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)?

I can’t stand roasties but did enough for 5-6 for other people, carrot/swede mash, broccoli in cheese, Brussels, honey roast parsnips, asparagus, red cabbage plus all the meat

I did a kilo (peeled weight) for four people. There was an adult sized portion of leftovers.

That is bad times 😪
We have just had pudding. DM has gone home, DS is off to his room. DH and I are settling down for a bit of telly, wine and snacks 😋

MIL used to do boiled potatoes with everything including Christmas dinner. I used to take a bag of auntie Bessie’s and they’d get wolfed down. Think it just took someone saying it was roastie time Bless her she’d make Christmas dinner so complicated though, getting up at 5am to put the oven on low so the turkey could go in. You couldn’t beat her stuffing mind, it was the stuff of legends no pun intended. I’ve got around 20 spuds left today and they will no doubt get eaten tomorrow. Would always overcater rather than under.

I did a tray of roast potatoes , & a pot of mash with mixed herbs & onion in it , 2 sides of veg & yorkshires .
There was 5 of us .
1 man .
We have loads of left overs .
One tray of roast potatoes doesn’t sound nearly enough OP , especially 4 men !

I always cater one potato or 1.5 potatoes per person. I can’t imagine eating five, so I’m probably the wrong side of this argument. If I’m catering for people outside the family I’ll double the portions in future as I’m obviously too meagre.

I used to work at a football club and a favourite bar snack was a bowl of roast potatoes. I was always making tonnes of them!

Ahh that's disappointing. We had 2 trays for 6 of us. Plenty left but gotta make sure there are plenty of roasties

I forgot to add
Turkey & Ham & pigs in blankets incase anyone thought we just had veg & potatoes & home made gravy of course 🤣.
I just ate dessert there , was too full after dinner , & now I’m back to being too full again 🙈
Choc mousse cake with cream, & I drank coke with my dinner in fancy wine glasses 🤣
Christmas Dinner at Missj25 s house 2025 🙌 😊

Please tell me your tips on how to cook loads of roast potatoes! I can’t figure out how to do more than one tray because they won’t roast properly if both trays are in oven at same time, so they tend to get a bit rationed. This year I overcrowded my tray a bit but luckily they came out ok, not great though. They are by far the most popular bit so would love to provide more than enough rather than this rationing business I have going on.

I cooked 8lbs for seven of us (including three hungry Teenagers), planning for some leftovers.

I'm wondering how big the trays are that people are talking about. I did 1 tray for 5 people and there were plenty, but my tray takes the whole oven shelf (other stuff inc roasting beef was using the other shelves) and had as many potatoes as would fit and still cook properly. 1.3kg. I did do Yorkshire puddings as well, plus cauliflower cheese, carrots, sprouts, red cabbage, pigs in blankets, stuffing and the meat.

How would you have space in your oven for more, unless you've got more than one oven?

@banivani you need to turn the oven up really hot, to at least 200 degrees, and preferably cook them in animal fat. If you take the roast meat out about an hour before you want to eat, it will stay hot, covered with foil, while you crack on with the roasties. It doesn’t matter how many roasties you do, they will all get eaten.

We had 4 half potatoes each and it was plenty along with red cabbage, parsnips stuffing balls,pigs in blankets and sprouts. And turkey and gravy,obvs.

Peel potatoes (good floury type),cut into chunks and parboil in salty water then drain and shoogle the pot to fluff them up

Add goose fat/lard/oil (whatever fat you like) and make sure they are all covered.

They go to the top of the oven at 200°. Check them quite often, I turn mine with spatula so they are covered in fat and don’t dry out and are rotated on the tray.

This way you can slightly overcrowd them.

We served 3 roast potatoes per person earlier (we had 7 people to feed) which were all on one tray. Some people left some too.

I peeled about 3 kg of potatoes and that fills my oven tray quite nicely with very few gaps. I find when they’re that crowded the result is less good and some bits can be soggy (appreciate that I might have too much fat, I try to not use too much). I’d like to have at least another half of that amount for everyone but if I have two trays in oven the tray on the bottom wouldn’t get browned nicely and rotating trays doesn’t really work for me, seems I just let the heat out. So it was one full tray, 3 kg, for ten adults and it feels a little mean.

When people say 1 roastie per person, do they mean one potato, but cut into 3 or 4 individual bits? Pr are some people expecting 1 piece of potato to be enough....? It really isn't!

I only eat one piece of roast potato, but I am a teeny tiny and own that. I can’t eat more than that and a piece of parsnip, vegetables, stuffing and meat. I have to prioritise as I just can’t physically do it. However, I would assume it’s one medium / large potato that cuts into between 2 and 4 pieces and would allow 2 of those per person if I was catering to adults. Always over cater I guess is the message.

I did far, far too much food. My roasties are generally fab and crispy but for some reason they just didn't work out as well. Maybe the space needed in a tray, and an over stuffed oven. So disappointed. Have lots of food left over for bubble and squeak.

@Rach247 that is seriously disappointing. My eldest son (20) usually has at least 6 roast potatoes!!! I always do extra so I can actually get some Lol

I did two trays for ten, and they were all eaten…

I have just heard from my OH (we were each with our own Children) that his Mother have them ONE Pig-in-Blanket each. That would have been more effort to make than it was worth.

To be clear, I love roast potatoes. But I don't understand how you can do 2+kg of potatoes and fit anything else in the oven? My oven only has 3 shelves, so if you have carrots + parsnips, plus pigs in blankets + stuffing for one shelf each, you only have a single shelf left for roasties!

@FableLies they will crisp up well tomorrow with more space between them, I like them better twice cooked personally 🐷

Yeah everybody hates you and visits MacDonads on their way home as they are starving Didn’t the BOWL of potatoes give you any clue?

I do 4-5 good sized potatoes minimum per head plus extra for teens/anyone who is sporty or active. On average teen DC eat 8-10 roasties per meal. And scarf any leftovers.