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Nice picture. You must have a great camera.
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Jan 25, 2013 04:06
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So tamales were mentioned, more specifically a commandment to use lard. I was thinking of making some vegetarian ones, so I can't use lard. Is there a best substitute? My first guess was crisco, but I'm open to suggestions.
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Jan 25, 2013 04:41
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Casu Marzu posted:Nice picture. You must have a great camera. oh, casu 
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Jan 25, 2013 05:35
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Eeyo posted:So tamales were mentioned, more specifically a commandment to use lard. I was thinking of making some vegetarian ones, so I can't use lard. Is there a best substitute? My first guess was crisco, but I'm open to suggestions. Yeah, use shortening. You could like, use a mixture of shortening and olive oil for flavor. But yeah. We went to Midnight Cowboy. $12 cocktails, min 2 per person. There for 2 hous, had some of the best drinks of my life, and I am now hammered.
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Jan 25, 2013 06:40
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I've seen the three-times thing, and it makes me incredibly nervous every time because I was raised that a) not offering a guest a snack or drink or at least something is unwelcoming and b) refusing an obviously sincere offer of food without at least a stated reason ("I just ate", "I have religious dietary restrictions", "I'm going to eat in just a bit" and "I'm on a diet" are all acceptable) is vaguely offensive. My pathological need to sufficiently feed guests has gotten me into trouble more than once.
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Jan 25, 2013 13:26
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Test Pattern posted:I've seen the three-times thing, and it makes me incredibly nervous every time because I was raised that a) not offering a guest a snack or drink or at least something is unwelcoming and b) refusing an obviously sincere offer of food without at least a stated reason ("I just ate", "I have religious dietary restrictions", "I'm going to eat in just a bit" and "I'm on a diet" are all acceptable) is vaguely offensive.
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Jan 25, 2013 13:54
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Help me be not in over my head, then. I'll take advice. Okay. I've given this a lot of thought and I think the problems you are going to run into are the following: Underestimating prep time (easily solvable) Logistics- obtaining the ingredients, transporting them, transporting food, etc (solvable with enough planning) Equipment- tongs, chafing dishes, sterno fuel, serving dishes, etc. (planning) Cooling and reheating- (this is the big one.) Effective delegating- (that's all you.) Here's what I would do (assuming I was insane enough to try to cater my own wedding) Write out a complete shopping list, decide where and how to store that food. Write out a complete prep list with the equipment you will need. Think of things like mixing bowls and temporary storage containers for prepped foods. Make a timeframe for prep and pad the hell out of it. Figure out what you can delegate, to whom, and then make a contingency plan for them flaking out. Before you turn on the stove and cooking, review your timetable, make sure you know the path of every bit of food and equipment throughout the day. Cook. Here's where it's going to get dicey. Since you're cooking ahead and reheating, you are going to need to take food safety into consideration. You don't need to go whole hog with restaurant-level HACCP controls, but there are going to be a few items that have the potential to sicken many of your guests and kill kiddos and old folks if you don't handle them correctly. For example, the pozole: Say you spend all morning making a 15 gallon pot of pozole. It's perfect and delicious and wonderful and 160F, and it's noon, the day before the wedding. Bacteria love pozole as much as people do- it's a perfect growth medium for all kinds of nasty bugs, especially between 70 and 130F. So you need to cool your soup as quickly as possible. (restaurant guidelines say two hours to 70F and then four more hours to 41F.) If you put that pot in the fridge, it will still be over 70 in the morning (as well as the rest of the stuff in your fridge.) If you put the whole pot outside on your porch, the outside might be nearly frozen but the inside might still be over 70F in the morning, since you would have to cover it tightly to keep critters out. You have to divide it up into smaller, shallower containers. Then I would put those containers out on the porch. So the day of the wedding, you have fifteen frozen gallon-sized containers of pozole that need to be quickly reheated to >135F but not burned. At work, I'd use a steamer to mostly thaw, and then dump the thawed soup into a steam-jacketed kettle. Without those things, I'd probably wait for the pozole on my porch to reach 40F and then put it in the fridge, if there was room, and the cellar if there was not, then take it to the church in a cold liquid state to reheat on the stove in as many smallish pots as I can afford, and then keep it hot (>140F) as long as it's being served. Same rules apply for all the hot food. Basically you want to avoid having anything that has a lot of protein, moisture, oxygen and neutral to slightly acid PH from hanging out in the "temperature danger zone" (41F-135F) for much more than 4 hours. This is generally not an issue when you're dealing with small portions, or cooking and immediately serving, but when you're batch cooking and reheating large quantities, it really is something you need to be aware of. I know how thorough you are when it comes to sourcing your food, which is awesome, but in this situation the risk is still magnified even if nothing is badly contaminated when it comes to you since the danger is mostly from time/temperature abuse which can cause tiny, incidental bits of bacteria to replicate to unsafe levels. Once you solve that problem, on to service! Make a plan in advance similar to your prep plan. Include ALL utensils, small wares, serving vessels, etc. Then have someone other than you who is in charge of it on the day of the wedding. Good luck, let me know if you want more detail on anything.
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Jan 26, 2013 00:02
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Persians have an interesting take on the 3 times offer thing. If you compliment something, and they could reasonably give it to you (i.e. it's not bolted down or prohibitively large) they will offer it to you. Sometimes it's fine to accept, but generally speaking you say something along the lines of "Oh no I couldn't." Then they'll offer it two more times, and if you refuse both of those times then everything's satisfied and they drop it. A friend of mine was learning Persian, and visiting with this Persian family she knew vaguely, and made the dire mistake of commenting on how pretty the grandmother's huge heirloom diamond ring was. The woman, of course, took it off and offered it to her. Totally flustered, she refused. Then the woman insisted. She refused again. Then the woman was like, "No, please, take the ring. I really want you to have it, it would mean a lot to me if you were to take the ring." So she took the ring. She eventually returned it through the grapevine, but apparently the woman was staring hate daggers at her until she left. Culture!
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Jan 26, 2013 00:19
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Easiest way to cool that 15gal if pazole(he won't need 15gal for 200, I'd go 7-8gal) is to fill 5-6 gallon ziploc bags with water and freeze them. Use them as ice wands to chill your soup. Tamales don't have to be cooked prior to the day, IF your church has a steamer. You'll want two buffet lines, so plan on 8 chaffers. Have utensils and small plates, don't give everyone a 10in plate to load up only for things to go to waste because they got too much. I need more info about the venue and kitchen to be able to help you fully. e: when I get home tonight I'll write you a BEO mockup with a full menu and prep amounts. Chef De Cuisinart fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jan 26, 2013 |
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Jan 26, 2013 00:21
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Okay, caterers. I am noting advice. I have cooked for very large groups on many occasions, even in a professional capacity, so I'm not completely new to this, but I'm happy to have the help since I haven't cooked except for friends and family in over a decade. Here's a picture of the kitchen at my disposal. I can supply other photos if needs be:  Equipment is the 8 burner with griddle in the photo, with ovens/broilers, lots of work surfaces, double stand up commercial fridges, 1 stand up freezer, various sinks, tons of pots, pans, dishes and serving platters etc. etc. What I don't have in there is a deep fryer, commercial mixer, tilt boiler, or ice maker.
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Jan 26, 2013 03:55
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Okay, caterers. I am noting advice. I have cooked for very large groups on many occasions, even in a professional capacity, so I'm not completely new to this, but I'm happy to have the help since I haven't cooked except for friends and family in over a decade. That looks do-able. Are you transporting the food to the reception hall? if so, you definitely want to invest in miles and miles of 24" plastic wrap. Keep in mind the more cold food you have, the easier your life will be the day of. The hardest part is going to be cooling, storing, reheating, transporting, setting up and serving. Is there someone you could deputize as sous chef to oversee things on the day of the wedding?
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Jan 26, 2013 16:43
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I'll be doing all the cooking there, so the food won't be transported more than 20 feet. No one to deputize, but rather a gaggle of ladies who will ensure that the food and dishes and what have you get laid out once I'm done with the cooking.
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Jan 26, 2013 16:59
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Mr. Wiggles posted:I'll be doing all the cooking there, so the food won't be transported more than 20 feet. No one to deputize, but rather a gaggle of ladies who will ensure that the food and dishes and what have you get laid out once I'm done with the cooking. You should really consider this again... Do you want to be dead tired for the reception.. Aching back and feet... Constantly worried that something has gone wrong... Running out to the kitchen to ensure that everything is as it should be etc? I can understand if you make pot au feu or something like that, because that is pretty low-effort up to the end, where it gets to be intense again.. But... What I am saying - do you want to participate in the reception, or do you want to be a main player behind the scenes...
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Jan 26, 2013 17:10
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Word. I still wouldn't do it, but a posse of church ladies and doing the cooking on-site will solve a lot of the problems I mentioned. I was assuming the KofC was offsite.
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Jan 26, 2013 17:14
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Happy Hat posted:What I am saying - do you want to participate in the reception, or do you want to be a main player behind the scenes... We had ~120 people at our wedding, it was completely catered, yet I still had very little time to relax. I had a great time, but I don't know that I would have if I was responsible for anything else that day, especially something like food (esp. for 80 more people). My three goals for the day were for my wife and I to enjoy the day, our guests to enjoy the day, and for nothing to go particularly wrong. Adding a huge responsibility to what I was already doing would have made at least one of those goals suffer, and to me that defeats the purpose of wasting all that time and energy on a day that goes by very quickly. It sounds like he's made up his mind, but I completely agree with you.
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Jan 26, 2013 17:20
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Well, I have asked the Hispanic Club if they would cater the entire event, which is really my first choice. But they haven't made a decision yet. Cooking myself is plan B. As for enjoying the reception - my vision here is that by the time the reception happens, there is literally no more cooking to be done. Absolutely everything will be in warmers or in the fridge by then, ready to be served. The nature of the food lends itself to that, I think. Unless there's something I'm forgetting?
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Jan 26, 2013 17:30
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What about the wedding ceremony itself? The timeline I've usually seen at weddings I've been to is for the ceremony to begin sometime in the afternoon, a two-hour ish break for the wedding party to take pictures with family, and then into the reception/dinner probably an hour or two later depending on the schedule for initial introductions by the host, etc. This may not be the exact timeline for your wedding but if your family's anything like mine you would have no time whatsoever to be cooking*, even if you could leave right after the ceremony and skipped all the pictures and poo poo family expects at the beginning of the reception. *Keep in mind however I've never cooked for a large crowd apart from making a giant portion of something to bring to family potlucks, which seems to be nickels and dimes compared to catering your own wedding. 
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Jan 26, 2013 18:07
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Eh, the mass starts at 5, should got until about 6, half an hour or so for pictures, then the reception starts in the hall next door. 2 hours for photos? Yeesh.
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Jan 26, 2013 19:06
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Eh, the mass starts at 5, should got until about 6, half an hour or so for pictures, then the reception starts in the hall next door. I'll tell you what. Everything, I mean Everything will run late. Plan out the entire day from waking up to tearing down down to the minute. Then add 10 minutes of transition time between every part. Make a photo and name matched cheat sheet for the photographer and the wedding planner. If you don't have a wedding planner get a really good friend to know who needs to be where when and to organize the pictures etc. make a list of all the shots you absolutely need the photographer to get. It really is a whirlwind and there are a lot of opportunities to miss something that you will never get a chance to capture again and herding relatives and friends who care significantly more about catching up with long lost aunts and new babies could eat up 30 minutes easily if you're not organized.
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Jan 26, 2013 19:17
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Eh, the mass starts at 5, should got until about 6, half an hour or so for pictures, then the reception starts in the hall next door. Honestly, as long as you give yourself enough lead time you'll be fine. For the preparation, decide on your menu at least two or three weeks out and start making as many lists as possible. Timelines, grocery lists, equipment lists, serving equipment lists. I would start four days out on the actual cooking, day one to get all your groceries loaded in and your longest projects started, day two to pick up everything you forgot about and to complete the majority of work. Day three to pick up all the other stuff you forgot and to finish all the work you didn't think would take as long as it does, as well as prep out all of your fresh veg/fruit. Morning of the wedding have a couple people you can delegate to, give them a timeline of when/how to reheat everything, have them make your fresh fruit/veg dishes, then just taste everything before it goes out. As long as you don't schedule your only active working time as the day before and the day of the wedding you should be okay. It would be theoretically possible, but incredibly painful.
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Jan 26, 2013 19:26
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GrAviTy84 posted:I'll tell you what. Everything, I mean Everything will run late. Plan out the entire day from waking up to tearing down down to the minute. Then add 10 minutes of transition time between every part. Make a photo and name matched cheat sheet for the photographer and the wedding planner. If you don't have a wedding planner get a really good friend to know who needs to be where when and to organize the pictures etc. make a list of all the shots you absolutely need the photographer to get. It really is a whirlwind and there are a lot of opportunities to miss something that you will never get a chance to capture again and herding relatives and friends who care significantly more about catching up with long lost aunts and new babies could eat up 30 minutes easily if you're not organized. Or hire a theatrical stage manager to run the wedding, poo poo will happen on time then. People who deal with actors for a living can easily deal with crazy aunts.
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Jan 26, 2013 19:45
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GrAviTy84 posted:I'll tell you what. Everything, I mean Everything will run late. Plan out the entire day from waking up to tearing down down to the minute. Then add 10 minutes of transition time between every part. Make a photo and name matched cheat sheet for the photographer and the wedding planner. If you don't have a wedding planner get a really good friend to know who needs to be where when and to organize the pictures etc. make a list of all the shots you absolutely need the photographer to get. It really is a whirlwind and there are a lot of opportunities to miss something that you will never get a chance to capture again and herding relatives and friends who care significantly more about catching up with long lost aunts and new babies could eat up 30 minutes easily if you're not organized. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the man has been married before. He has some idea of how it goes. That said, I still think it's madness to cater it yourself.
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Jan 26, 2013 23:00
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I would sooner perform my own vasectomy than cater my own wedding.
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Jan 26, 2013 23:18
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:I would sooner perform my own vasectomy than cater my own wedding.
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Jan 27, 2013 22:01
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Yawgmoth posted:Where does catering a vasectomy fall? Probably pretty close to catering a bris. You have to have smoked salmon.
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Jan 27, 2013 22:06
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So y'all remember that onion thing going around facebook. There's a new one Holy lol. quote:What does Coca Cola's Dasani bottled water have in common with Death by Lethal Injection?  tl;dr "I don't know how to use google and I don't know what LD50 means."
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Jan 28, 2013 08:22
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You could do one for salt, the sinister-sounding sodium chloride. " At higher dosages, this is used as an emetic. Take too much, and your renal function could shut down and you die. We asked every food manufacturer why they include this deadly product in their foods. The company line: consumers prefer it and it tastes better. Well, we dug a little deeper..."
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Jan 28, 2013 08:59
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wiggles - still gonna say you probably shouldn't self-cook your wedding. it's almost the end of January and I'm still exhausted from catering that engagement party of mine Dec 21 for ~75. I'm a pretty stong minded DIY guy too, overly ambitious and probably a bit overconfident when it comes to what I can/can't pull off. on other fronts : valentines day sort of sucks, and not in the least because every single restaurant is packed and turning out poorly executed food like there's no tomorrow. after a couple of disappointing years, I think I've completely 2000% sworn off ever eating in a restaurant again on that godforsaken day. I'm still a sucker for romance and an occasion to spend a ridiculous amount of money on wine and food though, so I was sort of thinking about throwing a dinner party and inviting a couple of my coupley-friends. I'm a bit stumped for food ideas though. I would say cliche "luxury" foods like lobsters and caviar, but I'm a bit over those recently. game sounds pretty good, and somehow that feels valentiney (game conjures killing conjures hearts conjures blood - speaking of which https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0dMtXRSCbQ), but after that I'm sort of at a loss for creative ideas. anyone have thoughts?
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Jan 28, 2013 09:00
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Oysters evoke blowjobs. Just sayin'
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Jan 28, 2013 10:40
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I had a pretty good 'hot oysters' play on nashville hot chicken at some place recently, that might not be a bad idea. blood red, makes you sweat, tasty as heck, makes Sjurygg think of sucking dick...
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Jan 28, 2013 12:08
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mindphlux posted:makes Sjurygg think of sucking dick... Well, most things do.
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Jan 28, 2013 15:51
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therattle posted:You could do one for salt, the sinister-sounding sodium chloride. " At higher dosages, this is used as an emetic. Take too much, and your renal function could shut down and you die. We asked every food manufacturer why they include this deadly product in their foods. The company line: consumers prefer it and it tastes better. Well, we dug a little deeper..." This reminds me of when I was a kid and I learned that the iron in say, cereal, was actual literal iron the metal. And I was like oh poo poo, isn't eating metal bad? I wonder if the same people who freak out about chemical names would also freak out if the saw a list of the minerals our body uses. Or the chemical names of all the vitamins!
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Jan 28, 2013 20:32
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therattle posted:You could do one for salt, the sinister-sounding sodium chloride. " At higher dosages, this is used as an emetic. Take too much, and your renal function could shut down and you die. We asked every food manufacturer why they include this deadly product in their foods. The company line: consumers prefer it and it tastes better. Well, we dug a little deeper..." How about the dreadful dihydromonoxide? It can kill you in high dosages, you know, in various awful ways.
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Jan 28, 2013 22:15
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People like that should chew down on some 100% organic cyanide capsules.
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Jan 29, 2013 10:20
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Hey, so, the cilantro thing might actually be a ... thing. https://www.23andme.com/about/factoid/cilantro/
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Jan 29, 2013 10:22
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Was there really any doubt about that? It always sounded legit to me, I was just waiting around for somebody to bother finding the gene. Sucks to be those people nonetheless 
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Jan 29, 2013 10:23
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Sjurygg posted:Was there really any doubt about that? It always sounded legit to me, I was just waiting around for somebody to bother finding the gene. A few people here bitched about the whiny manchildren who didn't like cilantro and their claims that it tasted soapy.
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Jan 29, 2013 11:13
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Sjurygg posted:Was there really any doubt about that? It always sounded legit to me, I was just waiting around for somebody to bother finding the gene. I'm one of them. I don't find it soapy but I don't like it. Neither does my father.
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Jan 29, 2013 11:32
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therattle posted:I'm one of them. I don't find it soapy but I don't like it. Neither does my father. I genuinely pity you. Now that the GF is living here, we go through two bunches a week of the stuff. Love it!
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Jan 29, 2013 14:14
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| # ? May 13, 2024 04:41 |
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therattle posted:I'm one of them. I don't find it soapy but I don't like it. Neither does my father. You big babby.
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Jan 29, 2013 14:29
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