baking 50 potatoes at the sports club - any tips?

[nongnangning]

I am the volunteer mum doing the kitchen catering at the sports club this weekend.

We have to bake about 50 potatoes to serve at about the same time.
The sports club oven works fine (I checked) and there is also a working microwave.
Has anyone done this before and do you have any tips?
To foil or not to foil? Do they take twice as long to cook because there are so many?
Advice welcome!

I have done 80 in a large oven on cub camp with no foil. Took ages - like 4 hours. Easier to plan for a long time then keep them warm. Is it a fan oven? Ours was not so a fair amount of rotating

Microwave/cook them beforehand

Reheat them to crisp the skins up in the oven at the sports club - you can pack a few in a slow cooker to keep warm if space is an issue.

Nothing worse than an undercooked baked potato which is what will happen if you try and cook 50 on the day

I'd pre bake if you can, then reheat on day.
If you have metal skewers thread your potatoes in those, it helps get heat to the centre of the potato.
I dont foik, just wash and dry them, put them on a tray, splash with oil and salt, then put in the oven. I start fairly hot 220, and then reduce heat once outsides are looking nice and brown.
There will be lots of steam from 50 potatoes, so i would be twmpt3d to do them in batches the day before, then pop in the oven on the day to heat up and keep warm.

Microwave them first as pp says then crisp in oven. I’ve had to do 100 potatoes for an event once and they needed to be ready across the span of about 4 hours and it was so stressful doing them in the oven as they did take bloody ages!
at the time we were getting the spuds from the supermarket and actually we could get the frozen microwaveable potatoes as cheap as the packs of baking potatoes but decided against it - we really wished we had gone for the convenience option as those premade frozen ones actually taste pretty nice and would have been entirely suitable for the event. I appreciate you might be getting your spuds in a more economical way than we were! But if not do check out the frozen ones

Those saying microwave them first...that would take HOURS!! If you do 3 potatoes at a time for 10 mins each go, it would take nearly 3 hours. I'm not sure my microwave would survive it! Is there a/several commercial microwave at the club? I'd go with the prebake and reheat on the day option.

Just chuck them all in the oven. No need for foil.

This, I've never wrapped a potato in foil in my life !

I would definitely bake them the day before as it will take hours to bake them all at once on the day. And that way you know they're cooked, nothing worse than an undercooked baked spud!

I fork them, oil them, salt them and put them in the oven to cook for a few hours. It depends on your oven size tho. I can fit 80 odd in our cookers as it's a proper catering kitchen. Never bother foiling them

What about a reheated dry overcooked one?

I do this for our scouts bonfire every year.

Cook them at home(s) before hand, in foil.
Put them in an insulated picnic box to keep warm.
Fill up empty space in the box(es) with towels.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

I can do a bit of everything suggested (although not cook them the day before, I now realise, because someone else is buying and I won't have them until the morning of the day.)
So summarising from everyone ...
I will wash, fork and splash with oil and salt, but not foil.
I may be able to do the pre-microwaving bit. I will test this out early in the day if I can
Start very early with the oven baking. In my home oven it takes 1.5 hours to get a decent potato. @SleepingStandingUp How many is a few hours?? Maybe 4 hours do you think? @fabricstash said 4 hours upthread.
I will also take something to keep the potatoes warm in, like a big box and line it with old towels or try and borrow an insulated one.

Agree with the Cub Scout leader, as also someone who has had to do this on camp, I’d microwave before oven, but if you can’t, you'll need hours in the oven. You say oven works, but does it get up to temperature and stay on?

@ihavetocookagain
I've checked the oven works (it does) and it's reasonably new and in reasonable condition. However I haven't myself tried cooking anything in it. I will have to hope it does get up to temp and doesn't conk out.
There is one microwave, which works.
So I could start microwaving early which would allow time to at least get some done and then store the microwaved potatoes in an insulated box until I put them in the oven. I don't have a microwave at home. So I am thinking, what, 3 or 4 spuds in the microwave, cook on full power for 10 mins? (Do I do the salting and oiling before the microwaving or after?)

I didn't set the menu BTW. I am just the kitchen volunteer!

when I cook them in bulk (also a scout leader) I sometimes thread them on metal skewers. Easier to manipulate around the oven, minimises explosion and in my head it must bring some heat into the centre of the potato.

I would just load up the oven and keep it on for hours!

A metal skewer definitely helps.

Has someone at the club done the same before? If so, I’d find out who did it and ask them for advice, since they’ll know what equipment you have available

Is there any alternative to baked spuds I wonder? Seems like a lot of oven time and faff for something that could be replaced with e.g. a huge pot of rice or pasta or something like that.

I'm just thinking out loud here!

@waitam There is a pot of rice as well (which goes with chili) and will be a good Plan B if the potatoes fail. I will be interested to see which is in more demand on the day.

Thank you for the reminders re metal skewers, 3 x PP. Good idea. I will go and have a look in the supermarket for some.

Oh god no don't cook them in advance, reheated baked potato is bogging

How big is the oven? I've done 100 before using 2 domestic ovens so 50 should be doable. They will need the full 4 hours cooking time though.

I've cut up spuds in half before when cooking for large numbers. Speeds up cooking time.

You are amazing to do all that as a volunteer, hats off to you.

If I were presented with such a task, I have no problem saying I'd be off to Iceland (shop) for bags of frozen wedges, chips, and what not!

I would definitely consider the frozen ones for ease. I've also par boiled them first. Another scout leader here - mass potato baking is obviously a scouting skill.

@helpfulperson I will have to go with non-frozen ones this time round as that's what the shopping volunteer has bought. But I will buy a pack in the supermarket and test them at home - never tried them before!