Have to cook for a crowd (35 people). How?

Anything to do with camping, fundamentals, secrets, etc...

Scouts

Postby doitright » Sat Oct 17, 2009 11:06 pm

You could do as I did in when grandson was in cub scouts. I was Cub master for two years so we had six camp outs. Well I was always busy with all my stuff I had to do setting up camp and making sure everything went well. What I did is say here honey would you cook then run like Hell. We had 98 cubs and with moms dads brothers sisters it would be about 250 people. I do not know how she did it but she did. I know that it seams as a daunting task but use the moms and dads and cubs have them help as much as possible. You have to make sure that you are in charge of the food and have it there and all that you need for cooking. What you do not want to do is farm out your food prep because the one family in charge of the meat will always not show up for one reason or another. Cooking is only one thing that has to be done. You have pre camp out food prep, cooking supplies , waste, and dish washing,also fire tending . Find out before you go who will do what and if someone tells you -------- you know what you need to do -------- guess what you say thanks I did not think of that and it would help out very much if you would take care of that for me. That way they solved a problem and they got a job.
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cubs

Postby doitright » Sat Oct 17, 2009 11:12 pm

Hey you have a boyscout troop that the cubs go to when they get old enough so ask them if they have a camp chef two burner stove and a griddle you could use. Talking to them you may even find some help and hints because boy scouts love to help.
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Postby Jiminsav » Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:41 pm

the cubs need to learn how to cook early..so let them burn some grub... :lol:
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Postby unforgiven » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:09 am

well, for my first post it'll be a doozy!!!


well, the wife and i did a dinner for the jeep club we're in on a trip last year. we planned the max estimate: 35 people, eh bout 22 showed. noone went hungry for the entire weekend,lol. the menu: bbq babyback ribs, roasted baby spuds, smokey baked beans n' bacon, a good sharp coleslaw, and dinner rolls with butter.(sorry no marg for this guy!!)

now i have to admit, we cheated!!! :shock: :o :shock:
we are both chefs, lol.

that also means we can get some sweet foods at even sweeter pricing. the protein was an already cooked/sauced bbq ribs that are sooo good they fall off the bone. that was 4 cases=40 lbs of cooked ribs n' sauce!! they come to us frozen 2 bags/box. each bag was put into tinfoil pans and covered with tinfoil. put back in the freezer. so, 8 pans.

the starch was baby roasted spuds. the cheat, 25 lb box. we boiled them at home the day before the trip, put them into 6 tinfoil pans with garlic butter and seasoning, cover with tinfoil. chill in freezer overnight.

the side was home made baked beans n' bacon. no cheat. put into 4 tinfoil pans, covered with tinfoil. chill in fridge twonight for a full flavour balance.

the veg was homemade coleslaw with homemade vinegar based dressing. no cheat. boiled vinegar base dressing will keep coleslaw good in the fridge for six weeks. DO NOT USE A MAYONAISSE BASED DRESSING for anything where you even might be concerned that the holding temp is not cold enough. the coleslaw was put into 2 - 2 gallon buckets and chilled for 3 nights in the fridge.

now, all of our "hot pans" were doubled up initially. so we used 36 tinfoil pans from the local grocer, the rectangle ones about 9 x 12. tinfoil tops were also doubled. on trip day (day before the meal) we layered everything in 3 coolers, noting to ensure it went frozen fresh frozen in the stacks if ya know what i mean. when mealtime came, all the prep was already done at home, the ribs were still nice and frosty, keeping the spuds and beans perfectly refrigerated as well. the coleslaw made home in the coolers as well as 3 pounds of butter(from the freezer) for the dinner rolls too.

cook time!!!! got back to basecamp from a trailride about 4 pm. the night before, i built up a pit from rocks in the camp area, that was large enough to house all of the hot pans 2 wide by 9 long. poured three 20 lb bags of charcoal into the pit(piled as much as i could) started them up, used a shovel to spread em once they got goin good. layed all the hot food on. see, it was all cooked already, it just needed a good flash of heat, and grilling for the spuds. so the timing on all 3 items was identical!!! ya don't get much better than that!! by 6 pm dinner was served buffet style off a picnic table, as pans were emptied, a new one was grabbed off the fire.

now we practice strict pack it in pack it out guidelines, so all the topfoil and tinfoil pans came home and were then discarded. keep in mind not to store these things anywhere near your tent as bear bait!!!

our workload:
day 1 unpack and repack ribs, keep frozen. about 30 minutes
day 2 make coleslaw. pack and chill. about 15 minutes
day 3 make beans. pack and chill. 10 min prep 8 hours bake 15 min pack
day 4 boil, season and pack spuds. freeze. about 1 hour
day 6 heat and serve buffet style ie; COME N' GET IT!!!"

so, for about 2 hours and 10 minutes of oh so hard work, everyone had one heck of a meal that they still talk about to this day!!!

long winded, but to the point, step by step how it's done for any size of large group.

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Postby Wig » Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:59 am

wow man! that makes me want to go get a jeep.
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Postby RAYVILLIAN » Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:15 am

At LCG breakfast we have lots of help but we get up start lots of charcoal, get the 14" oven going with monkey bread, start the 12"s with mountain man breakfast, get Julie makin waffles and keep cooking till we run out of food or hungry people. Usually lots of helpers and lots of watchers it's a early birds party.

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Postby MikeIA » Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:42 pm

For the family reunion last year (100+ people), I took the 200,000btu propane heater that I picked up on clearance from Northern Tool, and removed the round top. Into that I set a 20 quart turkey fryer pot (clearance from Lowe's). The handles on the side of the pot held it from falling too far in.
It brings 5 gallons of water to a boil in less than 10 minutes, and is a lot more stable standing there than a turkey fryer. We boiled corn-on-the-cob with it, but it would also make RV omelets in a big hurry.
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