Need advice on catering for 40!

lc123

Hi,

Need advice please! Its my sons christening soon, and I am doing the food myself as it is working out too expensive to have someone in to cater for me. There will about 35-40 there, and I'm just going to do the usual... sambos, meat platter etc. Only thing is.... How do you know how much food to get?!! Main query I have is about the sandwiches.... very different knowing what goes in to the making of 40 when you are used to making 1-2 at a time!! Was thinking of just doing 2 types... ham/cheese and maybe salad or egg mayo? Any advice greatly appreciate!! Thanks!!:) Also if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions about what I can make that would be great!

Chronic Button

Hmmm, sambos for 40. Let's imagine that everyone eats 4 triangles of sandwiches. That's two slices of bread. An average loaf has about 18 slices, if I recall correctly. That's 9 people catered for. I reckon therefore that 4 sliced pans would provide a mountain of sambos.

I'd keep fillings as simple as possible. Aldi and Lidl do good pre-sliced meats, cheese and egg mayo.

Ham and cheese / butter
Egg mayo / butter
Maybe sliced roast beef / mayo

Another handy number for big groups is a big vat of soup. Everyone feels they've had a good meal with a bowl of soup and a sambo. That can be made in advance. If you didn't feel like making sandwiches, you could just buy 40-50 crispy bread rolls, making life even simpler. Lay out a platter of ham, cheese, roast beef and bowls of salad, egg mayo and coleslaw, and people can fill their own rolls.

Then if you are doing cocktail sausages, everyone loves those. Let's say everyone eats 4 of them. That's 160 cocktail sausages. There's about 32 cocktail sausages in a pound of them. That's exactly 5lbs of cocktail sausages.

Then add a cheese board, crackers, a fruit platter and lots of nibbles (nuts, crisps etc.), and everyone will be happy.

Tea, a tin of luxury biscuits and a big christening cake for dessert and you're set.

lc123

Some great ideas there thank you!

Chronic Button wrote: »

Hmmm, sambos for 40. Let's imagine that everyone eats 4 triangles of sandwiches. That's two slices of bread. An average loaf has about 18 slices, if I recall correctly. That's 9 people catered for. I reckon therefore that 4 sliced pans would provide a mountain of sambos.

I'd keep fillings as simple as possible. Aldi and Lidl do good pre-sliced meats, cheese and egg mayo.

Ham and cheese / butter
Egg mayo / butter
Maybe sliced roast beef / mayo

Another handy number for big groups is a big vat of soup. Everyone feels they've had a good meal with a bowl of soup and a sambo. That can be made in advance. If you didn't feel like making sandwiches, you could just buy 40-50 crispy bread rolls, making life even simpler. Lay out a platter of ham, cheese, roast beef and bowls of salad, egg mayo and coleslaw, and people can fill their own rolls.

Then if you are doing cocktail sausages, everyone loves those. Let's say everyone eats 4 of them. That's 160 cocktail sausages. There's about 32 cocktail sausages in a pound of them. That's exactly 5lbs of cocktail sausages.

Then add a cheese board, crackers, a fruit platter and lots of nibbles (nuts, crisps etc.), and everyone will be happy.

Tea, a tin of luxury biscuits and a big christening cake for dessert and you're set.

Emcm

What about rather than making sandwiches which would be very time consuming roast / boil a ham the day before and just have it sliced up and you could have a wee buffet style with a green salad some egg mayonnaise and some pasta or rice salad and then some crusty rolls or brown bread. A nice salad always goes down well.

Good luck it's a big number to cater for hope you have a great day

Oops just read previous posters think I just repeated what was said that's was I get for skimming through posts

ArtyC

I agree with above posters. I used to cater lunch for 30 people every week for work.
I started with soup- crusty rolls.
Then as above said a cold meat and salad platter to make their own sambos. Egg mayonnaise was s huge hit and ver cheap to make.
Then there's always specials on chicken in supermarkets- legs, wings, gluons etc....
Also cocktail sausages and wedges are cheap, handy. Even if you just keep a few in freezer just in case you have hungrier guests than expected.

the beer revolu

I also think Chronic's idea is good.
Nothing makes me sad like a big platter of sliced pan sandwiches with meagre fillings gradually soaking into the awful bread when I'm really hungry.
Really, what's to like about that?

Dizzyblonde

I always catered myself for our daughters' christenings, Holy Communions etc. I baked a whole ham and a couple of turkey breasts, sliced them up onto platters and served them with a selection of salads and breads. It's so much easier than making tons of sandwiches. You can roast baby potatoes and serve them at room temperature too.

amklo

Also agree with the platters, half price hams in SuperValu at the moment too after Christmas which should help. I'm sure some of your family would take a salad to make too which would help you out, pasta salad, rice salad etc or an alternative desert. People are always glad to help for these things.
Enjoy the day