets you can crank em out pretty quick. and link sausages on the grill or over the fire.

[ajricher]

I've done breakfasts for 20-odd (and I do mean odd) people at antique car get-togethers more than once.

Usually it was simple - eggs (scrambled), French toast, bacon and condiments for each as required.

Tinfoil serving pans over a cooler full of hot water would keep things eating temperature pretty easily. If you can borrow servers for use with Sterno or the like that would work well too, though i would personally allow for heating water and adding it to the servers/coolers as needed.

For cooking there were 4 of us, each manning a cast-iron griddle on a Coleman 2-burner gas stove. I did scrambled eggs, another chap the French toast, another the bacon and so on. Coffee was done in large (12-cup) pots in advance and as needed between batches of food.

You would be amazed how little time it takes to crank out food like that. Eggs cook quickly, as does the French toast. Pancakes can be done easily as well on a griddle - keep 'em hot and keep "em moving. Bacon and such really does require longer, but even that can be done easily.

I strongly recommend hand sanitizer be kept available, and I have a large aluminum pot with a spigot that I heat water in and keep it for washing hands/dishes, cookware or whatever.

DO be aware of sanitation - there is nothing worse than a foodborne illness going through a group because someone didn't keep his hands clean or change gloves frequently.

[The Teardrop Nanny]

Having done all type of cooking over the years for big groups I think one of the most important things you wrote in your post was that you and another family would be "coordinating" two meals, so you have to delegate the responsibility. It's great that you are with Scout families as they should have lots of experiences in the great outdoors. One of the things that I'd do is put up a board (or sheet) that lists the menu and what help you may need. Break it down in to categories such as table prep. and set-up as well as clean up. Organize the food so that for dinner the hot items are all together at the end, and cool items at the beginning of the line, excluding drinks. The drinks can be at a separate area-ice chest or large capacity thermos jug. The less carrying around a hot plate, the better and it lowers the risk of spills, which will be easier to deal with cuz you are outdoors. If you can, set up the table so people can go down both sides at the same time, thus speeding up the line and the wait. When it is time to eat designate a direction to go, such as clockwise if using a rectangular table. If you are providing the plates and eating utensils, it is helpful to put the bulk of them at the end where START will be, but also include some at the end for those who may have forgotten to pick something up.

On the table prep, set aside an area for the ocndiments with extra serving pieces (as sometimes kids drop things, or lick them) and buy items that come in squeeze containers when possible such as mustard, jelly, butter, etc. or put them into squeeze containers cuz when I buy syrup in bulk it's hard to manage the size of the bottle. Foil pans, doubled together, from the dollar store work for a multitude of purposes and can be reused.

I'm all for the buy and prep as much as you can ahead of time, especially for sanitary purposes, but one of the things I think most important is to keep hot food hot and cold food cold. Hope you have a great time and enjoy some good eats. Joanie

[len19070]

One thing I do as far as timing goes is.

Once you decide what your going to have.

Pick a time you want to eat.

Figure/guess how long each item you will be cooking would take to cook if that was all you were to cook.

Subtract that from the Eat time and write it down...for each item.

That will give you a good guide line as when to start what.

And include everything.

Such as BBQed Chicken, Baked Potatos and corn on the cob for a dinner at 6pm

3;30 Have grill & charcoal ready

4;00 Start charcoal

4;30 put on Baking Potato's

5;00 set up corn Pot

5;10 start water for corn

5;30 remove Potatos *

5;30 start Chicken

5;40 put corn in pot

6;00 everything is done

And stick to the list

* Use coolers as warming box's. You can take items like meat,potato's, off the heat early, put them in a cooler and they will continue to cook

Delegate authority, I always appoint a "Vice President in charge of corn"

And delegate simple jobs, if there not simple your help will be bugging you with horrible phrase's when your busy like.."what do you want me to do, is this right" or "come here and look at this" and my all time favorite after the fact, when your busy and the winner of the "Why didn't you think of that earlier" award "Do you have any gloves?"

Runners, Runners are important and an easy job to delegate.

Runners remove finished food away from the cooking area and on to the serving area.

Pick someone, and this person is important to set up your buffet or tell the runners where to put what. And serve from both sides of a table..2 lines

And put butter on a separate area away from the buffet.

Nothing will slow down a line quicker than someone juggling a full plate of food, silverware, napkin and drink in hand trying to put butter on a potato.

And above all, Always remember

The Cook does not wash dishes.

Happy Trails

Len

[Geron]

Stack them Dutch ovens HIGH

And be creative with the ingredients



That dude's got some "oven mitt" hands. Whew!

[digimark]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I'm definitely going to have us do the RV omelets -- it's too easy not to. I'm also torn because there's so much that we can do, and I know the boys aren't going to eat any of it.

Of course, that really makes it easy, doesn't it? Hot dogs for dinner and cereal/milk for breakfast for them. But the adults are going to pig out!



P.S. -- I'm picking pieces up out of each message... I keep thinking I (we) have to do it all ourselves... but delegating the jobs to some of the other parents also shares the blame if we screw it up... !

[Wild Bill]

I agree with all of the above. I use a 2 burner Camp Chef propane stove for cooking. The turkey fryer burners work well also. I am a boy scouter and have been on many outings, Set up under a dining Fly or have some covering, Safety is the most important thing, With a lot of kids running around the kitchen area must be secured so that kids cannot get burned with hot pots. For Breakfast I have 2 large 15 inch cast iron skillets that I like to make everything omlets in. Or 36 egg omlets as I call them. I agree with pre cooking as much a possible. I grill onions, peppers, mushrooms, etc. Brown an entire tube of hot pork sausage per skillet and drain off grease, Add pre browned stuff and finally turn up the heat and add the already scrambled eggs, everything is hot at once. Serve right out of the skillet. Stews and chilli are a great big pot item.
Without the right equipment to cook for that many it is tough to do. Foil packet dinners do work well and most can be pre made. remember it takes a lot of btu's to heat a 5 gallon pot. Start wash water in another big pot as soon as the food is off the stove. Be sure to get the kids involved and they can be a lot of help. Plan ahead and you sould not have any problems. Try to borrow a couple of older kids or Boy Scouts to help you. Bill