Rice and Meat for a Crowd

Filed in archive Around The Kitchen , Tricks & Techniques on November 7, 2006

On Saturday, we have a community event and I need to bring food for at least a hundred people. No problem, I'm used to cooking for the multitude, that's just family and friends. I've cooked for at least two hundred and after all the grocery shopping and prep work was done, everything just fell into place. I suppose it's the training I got from my grandmother. They didn't have caterers when she was born, I'd always hear her say.

I'm having trouble with the weekend's event though. I may be used to bulk cooking but it has always been at home. I have a good eye for what's needed to be refilled and all I just have to be plan ahead. My event is going to be somewhere else this time. I need to bring ready to eat food and at a certain number. I was told to bring rice. That's no problem but how much do I need to bring? I can't keep going home to cook a potful, hehehe!

Fortunately, my neighbour, a teacher who's a veteran at cooking for school events gave me this handy formula, more like a rule of thumb:

1 kg uncooked rice = ten servings, if it's single serve. If it's a buffet, make it good for eight. The same rule applies to meat.

I tried cooking a kilogram of rice earlier and what do you know, it's a perfect estimate!