The thought of cooking large meals for masses can be overwhelming, if quantity cooking was as simple as multiplication life would be easier all around, but there are plenty of things you can do to make it smoothly with confidence.
Whether you’re hosting a holiday party or happen to have a large crowd throughout the year, here we shared some personal tips that will help save you time.
1. Make miniature version of your main dish
Use bowls or tins to easily create individual portions that are as fun to look at as they are to eat. A lasagna or mac and cheese cooked in small pottery bowls will both help you in terms of portioning and prevent food waste.
2. Go for a open buffet instead of individual plates
Make a sample dish along with the open buffet. Guests can easily look at the sample dish and imitate it.
3. Make no heat-sensitive dishes
Choose foods that can be reheated and/or held at temperature while still retaining taste, texture and visual appeal. Make sure you don’t serve heat sensitive dishes in order to prevent being too mushy. Especially some sauces can freeze when cold, be careful with these. if necessary, guide your guests to pour the sauce onto their plate rather than mixing it with the sauce.
4. Embrace minimalism
Avoid too many crowded items and combinations, focus on dishes with a maximum of 3 main ingredients and one type of spice so as not to mask the taste.
5. Make sauces beforehand
Imagine you are making a lasagna. When you have time within 24 hours, it can save you time to start by preparing sauces and fillings and keeping them in the fridge. When it’s time to eat, you can easily sauce between the layers of lasagna and put it in the oven. You can also prepare the lasagna uncooked and store it in the fridge.
6. Chop salad ingredients beforehand
Start by washing and cutting the salad ingredients, store them in the fridge without mixing them together, blend them with the dressing when it’s time to eat, or serve the ingredients in separate bowls and let the guests mix them.
7.Make large dishes that can easily be doubled
Stir-fry, soups, stews, salads and pasta dishes are fairly straightforward and simple to double or triple, depending on your number of guests.