Cooking for a Crowd
The invitations have been sent, the date is set, and you have received a lot of positive responses – now what? Cooking for a crowd can be a challenge... but it doesn’t have to be.
The most important thing to remember when cooking for a crowd is: preparation. That’s right, one tiny word can save you loads of time if you just remember to prepare everything that you can ahead of time. The worst possible scenario would be to have all of your guests arrive while you are slaving away in the kitchen hour after hour – after all, you want to enjoy the party too, right? So, now that you know the secret to handling any large group, you will have to take a careful look at that menu.
Almost everything can be made one day ahead of time, and many things can be made a few days ahead of time. When you begin looking through those cookbooks, choose recipes that can easily be set-up prior to the big day. Most modern recipe books will have some sort of “make-ahead” notification next to those recipes that can be made in advance, though you’ll have to go through older books with a critical eye. Also, nearly every dessert out there can be either refrigerated or frozen.
One great dessert to make when cooking for a crowd is chocolate mousse. Since this dessert only gets better with time spent in the fridge (make sure to cover it tightly!), you can make it up to two days ahead of time. Another great dessert to make is pie – freeze pie shell and refrigerate your filling until you want to put them together and pop them in the oven. If you are going to make a large dish (such as lasagna), prepare all layers ahead of time, place the dish in the fridge, and bake it one hour before guests arrive.
As with the main course and dessert, you can also whip up any appetizer (vegetable trays can be chilled up to two days ahead of time) or mixed drink in advance. Really, the only thing that has to be on the day of your gathering is any meat that should be made to order. Everything else can be made ahead of time, chilled, and cooked one hour prior to arrival – see how easy it can all be?
As you can tell, cooking for a crowd does not mean an instant heart attack. Instead, plan ahead to make sure that you have time to put out a fantastic meal, and join the party when guests arrive.