Tips for Entertaining a Large Group of Family and Friends

Big parties are fun. It is always nice to get everyone together, but holding a large party for your family and friends can be tricky.

There is so much to think about and do, which can leave you feeling frazzled. It can be daunting catering for a large group of people, but it need not be.

Here are our top tips for cooking for a crowd:

Keep it simple

Our first and most important tip is to keep things as simple as possible. Do not try to make too many dishes. There is no need to offer your guests six different salads; one or two is more than enough. The simpler you keep the catering the more relaxed you will be.

Allow yourself enough time

The last thing you need is to be up and cooking until 3am the night before your party. You need to be realistic about how much you can cook, and tailor your menu accordingly.

Cook in advance

Cook what you can in advance and freeze it all. Be realistic about how much space you will need in your freezer to do this and run it down well in advance of your party to create enough space.

Hire a spit roast machine

One of the best ways of cooking for a large crowd is a spit roast. Modern spit roasting machines mean that all you need to do is to set the hog up, switch the machine on, check that it has reached temperature and walk away.

Apart from glancing at the hog every hour to make sure that, it is still turning and cooking there is nothing else to do. After a few hours, your hog will be ready to serve.

At that point, someone just needs to either slice or pull the meat. You can then either let your guests help themselves or have someone stuff it into rolls or plate it up. It really is simple, and is much easier than a barbecue.

You can hire top end spit roasting machines from spittingpighogroastmachines.com. They deliver anywhere in the UK, show you how to cook your hog and other spit roasted meats. It really could not be easier and a hog roast always impresses.

Use your supermarket

Consider buying some of the food from the supermarket or a catering firm. Fiddly things like canapés are an example of something you can easily buy in bulk rather than spending hours making them all yourself. It is great to bake or cook a big batch of your favorites, but also consider buying some items as well.

Get everyone involved

If your family and friends like to cook, ask them to each bring a side dish, dessert or salad. You can just provide the drink, some bread and the plates and cutlery or use this approach to supplement the dishes that you prepare.

Just be sure to have a plan B in mind. Inevitable someone will not be able to come, so you will always be missing a couple of promised dishes. For this reason, you need to be prepared to send someone to the supermarket to pick up anything that you are missing.

Big parties are fun, but only if you are organised and make sure that you do not take on too much of the work. Be realistic and organised and you can really enjoy entertaining large groups of family and friends.