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Cook Talk

Feeding 300
Kelly
09/09/13
We are hosting a women's event and plan to serve a buffet for 300. The entrée will be Italian Beef and Grilled Chicken Tenderloins.
How many pounds of beef will be needed and most importantly how many roasters will I need to cook the beef?
Also, how many pounds of the chicken tenderloin will be needed?

Thanks for the help and information. Kelly

Kelly
09/09/13
We are hosting a women's event and plan to serve a buffet for 300. The entrée will be Italian Beef and Grilled Chicken Tenderloins.
How many pounds of beef will be needed and most importantly how many roasters will I need to cook the beef?
Also, how many pounds of the chicken tenderloin will be needed?
Thanks for the help and information. Kelly
ellen
09/09/13
Kelly, it is unrealistic to plan to cook this much meat in roasters, which can only do max 20 pounds each; you are talking about 140 pounds raw meat.

Each roaster requires 1 full circuit and most rooms have one, large sometimes have 2.

The wisest idea would be to change one entree to cold, such as cold poached salmon or chicken en gelee, or a really elegant chicken salad. Or even to have two cold entrees with a great hot soup.

Talk this over and write back. If you do, please tell me the venue, the kitchen equipment (stoves, ovens, refrigerators, etc).

Kelly
09/09/13
I have been assured that our church circuits are wired to handle this type of load.
We have some refrigerator space therefore the cold dishes would be much harder for us. The stove /oven situation is not good hence the roasters.

I was thinking it would require 1 roaster for every 25 lbs. but wanted to be sure. Also, another question at what temp would I set the roasters? I am use to making this only in a slow cooker so not sure of the temperature differences.

I also didn't know the beef to chicken ratio...how many pounds of tenderloins would I need.

I appreciate your help so very much. Kelly

ellen
09/09/13
Kelly, you really can't do more than 20 pounds in a roaster, and even then you will get a saucy, rather than a roasty effect. So you should make a chicken in sauce.

Usually the company divides out 5/8 beef, 3/8 chicken, so you would start with about 100 raw beef, 40 boneless skinless chicken. If the beef is for sandwiches with crusty rolls, rather than plated, you can cut the beef about 1/4.

However, I will caution you again, I cook regularly for church and church camp functions and have NEVER been in a facility that could support 7 roasters. Men tend to "little lady" when we ask about electrical loads, but you do not want to have 300 people unfed because you could not cook. Make the maintenance staff show you the circuit boxes; one 15-25 amp circuit will run ONE roaster, it takes a 30 amp circuit to run 2. If you decide to try to run 2 on one circuit, it would be wise to put them on surge protectors so you blow the surge protector and are not running back and forth to the circuit box.

Low in a slow cooker is 190-200 in a roaster. High is 290-300.

Kelly
09/09/13
Ellen, thank you so much for helping me & using your wealth of wisdom to help this novice. I will check with our people again & rethink the beef. I appreciate all I have learned from your web site.
Kelly
09/30/13
Ellen, I wanted to follow up with you to let you know the details of the food for this original question.

We cooked 150 lbs of italian beef in 7 roasters plus another 4 roasters with green beans & it turned out fabulous. No problems with circuits nor the beef to roaster ratio. In fact it went over so well that we had multiple requests for the recipe.

All this glory goes not to any man but our Lord who is so gracious to work in every detail of our lives.

ellen
09/30/13
Sounds like you just about perfectly hit 20 pounds per roaster for the meat, and your amounts were excellent. I am surprised and astonished at your good fortune with the electrical circuits, that truly is remarkable. Thank you for the followup.
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