How to stop over-catering at Christmas

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I know this should be a simple "buy less" and I am generally a frugal-minded, concious shopper. I hate food waste and try my best to avoid it. All our left-overs will get eaten and we will graze through all the goodies but the management of this stresses me out. Every year I say I will try and manage the quantities better and every year I fail! So looking for tips from those of you who manage it. I cooked for 7 and did 5 small roasts each, still loads left! A carrot each, still loads left, 2 turkey joints (to serve 4 each) definitely more than one portion left.

So those of you who are experts at hosting and with minimal left at the end of your festive time, please post your quantity/general tips here.

I have a note on my phone,
it tells me - how big a turkey I need,
it tells me not to buy too many Brussels sprouts
it also tells me, one tub of gravy etc etc

also has a basic shopping list with the extra bits I am likely to forget
lemons
cream etc

i then review it and change anything during this week so it’s all ready for next year.

has worked well for us for the last 10 years.
i have enough food, but don’t end up throwing away very much at all.

I have bought much smaller turkeys or turkey crowns in the last couple of years and still had plenty left.

It’s the custard/cream/brandy butter I can’t get right. I want to give everyone a choice with their pudding but then end up with all the leftovers.

Is there really “loads” and”so much left”?

Custard is long life [let’s face it - no one really can tell)
cream gets used for soup later in the week
I don’t do brandy butter so I can’t help you there

I cooked for 7 and did 5 small roasts each, still loads left!

I never heard of such a thing. Either you have a family of sparrows or the roast potatoes weren’t very nice.

I know right?! Loads of compliments on the crispy outside but fluffy inside potatos. Not exactly sparrows, but clearly I have misjusdged somehow.

Helpful. Yes, hence this post.

Make a note of what is left over this year and buy less of that next year.

This year we had enough for sandwiches on Boxing Day and that was it.

Thankfully roast potatoes still taste nice the next day!

I’d love to live in a family with leftover roast potatoes! My mum does 3 each, which is enough but means no leftovers as they are everyone’s favourite part of the meal.

We don’t eat meat so I can’t comment but we do:
Veggie main
3 roast potatoes each
1/2 number of carrots as people
1/2 number of parsnips as people

Regardless of the number of guests:
Massive red cabbage (we make a pickled version so it lasts all of January too)
1stalk sprouts

There is always leftovers of the veggie main and dessert (and red cabbage, but this is by design). Nothing else is left. We eat the veggie main the next day and the dessert might stretch 3-4 days as there are so many other sweet treats too, but it all gets eaten.

5 small roasts each, does this mean roast potatoes?
I didn’t even have one roast potato, there are way better things to eat on a Christmas dinner and I’m not filling up that space with potato!
We tried to scale it back this year, we cater for loads on Christmas Day and then go away after Christmas so send guests home with leftovers.
I think a tv chef once said that actually the more people you are, the less food you actually need because you do more sides and people take fewer of each than you’d have if there were just the 2/3 sides with a standard roast. Also people eat slower because there is more chat and naturally the slower you eat the fuller you feel because your body has time to register when you’re done.
Didn’t help us though; still a lot of leftovers!
Mind you a lot did go during the evening buffet so not much waste.

You aimed for 5 roast potatoes each so 35 and lots left ?

eating cold roasties are fab with a bit of salt

Can't you just use the leftovers?

We'll be having the last of the meat in sandwiches for lunch today and the leftover roast potatoes with breaded chicken and corn on the cob for dinner (we only had our at home Christmas dinner yesterday!)

Yes (re-read my post, will be using them) my point is I want to reduce what we have left.

It’s because there are so many different components of Christmas dinner that you actually need less of each. I felt so stingy buying a turkey crown for 4 to feed 6 and allocating half a carrot each but, with everything else in the table, it was plenty and we still had loads left.

We love the leftovers so I cook specifically too have them-bubble and squeak for Boxing Day is a must have with a cold ham.
DC will eat every day after for lunch until it is gone!

I do have a notebook that I write notes in so next years me can see-
would something like that help?
Quantities you bought this year and advice to future you for next year?

My waste was more about the cheeses, pate and crackers stuff! I've stopped buying it now. Decided with DH this year, if we actually fancy cheese and biscuity type meal - the shops always sell bloody cheese and biscuits!

Something about Christmas makes us all go mad - like the people who panic buy bread and milk at the first sign of a snowflake.

Unless the cost is a problem, or food ends up being wasted, I don't see the difficulty. We remove all the meat from bones after the meal and leave enough for Boxing Day meal. The rest is frozen in one meal size portions. It can then be thawed and either just eaten cold, reheated or served in a sauce. The roast potatoes will last for a couple of days (could eat cold but I reheat in frying pan with left over stuffing or parsnips) or could be frozen. Any other veg will freeze if not eaten the next day. It only becomes a problem if you can't afford it or struggle to work out how not to waste leftovers.

I thought five roasts meant five different roast meats!

Five potatoes is a lot for one person. I could do eat that many but no one else in my family does, we allow 3 each and then it evens out ok because the kids don't like them.

I work out quantities by literally counting what each person will eat. You only need half a carrot for one person really, one parsnip, and a handful of each of the other veg.

We didn't have any leftovers from our meals (except turkey obviously but that's for sandwiches).

You have to stop yourself from adding extras out of panic! It took me a few years to get it right.

I think the thing with Christmas dinner is sometimes we don't consider what else is being served. If you're serving 6 and you buy a turkey that serves 6 but you're also doing ham then your turkey can then be smaller. Then you've got pigs and blankets etc etc. So that's something to be mindful of

The only perishable thing we have left is cheese. But it's because I like to have variety on the cheeseboard and you can only buy the whole chunks, I wish they did half sized!

Anyway I make a huge macaroni cheese on new years day so it doesn't go to waste, any left after that gets frozen to use in cooking later on the year.

We have a lot of crisps and frozen party food left but they will get eaten gradually.

I cook for 4 adults and 1 teen who doesn’t eat any veg. I cook a 7kg turkey, 2 bags of potatoes, 2 bags of Brussels (will do 1 bag next year) 2 cabbages, 2 broccoli's, 1 cauliflower, sausage meat, 20 stuffing balls, loads of pigs in blankets, not so many carrots and parsnips.
Nothing gets wasted. All the potatoes and veg bar carrots and parsnips gets used for bubble the next day and actually could have done with more as we had to ration the bubble a bit. Also had to stop the teen from eating any more potatoes as needed them for bubble. Turkey gets eaten in sandwiches and cold for Boxing Day dinner.
Threw a few stuffing balls away but that’s gets put in sandwiches. The main thing there was too much of was Brussels.

@Hufflemuff I think for me in childhood it came from sense of stocking up because shops did close for a few days and we had a huge snow storm one year.
So there was a real hunkering down feel. It's just not necessary now

In catering circles it's reasonably well known that food doesn't scale linearly. So 7 adults is not (7 x 1 adult). It'll end up more like 5.5 adults.

I start scaling down quantities once you get over 5 people, there are some quite decent online "catering calculators" to figure out quantities for larger numbers.

Another way to think about it is the per person total amounts of:
g protein (as in, total weight of the meal component containing protein, so the meat, fish, tofu etc. and less of each if you're doing multiple types)
g carbs (potatoes, parsnips, rice, pasta etc per person) [and also scale this down for large numbers of people]
_ g veg (so if you have 5 types of veg, you need much less per person than if you only have 2 types).

leftover roast potatoes are an absolute must! If they’re left to properly cool down, with no condensation in the containers when you put them in the fridge then they stay sooo crunchy the next day and cold roasties sprinkled with sea salt the next day are often even better than on the day! I don’t make roasts very often, but when I do I always make plenty, in the hope that there will be leftovers. If I can resist eating them while they’re out waiting to go in the fridge, that is! 😄
I have found this really only works if cooked in a vegetable oil, leftover roasties cooked in something like goose fat are really not as nice the next day. Bit like cold roast lamb isn’t as nice as other leftover meats.