FEEDING A CROWD???
HERE ARE SOME GUIDELINES FOR DETERMINING HOW MUCH FOOD YOU WILL NEED. (You will need to consider the makeup of your group and adjust accordingly, ex.: mixture of men, women & children vs. all football players or teenage boys, light eaters or big eaters, will there be appetizers or other food, ECT.)
ADVANCE NOTICE MAY BE REQUIRED FOR ORDERS OF 3LBS. OR MORE OF PORK/BEEF OR GUMBO, STEW AND SIDE ORDERS BY THE GALLON.</br>
Pulled Pork or Sliced Beef by the pound When figuring out how much you need to order we find it easiest to think in terms of sandwiches. What size roll will you be using? For catering we use the Costanza small dinner roll......this will give you approximately 5 sandwiches per pound, because it is a smaller sandwich many of your guests may eat two. A rule of thumb we use for a diverse group is to multiply your number of guests by 1.5.....this is the number of sandwiches you need. Divide the number of sandwiches by 5 to see how many pounds you will need.
Chicken We can cut your whole chicken into ½’s, ¼’s or 1/8’s depending on your preference. For a buffet, we generally recommend cutting it in eighths as it will go further and there will be less waste. Based on 8 pieces per chicken you can figure about 3 pieces per person for a diverse group with the chicken as your main entrée. If adding a second meat, we generally recommend averaging 1.5 pieces per person.
Ribs A full rack of ribs is 12 individual rib bones. We use the St. Louis pork ribs which are a larger, meatier cut than the baby back ribs. With ribs being your main entrée one full rack would feed 2 – 3 people depending on your group. Serving ribs as a second entrée’ one full rack would feed 4 – 5 people, again, depending on the makeup of your group.
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo or Brunswick Stew These are both a great addition to your buffet as they are hearty and simple to serve as you just put in a Crockpot for your guests to help themselves to. One gallon will give you about 25 small cups of the gumbo and about 20 small cups of the stew. The gumbo yields a little more as it comes with rice on the side for you to add right before serving. One quart will give you about 6 – 7 small cups of gumbo and about 4 -5 small cups of stew.
Side Orders Baked Beans, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw, Macaroni Salad, Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas are all available by the ½ pint, pint, quart and gallon. One gallon will give you about 25 - 30 side portions, one quart yields 6 -7 servings, one pint serves 3 – 4 and ½ pint serves 1 – 2.
