Can someone advise quantities for Xmas dinner

Jenny.W

I really don't cook much but for xmas day have my family over. I'm roasting carrots and parsnips and have no idea how many to buy for 6 adults? Would a kilo bag of each be ample?

also, 200gm bags of kale - 1 or 2?

Also to save money on buying a bottle of mulled wine, Sainsburys sell mulled wine spice bags - do you add this to red wine over heat?

flubberyzing

I would have thought so...

How I do it is to think about how much of something I would eat with the meal? Probably one carrot per person, and probably less than that for parsnips.
Of course, there will always be someone who wants more, but similarly there will be someone who won't want any of a particular thing.

So if I was cooking for 6, to be on the safe side, I'd do one per person, and a spare for the pot, just in case.

I can't really help with the weights per se, because I struggle to picture that! I work much better in actual numbers of things.

As for the mulled wine... Do the family actually like it? Or just tolerate it because "it's christmasy"? None of my family like it! Might you have more success with a bottle of bucks fizz? Or even some fancy local apple juice?

Jenny.W

flubberyzing wrote: »

I would have thought so...


As for the mulled wine... Do the family actually like it? Or just tolerate it because "it's christmasy"? None of my family like it! Might you have more success with a bottle of bucks fizz? Or even some fancy local apple juice?

I like it :rotfl:

lostinrates

If I served one parsnip per person here I would be lynched. .

What size appetites do your guests/family have? For us, I always do extra veg at Christmas because the left over veg is delicious, and left overs are the best part of Christmas for me!

Phoolgrrrl

I'm wondering about this too. We are 'doing' Christmas for the first time. I was thinking 1kg of carrots and 1 bag aunt bessies roast parsnips, that is for 9 people.

How many brussel sporuts? Would 1 500g bag do for 9? I reckon 7 will eat them.

Potatoes? 1kg roast and 1kg of mash?

HappyMJ

Re: Brussel Sprouts....500 gram divide by 7 is 71 grams. That'll be a small serving of about half a cup but it'll be OK.

Potato I'd always do extra. They always go quickly....

scaredy_cat

i'd do 1 1/2 carrots per person, 1 1/2 parsnips (depending on the size) and about 6-8 sprouts per person, and allow 4 roasties per person.

and pigs in blankets, well, i love em and do 8 for me! i then eat them cold in the evening!

Idiophreak

Just try to imagine the plate of the biggest eater, then scale it up..Personally, I (being the family lard-!!!) would probably have, maybe, 8 roast potatoes...Which are quarters of large potatoes...so 2 large potatoes each...I'd have a scoop of carrots - 12 sticks? at 8 sticks per carrot, that's 1.5 carrots each...and the same of parsnips. A nice spoon of cabbage, maybe 1/4 of a cabbage each. Probably the same of red cabbage. I'd have around 1/4 of a brocolli and 1/4 of a cauliflower(in cheese - yum) and I guess that's around it in terms of veg.

Remember, it's *much* better to have too much than too little..As lostinrates says, leftovers are great (always buy some streaky bacon to go with the bubble n squeak ) and there would be nothing worse than finishing Christmas dinner and being peckish.

And as for 500g of sprouts? Too much. Around 500g too much!

Idiophreak

scaredy_cat wrote: »

and pigs in blankets, well, i love em and do 8 for me! i then eat them cold in the evening!

One of the best bits of Christmas dinner for me...Give me a plate with pigs in blankets, stuffing and bread sauce - and I'm a happy boy

Phoolgrrrl

Think I'll take my mum to tesco with me! She is not OS at all but at least we will get enough stuff!

Phoolgrrrl

Spoke to my mum....she says 14lbs of potatoes!