Chili Recipe - This could be a stupid question.

[WhoAteMySnickers]

I need to make a pan of chili for a party at the weekend. I've got a good chili recipe but it only serves 4 people. I need to serve about 16.

So I thought I'd just multiply all of the ingredients/measurements by 4, however I've just been speaking to someone who said that it doesn't work like that and it will taste funny, she reckons some of the spices need to be adjusted and I'll need less chili.

Has anyone else made a dish for more people by just mulitplying the ingredients? Did it taste ok? If not, does anyone have a chili recipe to serve 16?

Thanks in advance.

I always scale up by just multiplying the ingredients, but definitely taste as you go along to make sure it tastes ok. Don't see why you would need less chili as it will be diluted through more volume of liquid/beans/meat.

For chili for 4 people (with some leftovers) I'd use 500g mince, 2 tins chopped tomatoes and 2 tins beans (and then all the other bits and pieces, onions, spices etc). By that logic for 16 I'd be using 2kg mince, 8 tins chopped tomatoes and 8 tins beans.

Hope you have a giant cauldron on hand...

I've found you do need more than 4x the spices (used to cook for crowds of hungry 20-something boys at uni!). The key really is to taste it. I generally go for the "shake it in" rather than measure approach, and when I was cooking big batches I'd shake in the amount of spices I'd use for a 4 serving, then do it again, then a third time, then a 4th time (and this is where you'd normally stop), but then do it again (or once more for luck as I used to call it!).

If you taste it after it's been cooking for a while and you think it doesn't taste strong enough, chop up half an onion/whole onion and fry it off in a frying pan with a little oil and a hefty extra dose of spices, then stir that into your chilli. If you put extra spices in after it's had the liquid added it will end up tasting gritty.

If you want the flavour of the chillies but not all the heat, but half the chillies in whole, then pull them out at the end. The flavour will leach out but not the heat.

Thanks everyone!

Think I'll go for the x4 method at first and see how it tastes, then use your method squiggle of frying off an onion and mixing extra spices in that way if I think it needs them. I'm making it on the morning of the party so plenty of time for adjustments if needed.

We've got a cold buffet for earlier on, the chili is for those who stay late, so if it doesn't taste too good hopefully they'll be too sozzled to notice!