NEWSKILL Cooking for 100 or more

Among other things, I like to cook. I have been cooking since I was tall enough to reach the table or counter-top. And I seem to cook wherever I find myself traveling. I have noticed there are some similarities, some differences in approach. Depending on the location and occasion, there are many differences in type, quantity, and quality of food prepared and served.

I have searched a few websites to provide general information for preparing food for 100 in the US. Here are some examples:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/48082/cooking-for-100-amounts.html This site provides an idea of quantities of food which will provide 100 portions of food for 100 people.

http://monsterguide.net/how-to-feed-100-people Some anecdotal information about purchasing food in bulk, obtaining cooking equipment large enough to handle preparations of food for 100, recommendations on buffet vs other ways of serving food, etc.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4718631_dinner-people.html General tips on fund-raising, a sample recipe for chili for 100, etc.

Here are two anecdotal accounts of some of my experiences cooking for really large groups of people:

New England Harvest Supper (dinner) (maybe 400 people?):

Get in a kitchen full of ladies. Wash hands, pull hair back, put on aprons, roll up sleeves.

Peel and core 4 bushels (about 15 apples per pie, 20 pies: 300 apples) of apples. (Save peels and cores in a pail for animals.) Slice them and throw the slices into big pots of water with lemon juice so they stay white. Shake water off slices, add 20 cups sugar, 8 cups flour, about a cup of cinnamon, grate a lot of nutmegs, mix it all together and let it sit. Combine 30 cups flour, about 4 lbs butter/shortening/lard, about 1 handful salt, and enough ice water to make it stick together. Chill. Separate into 40 lumps, roll into 40 circles, line 20 pans, dump in apples, cover with other crusts, cut steam h***s, start baking.

(Do the same with peaches, and pears, and berries)

While they bake, peel 400 ears of corn--leave on 2 or 3 inner leaves. These will go on the barbecue for 15 or 20 minutes, as needed. Pre-cook and warm back up if a big crowd is expected.

Clean 50 chickens. Cut into quarters. Soak in salty water for a little while. Dry off, put in trays and keep cold until time to cook. Wash your hands and all the prep tools.

Make 200 hamburger patties. Keep cold until time to cook.

Take the pies out and put them somewhere safe to cool.

Buy 10 gallons of baked beans, or bake your own (3 lbs dry beans, spices, water per gallon serving) the night before, and reheat.

Make 200 biscuits and 200 rolls the night before. Put them on trays to serve.

Go outside, look at the flame-colored leaves on the trees, hear geese flying south for the winter.

Light your barbecue charcoal and get it hot (2 hours before you need to serve, minimum!) Plan for up to 1 hour to cook chicken quarters slowly, so they are well-done and don't dry out or burn.

Make or buy barbecue sauce or dry rub for the chickens. Start to cook them. Leave someone to watch and turn the pieces as they cook.

Peel and dice about 100 carrots, 10 onions, 100 cuc**bers, 15 tomatoes (do these early if you want to drain the liquid), mix them in huge bowls with fresh, chopped herbs, salt, pepper, vinegar and oil. Toss and set aside.

Put the corn on a separate barbecue.

Check the beans to see if they are hot. (Too late if they aren't...)

Get all the plates, utensils, napkins, condiments, drinks and cups, and everything else on the tables.

Put the food on the tables. Say hi to the people as they come by.

Dumplings on a Train between Beijing and some mountains in China (lunch) (maybe 1,000 people?):

Get in the kitchen-car of the train with about 10 Chinese chefs, 8 doing four other kinds of dumplings, 2 to work with me. Wash hands and put white cloth hat on hair, roll up sleeves. Try to remember how to speak.

Put about 20 lbs of rice in steamers, cover with water, fasten lids, start to steam. Move on.

See a pile of ginger (20 roots?) and start to peel it with the back of a spoon. See chef rubbing it with damp cloth, copy him. Take 2 big cleavers from chef, watch him a minute, and start mincing ginger as fast as possible with 2 cleavers in a drumming rhythm. Scoop all ginger into bowl.

Slice, dice and mince piles of green onions, parsley/herbs, shallots, garlic, a bunch of carrots, a pile of cabbage, a bunch of peeled shrimp and a pile of pork together with other chefs. Put some of the carrots, and all of everything else, in the bowl. (Save peels and whatever else in buckets for animals.)

Add oil, seasonings, rice powder; mix with huge paddle. Look out the windows at some really beautiful scenery (fields, bamboo, trees, mountains and some really huge rocks) while working.

Get a pile of filling, a pile of wonton wrappers, some chopped carrots, and a stack of bamboo steamers, stand next to the two chefs (with the same supplies).

Watch the two chefs grab wrapper between thumb and fore-finger, put in a ball of filling, and expertly pleat wrapper around filling, garnish with a bit of carrot, and expertly toss into the perfect spot in each bamboo steamer. Try to emulate chefs, manage not to drop any filling or dumplings, and manage to assemble a few steamers full while a couple of chefs finish all of theirs, and begin filling my pile of wrappers with my pile of filling, tell some jokes, garnish mine and theirs, and pile up the steamers for cooking.

Wash hands, steam dumplings, get condiments, and get ready to serve food on moving train.

Try to remember how to speak.