How much is enough?

How much is enough? With any dinner party, braai (barbecue), or family function that you cook for, one of the biggest worries for the host/hostess is how much food do I need?

Whether it is 10 people or 50 people knowing how much you need will help you plan your shopping and keep your costs down to what will hopefully be a reasonable amount. Don’t forget that you can also ask people to bring something, even if it is just a drink.

With the Jewish Holidays coming up in a week and December around the corner, I thought,  “How do you judge how much food to make”?  The old joke about a Jewish hostesses dilemma is this – if there are no leftovers, then we didn’t make enough food and if there is too much leftover, nobody liked the food!

I don’t actually think it is a totally Jewish issue, I think it is a Mediterranean ancestry issue also.

After some research with my friend Google, I found a wonderful little site called www.dummies.com

To help you out, so you don’t have to look for it yourself, or convert from Imperial (US) to Metric (everywhere else in the world), I have done the work for you.

Do you have enough?

Appetisers with a meal to follow, there should, apparently, be a choice of 4 appetisers, with 6 to 8 pieces per person (this is 2 of each appetiser)

Soft drinks 1 to 2 glasses per hour! (don’t let the guests linger too long)

Soups  1 cup if it is served as a first course

Main course Boneless roasts 250 gm per person.  Roast with bone 400gm per person.  Chicken with bones 350 gm (about 2 pieces) per person.  Chicken without bones 250gm (still about 2 pieces)per person.

Side dishes Potatoes – 1 medium per person, rice and couscous, or quinoa, about 40 gm (around ¼ cup) per person. Vegetables, like carrots and broccoli or beans, about 85 gm (also ¼ cup)

Dessert  Ice cream, 200 gm per person (just under 1 cup). Puddings, also 200gm per person

How this works out for a 10 person yom tov meal is:

20 pieces/ slices of gefilte fish, ½ kg each of chopped herring, Danish herring and 20 pieces of kichel, 8 soft drinks, 2,5 litres of soup, 2-3kg roast or 3,5 kg chicken (3 chickens if it has the bone in), ½ kg rice or other grain type vegetable and ½ kg of other vegetables (remember to serve 1 starch and 2 other vegetables), lastly dessert, 2 litres of ice cream and 2 ½ kg of pudding or fruit salad.

Don’t be worried if everything is eaten and you have very little left over, if everyone cleared their plates you definitely made enough foood.

Having too much leftover after a dinner party can mean that you made too much food and now you have wasted a lot of money.

I hope this makes planning your meals easier! Ess gesunteheid! (Eat with health).