Buffet for 200 sides question

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I am doing pulled pork for 200 and will do potato salad and baked beans for sides. This will be a buffet and I was figuring 10 gallons of each side. Will this be enough? Tried to get Ezzy's calculator to work but I can't get it to come up. Thanks Ruben
 
Here's the way I look at side calcs: There're 128 fluid ounces in one gallon. If you assume 1/2 cup per average serving, that's four ounces each or 32 servings per gallon. 200 persons/32 = 6.25 gallons. I usually round up a little bit to be on the safe side.
 
PCDoctor, that is what I was thinking but then being a newbie caterer I was wondering what the reality is that people put on a plate? Also how many will come back for second? So I was going off of 6oz per person, but I guess I am getting last minute jitters and starting to worry about running out of sides. I will probably have 3 gallons left over but I want to make sure I don't run out. So you feel I will be ok? Thanks
 
Control portions with the proper scoops. If you plan 4 oz then us a 4 oz scoop not a 6 oz spoon. Bottom line is size of serving utensil = size of portion for 95%. Some take 2 scoops but some take none or a half so it all works out.10 gallons is way more than you need unless you're feeding lumberjacks or a football team.
 
As always, Ford is dead on with his advice. Seconds aren't much of a concern for me. I'd just put out the 200 plates to control folks going through the line twice. People should not get back in the line until all are served, so if there are little to no seconds, that should not be a big thing. If your host wants the guests to have seconds, you should be charging more for the extra food.
 
Well it all went well, as it turned out there ended up only being 80-100 people there. I did not know that it was on open invite to a grand opening for a farm. The client thought there could be 200 there so he called us up and booked us for 200. The crowd was mostly older people but for the 90 or so people there they ate about 4-5 gallons of baked beans and about 1 1/2 gallons of potato salad. The event went very well except for the 30-50 mph winds we had. Thanks everyone!

Ruben
 
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