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Lisa 12/08/13 |
Hi, I am cooking a turkey dinner for children, aged kindergarten to grade eight and I am feeling a little overwhelmed. They want turkey, stuffing, potatoes and a small dessert. I teach at a high school and I have a commercial kitchen. I ordered ten 25-pound turkeys. The lunch is on a Monday. I was planning on roasting the turkeys on Thursday and Friday then carving them and freezing them to serve on Monday. I estimated 1/2 pound per child. Does this seem feasible? |
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ellen 12/08/13 |
Lisa, preparing ahead is fine, and there is a safe instruction for reheating in the holiday cooking section at the top of Big Pots. ellenskitchen.com/turkey/reheat.html Still, I am concerned you have too much turkey, and I am sorry you ordered the 25 pound turkeys; 16 pounds and under have better quality meat, and are easier to handle. The children 4th grade down only count as 1/2 adult, and you want no more than 3/4 pound whole turkey per adult serving. So, say `125 of the children are the younger, you need about 188 servings (I have not counted staff or teachers), at 3/4 pounds each, that is 144 pounds, or just 6 of your gigantic turkeys. Leave the other 4 in the freezer for tetrazini another time.
There is an article on how to cut up batches of turkeys for roasting here: It is very useful to do the dark and white meat separately. Hope this helps. |
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Lisa 12/12/13 |
Hi Ellen, Thank you for the reply. I rethought the amounts too after looking through your site and only thawed 5 turkeys. They have asked me to add 20 staff if possible too so I was going to add two more turkeys, using your guide as well. Thanks again for your help! |