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’d just bung them all in the oven, at 3 at a time you’re going to be microwaving for nearly 3 hours

Can you do something with the spuds other than baking them? Baking will take hours. I know the spuds have been bought already but still!

I'm in awe of this challenge. I'd take the easy road myself but obviously I'm lazy as heck 😂

Agree with this. Oil and salt makes the best baked potatoes.

I have regularly cooked up to 150 jacket potatoes for scout camp! As long as it is a proper big oven and not a small household one you should be able to chuck them all in and as long as you can leave them in there for 4-5 hours they will be fine. easier than faffing with microwaving or pre cooking (and then having to store them properly to prevent food poisoning!)

@waitam I don't think I can do anything but bake the potatoes at this stage. However I will be there really early - like 730am - and the potatoes don't have to be served until about 2pm. So my current evolving thinking based on this thread is that I will preheat the oven, clean oil and salt them all as early as possible, metal skewers if I can get some, and then put them in by 930am .. or even 9am to make sure they are ready in time.

Cool before and reheat on day

Sounds fine, let us know how you get on.

At the back of my kitchen drawers I just found 14 metal skewers, I didn't even really know I had! They look like I could fit two potatoes per skewer, so maybe I'm halfway there on the skewering.

Yes cook on the day and in nice and early. Metal skewers are a great find- good luck!

Prick them all over with a fork too, helps the steam escape so they don't burst. It'll be very steamy in that oven so this is important

What fillings are you doing?

Do you have a big standard insulated cool box? Foil them, cook them, then keep warm in the cool box.

We used to do it like this for a catered outdoor event (think a Jilly Cooper-esq shooting party)

Omg this is a great idea. We're not doing baked pots this weekend coming but probably for January so I'm trying this for sure!! (squirrel leader instead of Scouts, can I join the baked potato gang? Also I cook enmass for Samaritans not my Squirrels but still, the Scout Baked Potato Squad is obviously cool)

I am just road testing the potatoes on skewers method (with one skewer's worth) in my home oven right now, thanks to all the advice on this thread!

@Allseeingallknowing There is a selection of butter, cheese, veg or meat chili, or baked beans, plus coleslaw

I’d say microwave before. Even 10 mins with 5 at a time. I know it’ll take a while but less stressful. Shove in hot oven

Delicious!

Cook them ahead of time them warm them up. I never foil.

The baked potato report from today.
Thank you so much everyone for all the tips. The potatoes came out brilliantly.
In the end we washed forked oiled salted and skewered 40 potatoes (because there was also rice).
The PP who talked about the oven getting steamy with so many potatoes was quite right, so every so often I opened the door briefly to let all the steam out. I would say it took them about 2.5 hours to cook - but I think it would have been longer without the metal skewers.

After 2.5 hours I took the pots off the skewers and just piled them in the oven on a low temp to keep warm (although as another PP recommended, I also took a lidded box with towels to keep the pots warm if needed, although I didn't actually use). After a while we switched off the oven and the potatoes were still fine an hour later.
If I did it again ... Now I know the oven at the sports club and know that it takes 2.5 hours to bake 40 skewered potatoes I would have started a little later than I did, as they were actually ready a bit earlier than I expected.
(But obviously you have to know the oven, which I didn't.)
All the advice on this thread really set my mind at rest when I was worrying earlier in the week about getting the lunch ready on time ... MN wins again x

Thanks for letting us know @nongnangning and glad it all went to plan! 2.5 hours sounds pretty good for 40 potatoes to me!

Glad it all went well.

🎉 well done! there is something satisfying about feeding lots of people

Do you have an Instant Pot or pressure cooker? You can pre-bake around 8 at a time and then reheat in foil at the event.

edit: just seen you’ve managed to cook them all successfully. Well done!

I need 30 for Sunday, I need some metal skewers

@SleepingStandingUp
I need 30 for Sunday, I need some metal skewers
You might be able to do this with just 10 skewers. I threaded 3 potatoes per skewer.

Well done OP, one thing I don’t miss about my children being younger is the dreaded kitchen duty at the rugby club. I remember well getting early to Sainsbury’s to buy 80 hot dog rolls one Saturday!