One (average sized) tray of roast potatoes for eight people

[Rach247]

…including four large and permanently-hungry men. Just seen it being prepared at my in-laws. No other potatoes, boiled carrots and broccoli are the only other sides.

AIBU to be disappointed (and preemptively hungry)?

Ive just gone and peeled some more spuds after reading this thread...there are only three of us for dinner!

@DahlsChickenz

Is your Ma in law a countess in a large drafty stately home?! Generally that's where I've been served dinners like this, usually while picking shot out of the meat..

I suppose it depends on what else is being served and how large the potatoes are.

Oh dear. DP would probably cry if this happened. He said his mum used to make a small number of roast potatoes and quite a lot of mash. He hated the fact that he had to eat mash on Christmas Day (like they had all the time anyway), with just one or two roasties. I think he might be traumatised as he brings it up every year and he’s 59🤣🤣

Oh come on, there's enough food around at Christmas for you not to be hungry, surely?

When you think about the meat and all the other stuff, no-one's going to starve.

You sound a bit ungrateful to be honest.

Roast potatoes are the heart of Christmas dinner. In my family it-would be moaned about for years if there were just a couple of roasties per head.

I told DP about your one tray situation and he is both traumatised and appalled.
He calculated that you need a minimum of 32 large roasties but at least 40 if they are small to medium and there's no way they would fit on one tray, especially when you need to roast the parsnips as well.
We're having roast potatoes (allowed 5 or 6 per person - sorry), roast parsnips, mashed carrot and swede, peas, and green beans. With luck there will be leftovers for tomorrow.

Sounds a bit mean but they'll just have to be shared out.

I'm more concerned that there doesn't appear to be any sprouts, stuffing or pigs in blankets.

I would cry.
I've done 2 trays for a family of 5. Dd1 and I are potato fiends and any left overs will be hoovered up tomorrow. There is nothing worse than having to eat at someone's house who undercaters.

Google says 250gr a head, we are doing 350gr or basically a kilo for three of us. We also have roasted carrots and parsnips, sweet potato, green beans and sprouts! And Yorkshires. No one will be going hungry here!

My DH was one of five so his DM (who worked) had budget for and feed seven. Roast potatoes were rare and then only one per person. MIL simply didn’t have the oven space for roasties or energy for mash. She cooked huge pots of plain boiled potatoes.

How many per person? I would probably only have two, my DH 4 or 5 with a meal, average 3 per person maybe, but it really depends how much other food there is.

That’s a new one, shortbreads with the roasted stuff!

I’m only cooking for me, DH & our three grown up DC. I will do three roasties each as we have starters & there’s lots of other things on the plate.

If I had guests, I would no doubt go way over the top & do a massive bowl full 😂

New potatoes here!! And parsnips. Don't know if DH is planning on yorkshires or not. I hope so.

Scrimpy dinner is the worst.

We had more than that between 3 adults and 2 small children of 4 and 2 (granted there were leftovers)

I know my audience though... We cooked 16 stuffing balls and 16 pig in blankets and there was 1 stuffing ball left 😵‍💫

Exactly!!

ive cooked for 3 adults and in total 2 have had 3 small potatoes and 1 has had 1 potato!

ive

3 roasties per person plus an extra person's worth for every four people is what I was taught. It's not let me down yet...

Oh I feel for you! The last time we had Christmas dinner at our in laws they served what I would describe as a young childs portion of basic roast dinner, no starter or desert or snacks. I snuck out to a garage that night to get some Doritos and dips, I was starving!
There's definitely a point where older parents start eating less and less, and then their idea of what a usual adult portion is really skewed.

We no longer visit in-laws on Christmas day* we take them out for a meal on a different day (where they'll take 3/4 home in a doggy bag and comment throughout about how much I'm eating)

(*This sounds mean, I'd be happy to host them at ours but they don't like to travel, and MIL doesn't like anyone else being in her kitchen so we can't change what would happen at theirs)

We had 10kg for 10 adults. We did want leftovers for bubble and squeak. We had parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, Yorkshire puddings and other veg too

Part of hosting for a celebration like Christmas means aiming to overcater! In my experience, people tend to want leftovers later on in the evening. Nothing like a couple of roasties and pigs in blankets with a cheeseboard!

Boiled potatoes for Christmas, ew 😮

Boiled potatoes in general to be fair!

Outrageous. We just ate 24 roast potatoes between 4 of us (teen DSs managed 8 each!!!)

Thanks all, I’m glad to know I’m not alone in feeling that was about one eighth of the required potatoes!

Also accept that I do sound ungrateful and that is true. I could/would never say it to them.

I can now confirm that the meal was tasty but far too small. The final, smallest roastie sat in the serving dish with everyone eyeing it for a few minutes, until my brother in law swooped in. There were 10 pigs in blankets between us. A cereal-bowl sized dish of carrots. Every plate and serving dish was licked clean by the end. No leftovers at all, slightly hungry guests, and I just cannot be comfortable with that (coming from a family of serious over-caterers).

Back home now and the children are scarfing down bowls of Weetabix.