Cooking for a Crowd – Kitchen Tips, Tricks & Hacks

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It’s been a bit since I shared some kitchen tips, tricks, and tools that I’ve picked up along the way. Recently, I’ve been working in my local elementary school cafeteria as a substitute, and I have picked up a few tricks and tips on serving larger groups of people. So I’m calling these my Cooking for a Crowd Tips, and I’m going to share them with you.

1. If you are making any sort of patty (beef, pork, chicken, turkey) for a party and try won’t be able to make them to order, you can make them all ahead of time. Then simply put it in a pan with some broth (or au jus). You can use beef jus for burgers, chicken broth for chicken or turkey burgers or even vegetable broth for any of them. You don’t need to make soup, just put enough to submerge the patties in whatever dish you are using. This will keep them juicy and tender.
2. Prepping all the parts ahead of time is key. Figure out what you need for one serving, and then do the math! Once you have the numbers, always round up. This way, if someone wants extra of something or if some things come out of the package wonky – like a bag of buns that is missing a whole bun – you can still make things work.
3. This one was a bit of a shock to me – but everyone doesn’t love sauce! I know, crazy talk, but it’s true. So when serving a larger group, it’s better to keep the sauces – gravies, au jus, dressings – separate and let people add as they like. You can use squeeze bottles, or simple put the ladle in a smaller sauce pan and let folks do what they like. This also helps things from getting soggy in the time between prep and serving.
4. Bread products are totally freezeable. Bagels, muffins, sandwich bread, whole sourdough boule, rolls, cookies, cakes, and more. For the most part, you just thaw them on the counter. When it comes to whole (uncut) loaves like a sourdough boule – you want to run the boule under cool water and place in a 450degF oven for 10 minutes. It will be as crisp on the outside and soft in the middle as the day it went into the freezer. Most other baked goods just need a few minutes to thaw on the counter and then pop in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350degF.
5. Whenever possible, pre-portion dishes. While we all love to serve family style – it can often end up with someone getting way too much of something and another someone gets none of it. And unless you are going to stand there and make everyone’s plates – it’s better to make clear portions. You can use small serving cups like ramekins or disposable 4oz or 2oz cups. You can also just cut the dish up in the serving dish to show what one portion looks like.

A lot of the process of cooking a meal is in the techniques used to do different things. Sometimes, it is about having the right tools and gadgets to achieve different things. But other times, it is simply about having the knowledge of how to do different things – like how to roll a burrito up, or how peeled, seed, and dice a cucumber. Obviously, there are some things that are purely logical and other things you would never have thought of if someone else didn’t show you. So I wanted to create a series of Kitchen Tips, Tricks & Hacks that I have picked up along the way to make my cooking experience more efficient, easier, and even sometimes more fun! Obviously as the old adage goes – “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” – which is 10000% true – so if you have another way to do one of these things – please tell us in the comments.

Do you have any kitchen tips, tricks or hacks that you want to share? Do you have any ideas on other tips, ticks or hack you want to see?

I love to link up my posts to lots of blogs around the internet – check out this Ultimate Handy Linky Party List to find some of the places I share to!

Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:

AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR KINDLE eBOOK VERSIONS

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