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Cook Talk

Italian wedding soup for 150
Janice 01/26/17	I just committed to making Italian wedding soup for an Italian night dinner. I make my soup with escarole and little meatballs that I make myself. My question is How much ground meat, heads of escarole and chicken stock will I need to make enough for 150 people? I sure hope I can pull this off so any tips you can provide will be helpful. Kind regards, Jan
ellen 01/27/17	Janice, post your recipe so I can estimate for you; you will want about 4 gallons per 100 for a small cupful or 6-7 gallons for a full bowl per person.
Janice A Nemetz 01/29/17	Lol. I never used a recipe. I make it every year for Thanksgiving for 15 people. Here is a recipe I found online that could work. It serves 4-6. Thank you for your help! Ingredients For the Meatballs: 1 pound ground beef ¼ cup plain breadcrumbs (preferably fresh) 1 large egg 1 clove garlic, finely minced ¼ cup parsley, finely chopped ¼ cup grated Parmesan 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper For the Soup: 8 cups homemade chicken broth or Aneto 100% Natural Chicken Broth (quality broth makes all the difference) 1 cup acini di pepe or other tiny pasta 1 large bunch leafy greens, roughly chopped (e.g., kale, escarole, curly endive, spinach)
ellen 01/30/17	OK, that makes about 2 quarts. So 12+ times that recipe, or 12-14 pounds meats to start. You could make the meatballs ahead and freeze.
Jan 03/09/17	Hi Ellen. It's me again. I took your advice and made and froze the mini meatballs for the soup soup. Now, I need to buy the disposable bowls to serve it in. Do you think 8 oz is enough of a serving? If so, would the 8 oz bowls be big enough or should I go for the 12 oz bowls to serve 8 oz in? Also, I will only be making about 4 quarts of homemade chicken stock just so I will have chicken meat to put in the soup. The remainder of the soup (5 gallons) I thought of purchasing a soup base called Better than Bouillon. It is like a paste that you dissolve in boiling water then add your other ingredients to it. Are you familiar with this product? If so, do you recommend going this route? Once again, I thank you for your advice.
ellen 03/10/17	8 ounce bowls fine if it is a part of the dinner. I use Better Bouillon myself,good stuff, look for the lower salt edition if you can find it. Enjoy, Jan.