Crowd Cooking Planner: Scale to the Guests, Count the Pots, Pans and Packages

Home › Calculators › Crowd Cooking Planner

Opens on Chapter 18’s example: Paz’s Thursday supper: 60 guests and a stew that serves 8.

Guests

Buffer try 10%

Recipe serves

Pots and pans

A bowl (cups)

Pot size (quarts)

Fill each pot to

Pieces a pan

Ingredients: name | amount in the recipe | package size, same unit (optional)

Recipe lines

Prep

Items to chop

Minutes each

People chopping

Load another example from the book

Enter your numbers, then press Work it out.

How it works

The factor is guests × (1 + buffer) ÷ the servings the recipe makes. Every line is multiplied by it. The pots: guests × a bowl, in quarts (4 cups each), ÷ what one pot holds when filled to a safe level, rounded up. Packages: the scaled amount ÷ the package size, rounded up. Pans: guests ÷ pieces a pan, rounded up. Prep time is items × minutes each, shared among the people chopping.

From the book, Chapter 18. 60 guests from a recipe for 8 is × 7 1/2 (× 8 1/4 with a 10% buffer): 11 1/4 cups of lentils, oil 3/4 cup + 3 tbsp, cumin 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp, water 11 1/4 quarts. 90 cups of stew is 22 1/2 quarts: 3 pots filled to 3/4. Lentils are 4.82 bags, so buy 5; tomatoes 8 cans. Cornbread is 5 pans for 60 and 6 for 66. Fifteen onions are 30 minutes alone, 10 with three people. Every chapter and its calculator →

Amounts can be typed as 3, 0.75, 3/4, 1 1/2 or 1½. They’re worked as exact fractions and written as a cook measures them: cups in quarters or thirds, then tablespoons, then teaspoons to the nearest eighth. Everything stays in your browser: no sign-up, nothing stored or sent.