Topic: cooking for large numbers

[francine]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this site, I discovered while looking for good curry recipes as I am cooking for over 100 guests at my husbands 40th birthday party next weekend!!  (100 serving and ex soldiers. I must be mad!!!)  Anyway I have today cooked a chicken korma and a madras from recipes found on this site.  They have both turned out fantastic, even if I do say so myself.  But can anyone tell me how I go about making up larger batches, ie. if I am following a recipe for 2 and I want to make 100 portions do I just multiply by 50?

[George]

can anyone tell me how I go about making up larger batches, ie. if I am following a recipe for 2 and I want to make 100 portions do I just multiply by 50?

Francine

Welcome to this forum. Yes, that's exactly what I'd do and I'd expect it to work out fine. Just multiply everything by 50 or whatever, throughout. Good luck.

Regards
George

[Tamala]

I imagine the practical answer rather depends on how big your pots and pans are?

47 with and a husband of 40 huh?  Nice job! 

[SnS]

Hi Francine

Welcome to the forum.

There is no way you can cook a BIR style curry for 100 people in one hit using any of the BIR recipes on this forum (if that is your question).

As George implied (I think), you will need to replicate what you are doing now (curry for two), 50 times. Add each completed curry into a very large pot or freeze in large batches. You would then reheat when required. You may even be able to cook a curry for four in one hit (multiply ingredients by four), and repeat 25 times but I doubt cooking this quantity in one pan will give the same results as cooking a single or double portion.

Regards
SnS ;D

[Jethro]

Hi Francine

Welcome to the forum.

There is no way you can cook a BIR style curry for 100 people in one hit using any of the BIR recipes on this forum (if that is your question).

As George implied (I think), you will need to replicate what you are doing now (curry for two), 50 times. Add each completed curry into a very large pot or freeze in large batches. You would then reheat when required. You may even be able to cook a curry for four in one hit (multiply ingredients by four), and repeat 25 times but I doubt cooking this quantity in one pan will give the same results as cooking a single or double portion.

Regards
SnS ;D

Yup get started ASAP cook as big a batch as you can, put in the freezer in portions that are quick and easy to defrost and then reheat.
Rinse and repeat till as long as it takes..I hope you got a bloody big freezer!

[Tamala]

As George implied (I think), you will need to replicate what you are doing now (curry for two), 50 times

I thought George was implying something different; that you just scale everything up by 50.

Unless youre a very experienced canteen and curry cook (with bloody big pots, pans and burners) youre probably far better off cooking the same curry dishes, many times, and combining them, in one or more big pots, to reheat, or cooking something else more simple, like chilli con carne, or getting take aways 

Which korma and madras recipes did you use?

[George]

I thought George was implying something different; that you just scale everything up by 50. Which korma and madras recipes did you use?

You're right! That is what I meant, provided one has large enough pots and burners, of course. On further consideration, I guess it depends which recipes you're cooking as to whether the quality and taste of the end result can be maintained for large quantities. For example, many korma recipes are almost a simple warm-up of a mixture of ingredients. That should work OK. But any recipe which relies on high heat, stir-frying type activity might be more of a challenge. I'd still prefer fresh food cooked like that though, to smaller batches put through a freezer. So, if it was me I'd probably try and cook all 50 portions in about 10 batches to keep it manageable. If each portion is about 0.5 litres, that's 25 litres of curry to store and keep warm prior to serving. You must be able to get pans which hold a lot more than 25 litres. Around here, at least, a standard serving of curry is about 500ml and I normally scoff the lot myself. The pilau rice comes as a 300ml serving (approx) and is only enough for one person.

As for the cooking, if you did 10 batches, each batch would end up as about 2.5 litres and I don't see why that should be very difficult or vary, taste wise, much from doing 50 batches of 0.5 litres.

Regards
George

[SnS]

Sorry George, as much as I normally respect and agree with your opinion, on this occasion I have to disagee with you (a little).

A BIR curry is not cooked or despatched in quanities much above two portions.

Heat and maintaining of, is - in my opinion - essential to the cooking process, albeit somewhat a hit or miss process, domestically.

There is no way that a domestic burner is high enough in power output to cater for more than 4 servings cooked in the BIR fashion.

I suppose this goes back to another thread about what temperature spices should be cooked at ........... or not?  mmffffffkkkRAI ....

SnS  ;D

[George]

Sorry George, as much as I normally respect and agree with your opinion, on this occasion I have to disagee with you (a little). A BIR curry is not cooked or despatched in quanities much above two portions. Heat and maintaining of, is - in my opinion - essential to the cooking process, albeit somewhat a hit or miss process, domestically. There is no way that a domestic burner is high enough in power output to cater for more than 4 servings cooked in the BIR fashion. I suppose this goes back to another thread about what temperature spices should be cooked at ........... or not?

I can't be sure, of course, because I've never tried cooking industrial scale quantities to feed 100 people. I would expect the main challenge to be logistics, purely in terms of the volumes involved. Schools and other institutions cook large quantities, so it's nothing new.

Base sauce - no problem, surely. BIRs prepare large volumes. Indeed some people say smaller volumes 'don't work'. Cook in 1, 2 or 3 batches.

Pilau rice - I don't see how this will be very difficult either. Again some/most BIRs prepare large volumes of pilau rice in advance and only reheat it later in smaller portion sizes. If a table of 8 all order pilau rice, there's no way they'll cook it 8 times!

Korma - I found that low heat works fine. High heat is neither necessary nor desirable, so I would expect high volumes of korma to turn out fine, as well.

Madras and similar dishes - the least certain outcome - since a high heat, stir fry type approach is normally used. I still reckon that batches of around 2.5 litres would be perfectly manageable (cooked in a larger pan) and 90% as good, if not 100% as good as a 0.5 litre normal-sized portion (cooked in a smaller pan), over the same domestic hob.

I also wonder what happens in a BIR if half, say, my table of 8 (above) all order the same dish - like CTM - and another 3 orders for the same dish (CTM) come in at the same time from another table. Total 7 portions of CTM required. Would they really cook it 7 times, one after the other? I find it difficult to believe.

Regards
George

[SnS]

I can't be sure, of course, because I've never tried cooking industrial scale quantities to feed 100 people. I would expect the main challenge to be logistics, purely in terms of the volumes involved. Schools and other institutions cook large quantities, so it's nothing new.

I agree, but aren't their curries usually the typical "homemade" type (a stew with curry powder thrown in)?

Base sauce - no problem, surely. BIRs prepare large volumes. Indeed some people say smaller volumes 'don't work'. Cook in 1, 2 or 3 batches.

I agree. eg: The Saffron curry base recipe should be enough for 20-25 curries (4.5 litres).

Pilau rice - I don't see how this will be very difficult either. Again some/most BIRs prepare large volumes of pilau rice in advance and only reheat it later in smaller portion sizes. If a table of 8 all order pilau rice, there's no way they'll cook it 8 times!

I agree - rice no problem in large batches.

Korma - I found that low heat works fine. High heat is neither necessary nor desirable, so I would expect high volumes of korma to turn out fine, as well.

Yep, no problem.

Madras and similar dishes - the least certain outcome - since a high heat, stir fry type approach is normally used. I still reckon that batches of around 2.5 litres would be perfectly manageable (cooked in a larger pan) and 90% as good, if not 100% as good as a 0.5 litre normal-sized portion (cooked in a smaller pan), over the same domestic hob.

This is where the problem may occur. I know whenever I've attempted to cook larger portions, it never tastes the same. Now I never cook more than two servings in one pan.

I also wonder what happens in a BIR if half, say, my table of 8 (above) all order the same dish - like CTM - and another 3 orders for the same dish (CTM) come in at the same time from another table. Total 7 portions of CTM required. Would they really cook it 7 times, one after the other? I find it difficult to believe.

Good question George? Does anybody know the answer. Do they use bigger frying pans? 

Regards
SnS  ;D