SC - The High Cost of Feasts/Events

[Brenna]

>
> Our usual solution to this is to go through the menu, and calculate the
> total amount of boneless meat per person for all dishes combined. We figure
> that it should come to half a pound if we expect people to be hungry and
> there are not a lot of substantial non meat dishes, somewhat less
> otherwise. Elizabeth's record as of about ten years ago (we haven't run any
> feasts lately, aside from the one at thirty year which other people shopped
> for) was about $2.50/head.

We usually go just slightly higher.  Our usual is a three course presentation
that has 4 oz of meat per person per course.  In addition, we cook half the
expected serving of sides per person per course.  We figured that if we do it
this way, if a person is allergic to a dish and skips it, he still walks away
stuffed.  If we cook less, the person who is forced to skip because of allergies
usually walks away unsatified from the meal.  We pride ourselves that they
don't.

>
>
> Of course, a second thing that makes feasts expensive is cooks who are not
> making a deliberate effort to keep them from being expensive--to
> concentrate on the least expensive available meats, for example.

That is the beauty of the checklist.  As meats come on sale for 2 months before
a feast, we are stocking in the deep freezer.  We can look for sales on anything
we need and keep track of what we have already bought.

Brenna


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