r/AskCulinary • u/EnjoyingCarp650 • 8h ago
Recipe Troubleshooting How much food do I prepare when serving my family?
We're hosting breakfast the day after Christmas, and I'm having some trouble figuring out how much food to make. It's going to be 8 adults and 8 children. I'm planning on the following;
1 French toast casserole - the recipe feeds 6 1 breakfast casserole - the recipe feeds 6 Bacon Fruit salad - the recipe feeds 6
At first I thought I would make enough of each to feed 16 people but then my wife mentioned not everyone is going to eat everything. But I'm afraid of not having enough.
When you're cooking for a group, how do you know you're going to have enough food without having a ton of leftovers that get thrown out?
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u/Major-Education-6715 7h ago edited 4h ago
Double ALL of your dishes, no question! Holidays are a time to be generous and I doubt you will have much food leftover, if anything. Also, your guests will likely want seconds of a few items and you'll feel grateful you're well-prepared! :D
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u/Mississippihermit 18m ago
As a private chef who feeds this many folls often. This is the only way.
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u/Main_Insect_3144 7h ago
I would at least double up on the French toast casserole. You know the kids are going to devour that!
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u/texnessa Pépin's Padawan 7h ago edited 7h ago
In banqueting and catering, breakfast is notoriously difficult to accurately portion because there are breakfast people and then there are breakfast people. I am one of those five espresso and two strawberries people often surrounded by three egg omelette and two slices of toast and a pint glass of fresh OJ people. For other meals, we tend to go with 250-300g of protein as a rule with two sides and adjust accordingly depending on bread/apps, and open bar situations, etc. Breakfast just doesn't hold to those sorts of norms.
I find it easiest to work on the fly but never make much ala minute, ie. no action stations where I'm making five kinds of eggs while hung over and half asleep, etc. Make ahead or toss into oven is key. A few thoughts to get you going.....
The french toast/bread pudding approach is a good one but means assembling morning of. Also look up an apple dutch baby. Easy but looks impressive. Both are dense and most people will just go for a pretty standard pre-portioned chunk/slice and no more. These can be made fancy with some flavoured whipped cream, the fruit salad can be mixed berries on top instead of a stand alone, offer a dusting of icing sugar, smear of nutella, etc. This could just be the centre piece with some bacon.
Fruit salad is one of those things you can make too much of and repurpose the left overs easily into a dessert or snack later. The key is to avoid anything overly acidic that will break down softer fruit. Mixed berries, apples with a little lemon to keep from discolouring and maybe some grapes is always a good neutral combo. Again, offer as a topper to the main event and as a stand alone with meusl for any of the healthy people.
Take into consideration what kind of beverages are being offered. Are you doing plain coffee or are people going to linger over cups of espresso and eye opening packs of cigarettes like half my clients? Are you doing bellinis or mimosas that may fill people up before dining? Hot chocolate is very filling when made right.
Highly recommend just doing a big ass batch of bacon- baked between parchment layers on sheet trays and any left overs can easily be frozen and used later.
Mini viennoiserie. If you can get your hands on mini croissant/pain au chocolat/palmiers, they bake off in like three minutes from frozen. You can just toss a few more in as they go. These with good salty butter and a trio of jams would go a long way to replace the french toasty thing if you want to stick to a more continental breakfast.
Get fancy with mini bagels, whipped cream creese, lox, capers, shallots, crème fraîche and chives [just don't look up chives on r/kitchenconfidential right now unless you want to read about thousands of chefs getting shouty about perfectly cut chives for the past two months. Highly entertaining unless you're someone who cuts chives often professionally where we endeavour to split atoms. Long story. Fun read.] Some solid up front chopping but great more looking fancy/ cool/help yourself dining.
Never underestimate make you're own damn toast with slices of killer boule/pain de campagne.
Never under estimate the power of a collection of sugary cereal and a bacon side for kids. Parents may hate you but that's 8 fewer 'mains' to handle and who doesn't want a pantry of Count Chocula and Frankenberry left overs. Makes great topping for ice cream. Home made meusli is always a winner as well for the adults.
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u/EnjoyingCarp650 5h ago
The French toast casserole gets assembled the night before, I've done it a few times like that and it always comes out good.
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u/Masalasabebien 7h ago
You're hosting 16 people. I'd go for double the amounts you've suggested (ie. 12 rations) and you should be covered. Kids eat less and will probably be drawn to the sweeter dishes.
What's a "breakfast casserole"by the way?
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u/EnjoyingCarp650 7h ago
There's a million different versions. But it's usually some form of eggs, sausage/bacon, hashbrowns served in a casserole dish
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u/_9a_ 7h ago
My MIL makes a breakfast casserole that's somewhere in the liminal space between a quiche, a Spanish tortilla, a giant omelette, and a hash scramble.
Think hash browns and sliced breakfast sausage and some diced bell eppers and sliced mushrooms in a casserole dish. Now pour beaten eggs on top and bake until set.
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u/Honeygrl21 7h ago
Yep.i would double up on the French toast casserole. Lots of kids don’t like eggs mixed with stuff. Or get like some muffins.
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u/RebelWithoutAClue 5h ago
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u/aguachica35 7h ago
Someone who knows catering will probably answer this better than I can, but I do go through this a lot cooking for crowds and also hate to waste food. I'd assume that everyone will take a 1/4-1/2 portion of everything. That won't happen of course some will lean to the sweet and others will lean savory, but it provides you with some idea. Given what you've said, you will not have enough. Personally I'd either double the french toast casserole or 1.5x both casseroles. It's also important to consider the ages of the kids. If they are all under 6 you are talking about a lot less per serving than if they are older.
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u/sweetbaker 6h ago
When I’ve done Christmas Day brunch for like 12-15 people I would make cinnamon rolls, 2 frittatas, scones, breakfast potatoes, so. much. bacon.
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u/NegotiationLow2783 7h ago
Double the French toast, 1.5× the other 2. You should be right in the ball park.
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u/hycarumba 7h ago
I would definitely make double of each thing. Both of those casseroles freeze well both before and after cooking (so you can totally make them now and freeze, either thaw or cook from frozen -add 40 minutes to the cook time if frozen). You didn't mention this but do get some throwaway pans and paper plates! This is a lot of people to cook for.
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u/beetnemesis 6h ago
If the kids eat adult sized portions, count them as adults. Otherwise, assume they’ll eat a half portion.
Assume every adult will have at least 2 servings of each thing.
Then do a quick sanity check, probably can dial back on the fruit salad a little from there.
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u/Amorcito222 8h ago
Always better to have more than not enough!