I was telling Jason about my new column and asked if he had questions I could write about. He said, “Let’s say I’ve made something like a particular lamb stew recipe for six people and it’s such a success that one of the guests calls upon me to do the same thing for 50 people at a block party. What kind of professional chef tricks would you suggest I use to be able to scale up the recipe I know for a bunch of people – and still have it taste basically the same?”
And in the most dismissive way, I responded, “I can answer if you like, but in this case I’d simply scale it up 1:1.”
What a totally bitchy way to reply to a completely reasonable question. So I made it worse. When he replied, “I’ll think of something else,” I responded: “I can answer that one if you like, it’s just dividing and multiplying” – and added some kind of laughing emoji.
So, here, in front of everyone, I want to apologize, Jason. When I ran your idea by someone else, they said, “I want to know how to do that, too. I want to know how you would cook for a lot of people in a home kitchen.” Then I started thinking about the difference between wet and dry measures and other complications and realized there are things here to dig into.
Let’s do it.
I just dropped a tidbit about wet vs. dry measures, so I’ll pick it up quickly.
There are handy, dandy shortcuts for all the measuring names:
A teaspoon is a lowercase t and tablespoon is an uppercase T
A cup is either C or c, which is confusing, but try to roll with it and be not afraid.
A pint (2 cups) is pt
A quart (four cups) is qt
A gallon (four quarts) is gal
A pound is lb
And an ounce is oz
A wet measure, or measuring cup, is a glass or plastic thing. Rarely metal. It’s like a milk pitcher with a lip to pour out the liquids, and measuring amounts printed so you can see them while you pour. Liquid is measured in ounces (oz) cups, pints and quarts. A glass measuring cup often appears in sizes of 2c (1 pint), 4c (1 quart, which is a quarter of a gallon) or 8 c (½ gallon).
A dry measure is a spoon, scoop or cuplike thing, maybe with a handle, with no lip. I’ve seen metal or plastic versions, but not glass. Usually the spoons are in a set of ¼ t, ½ t, 1t and 1T, and the cuplike things are sets of ¼, ⅓, ½ and 1 cup (or cups, with an s, even when it is not plural. Why, oh why?)
For good measure there are 8 oz in a liquid cup, and I remember this by the old mnemonic “a pint’s a pound, the world around.” It is not actually true and should be “a liquid pint’s a pound in some places,” but for my purposes I have found this to be very useful as 8 oz is also a cup.
Pounds come into play mostly when you are working with meat and vegetables, and in some baking recipes, often European. Sometimes you are asked for a cup of chopped onions or similar. Nope, that is not really a cup, because the ingredient does not sit flat, as a liquid or something like flour would. This is another one of those instances when I sort of fudge it.
Fudging is better done in cooking than baking. Cooking is art, and baking is science – if you are baking, try to keep the ingredients measured accurately. If you are cooking, I will again encourage you to be a little more free with it all.
Which brings us to scaling up. Let’s say you have a recipe for eight people that calls for a teaspoon of salt. You want to feed 50 people.
You have options. Divide by 8 and multiply by 50, or multiply by an easier number and get close. For example, 8×6=48.
So we go back to that recipe and multiply the salt times that 6. But measuring out 6 teaspoons is arduous, and if you are me you are likely to forget how many you have put in. To the rescue comes some conversions!
Conveniently, there are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon. We go from measuring out 6 to simply measuring out 2, and even I can keep track of that.
There are 12 teaspoons, or 4 tablespoons, in a ¼ cup, should you want to multiply to that degree. Even less to keep track of!
Do you need to remember all this? Not with the Internet around. If you prefer not to turn to that medium, there are plenty of conversion charts out there for your convenience.
The next issue is the size of containers, pots and pans you might find in a home kitchen. For things such as soups, this is an easy fix: Split the ingredients. For example, if you are meant to be using 4 quarts of broth or stock with a bunch of veggies, you can prepare the veggies, split the stock and ingredients evenly into cooking vessels and combine them equally at the end. This is also how I would cook a stew or the like.
When you finish there is going to be the issue of what to put food in for transportation. I love a good, commercial Cambro container. It looks like this:
If you are local you can get it at China Fair, 2100 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge. (Watch out, though: China Fair is a virtual playground for the home cook, full of all kinds of wonderful pans and storage containers.) A bucket with a tight lid is a good investment if you cook for a large group of people. Much more economical than lots of quart containers, even if you have collected those over years of takeout.
When cooking in big quantities, it’s important to be sure things cool properly before storing in the fridge. You can cool foods in smaller batches, then combine.
Confused? Be not. At the end of the day everything is an experiment. You’ve got this, and when you throw that massive party I expect an invitation.
Now, here is one of my favorite recipes for a big group. (It’s good to stay vegan, gluten and nut free when you do not know who you are feeding.)
How I do it: Vegetarian chili for 10
This recipe scales up so well! If you are cooking for many people, just remember you can do it in multiple pots and combine.
Feel free to cook all the onions and spices together and split them up to add the soft ingredients.
You can use a mix of pinto, kidney or other beans. Kidneys will break down less, black-eyed peas will break down more. Black beans will make the chili dark but no less delicious. Note that dry beans can become cooked beans either by soaking overnight and boiling for an hour or until soft, then draining or by boiling once, letting sit for an hour and boiling again in clean water. Do not add salt; it will make beans tough and difficult to cook. You can add onions, carrots or other “aromatics” if you wish.
If you use fresh, red tomatoes, remove as many of the seeds as possible, dice and cook them to get them soft. If you use canned food, I like San Marzano.
Ingredients
1 cup of chopped onion
8 cloves of chopped garlic
2T ground coriander
2T ground cumin
4T chili powder, which is a mix of ground red chilis and other spices. If you wish you can replace this with paprika, which is also a ground red chili powder
1t ground cinnamon
1T salt
4 cups of cooked beans
4 cups of diced tomatoes, with juice
1T unsweetened chocolate powder (optional)
In a soup pot with a heavy bottom – not a thin aluminum one, which is harder to keep from burning – sauté the onions and garlic in olive or other vegetable oil.
When they are soft, add all spices except for the chocolate and mix in well.
Continue to sauté for 5 minutes or until the spices are cooked fully into the vegetables.
Add the beans and tomatoes and bring to a boil.If you are using the chocolate, stir it in.
Cook for at least 1 hour on low heat, stirring occasionally. If the chili appears to be too thick, add water or vegetable stock.
Serve with corn chips, sour cream, avocados, tortillas, shredded cheddar cheese, queso fresco or whatever your heart desires.
Send cooking questions to JJ Gonson, a personal chef at Cuisine en Locale, at jjgonson@csindie.com.
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