To think feeding 40 people for £50 is more than possible

[user1486841477]

I was planning to make a chilli con carne, curry, pulled pork, meatball pasta, carbonara in large pots.

Add sides of rice, garlic bread, potatoes, chips, pizza.

Snacks of crisps, nuts, quiche, cocktail cheese and pineapple, cruidetes with dip,

Large homemade cake

Different desserts.

My mum thinks this doesn't sound that interesting and I should be doing fancy canapés etc.

Caterers all wants £6 a head which I can't afford and don't need to ask I'm a good cook.

Am I being too ambitious?

What would you do to feed 40 people on £50?

You could do a great Indian vegetarian buffet for that price, Daal, chick pea and potato curry, pakora, home made chapatis, root veg curry etc,. a lot of work, but would fit the budget- you will need catering size kitchen equipment though.

My parents regularly go to a particular club which caters for £1 a head and they eat really well. She's always amazed at how it can be done but as it happens every month they must manage it somehow. I think it all sounds fine.

Absolutely doable, especially depending on what cupboard staples you already have

Cupboard staples aren't free!

I've already priced my shopping list up at £50.

And the price of things you already have and will need replace?
The cost of electricity?
Your time spend cooking and clearing and washing up and the costs involved in that?

Yes, you can do it for less than the caterers but not for £50.

Forget pasta it will be rank if it's not fresh. I would do chili, veggie curry and shepherds pie personally

I batch cook spag bol. I get the mince from Sainsburys which have a 5, 10, 20 % fat option. No one is fat so I just used to always pick the middle one 10%. My husband (a chef) was watching my cooking extravaganza one day and he told me buy the 20% fat basics mince and just cook it for ages 3hrs so the fat breaks down. It is lovely nicer than the more expensive one.

Is pizza a side dish?

I love your intentions (everything homemade, right up my alley) and optimism but surely buying the pork and beef alone for 40 will push you over your budget. And while I adore spaghetti carbonara and it is cheap, difficult to make in bulk at just the right time. You don't need as many options as you are giving.

Bearing in mind what you've said about the desserts and pizza, I think it's totally possible, but with a few adjustments. Wouldn't bother with the snacky things, that sounds like it will take up too much of your budget without really filling people. So you will have about £40 for everything that isn't dessert or pizza? (Although yes, drinks? Is it in a pub?)

Agree with others that the carbonara isn't likely to keep, so I'd ditch that. I'd definitely go for the chilli con carne and other similar type stuff. So meatball curry will likely fare better than meatball pasta. You can probably make the pork go further if you take that same pork shoulder and do it in a big stew with a lot of root veg and some tinned tomatoes. Nice at this time of year, especially if you happen to have a dash of cider you could flavour it with.

People have mentioned veggie, I think this can go either way. If you know there's going to be one or more veggies there or even if you can't be sure there won't be, I think you NEED to have at least one dedicated vegetarian dish (and maybe let them up first to get it). Salad, rice and garlic bread isn't going to cut it. If you're sure there won't be, though, could go either way, so I'd approach the 50% veggie idea mentioned upthread with caution.

Certain crowds would feel as the poster upthread does and be trying to reduce animal products even as meat eaters etc. In which case, you probably want just one or maybe two meat dishes and the rest vegetarian, to reflect that most people will either not eat the meat at all or treat it as a garnish. Others won't at all, and doing half veggie dishes will likely result in the first half all taking one small ladle of them and piling into the meat, and the stragglers getting the veggie dishes only with a few scrapes of the meat dishes and complaining about it. You have to work out which crowd is yours.

If you're going to get the latter, and I catered for something similar last month with 20 people for about £25 excluding drinks (I did already have spices, oils etc) then you may be better off with the minimum of vegetarian stuff and instead serving meat meals that have a lot of veg in them- ie the same amount of meat and vegetables but sort of served differently.

I would do a daal or a bean chilli as it's very cheap and easy, but any more would depend on the crowd.

I can't see how you can do it.

What's the large homemade cake going to be?

If I make a large chocolate cake, I cost it up as

£2 worth of butter
£1 eggs
50p for flour
£1 for sugar
50p for cocoa powder

Then icing
£1 for icing sugar
£1 for butter
£1 for chocolate

That would already be £8 out of the budget and i guarantee it wouldn't give you 40 portions...

Sorry if this has already been said; I haven't read all the posts. Do you know what everyone likes OP? (And what they dislike.) Because me personally, I can think of half a dozen people I know (and who I would invite to a party,) who are vegetarians; and also 2 vegans.

I am a veggie myself, and most of the things you mention in your OP, I would not want to eat. If I was aware of what was going to be on offer, I would eat before I came to your house.

I think you need to check more what people may like.

I also think you will struggle to make all this for forty people, for just £50.00.

JMO.

Just wanted to add (as a poster said earlier in the thread,) many meat eaters will be happy to munch on mostly vegetarian stuff, but veggies won't eat meat. So I think it makes sense to make the buffet say, two thirds vegetarian.

Pasta isn't a good food for a smorkesboard, I would make two dishes that keep well in a bain marie

A lovely casserole using pork as it's economical & a vegetable curry, then rice can be served with both dishes

Has the OP been back?

Yes I also think it's too much choice. I think I'd do a chilli con carne and a veggie chilli with rice and then some tortilla chips, sour cream, grated cheese etc.

I've done buffets for 50 quite a few times.

The cost isn't the issue here, it's the prepping and the timing - especially if you are not using a commercial kitchen.

Chill - yes, make in advance
Curry - yes, do two, including a veggie, make in advance
Rice - yes. As well as doing some to go with the main food, use some of the rice to make a rice salad using a couple of cans of mixed beans and some spices
Caribbean macaroni pie. If you have the energy make two - one spicy, one not. Make in advance
Sausages to go with the mac pie, cook in advance. Pulled pork ok instead but you need much more to go round, whereas with sausages people tend to take only 2, 3 at a pinch.
Garlic bread - not worth the effort - too much space in oven needed at a crucial time. Serve sliced baguettes instead.
Big bowl of salad.
Crisps

I'd then add some quiches to the mix so that people can have quiche and rice salad and quiche doesn't need reheating. BUT a good quiche is heavy on the cost of the basic ingredients (LOTS of cheese, LOTS of eggs), so I might be tempted to buy them ready made if I was on a budget.

I'd also do a trifle (or two - one for adults with shedloads of alcohol) in a big glass bowl, with layer after layer of different coloured jelly, and layers of angel delight in the kids one. Dirt cheap to make as the only expensive ingredient is the layer of cream on top.

It sounds fine, probably much nicer than catered too go for it .

Will all these people be able to sit down to eat? Or will they be attempting to eat that food standing up? Personally, I don't believe you could do all that, plus lots of veg, plus lots of desserts, for £50. You also haven't mentioned drinks, or how it will all be served. It's likely the popular options will run out rapidly and a lot of people will go home moaning they didn't get much choice, unless you make sure you have been very generous with the quantities. Also, crudités with dips are rapidly a bit gross if forty different people are dipping them and their crisps and anything else they fancy into the dip. Is all this stuff going to be laid out on a table, or several tables, for people to help themselves, or will you be running around like a blue arsed fly offering them trays of dips and snacks? Will you have equipment to keep the hot food hot, or will it rapidly cool down? It's a lot of hot food to all be ready and hot at the same time. What sort of kitchen space is it all being prepared and reheated in? Will you really do all the cooking, preparing and serving yourself, or will friends and family be helping? How far is where you will be setting the food out from the kitchen where it has been prepared? How much room will guests have to queue up and do you have enough crockery, cutlery, cooking equipment, serving dishes and glasses? Caterers would be able to take a lot of the logistical, equipment, food safety and service hassle away from you. Do you have reasonable experience of catering for relatively large numbers of people?

I think you have way more options than you need and it seems a mish mash.

Are there any veggies coming?

I would stick with just two hot dishes, smaller range of carb sides, interesting salads and nibbles.

And are you sure there aren't any vegetarians who hate or are allergic to eggs or dairy products in your guest list? The food is very meat, dairy and egg heavy.

I was thinking OP was probably doing the food for somewhere like a pub where people would be getting their own drinks. It sounds like the sort of spread for occasions like that I've been to.

Formerbabe - maybe I make my cakes to a lower quality than you do. And I don't usually price stuff up, but on a rough estimate I think I'd make 2 very large chocolate cakes on your figures, of a size to feed 40. And that's using gluten-free flour and dairy free marg because that's how I need to cook :)

Formerbabe - maybe I make my cakes to a lower quality than you do

I doubt it..I use ingredients from the value/basic range.

I couldn't make a basic large cake for less that £7-10 each either. So that would be £14-20 of £50 budget on cake.

It does sound like a lot of work, you're planning to make 6 diff main meals (inc pizza) for 50 people. So that's 6 full dinners each for around 8 people!

And I'm not sure carbonara will work being kept warm due to the egg content, old pasta goes pretty rank too

Can you not keep it simple? Maybe stick to a theme... curry night, American (pulled pork/chilli). Make a meat main, veggie option and a simpler derivative of the mains for kids. With sides that work for all... so you dont need bread, pasta, potato and rice.

When you give lots of choice there will always be a favourite. So you may find one or two dishes run out and the rest are untouched.

It may not be classy enough, but proper baked potatoes are great, you can have a dress your own spud bar, with with fancy toppings (sour cream, chives) and sides, then two great vats of home made meat and veggie chilli.