What size pot to make soup for 50 people?

daagahminayin

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 8:14 pm

I’m thinking of getting a new pot for Pesach to make a whole lot of chicken soup to feed approximately 25 people each seder. I want to make it in advance and divide it into containers beforehand so I only have to heat up half the soup for each night. What size pot should I use?

Btw I asked the internet before coming here and could only find this thread which had some hilarious answers due to the unfortunate phrasing of the question. Read it if you want a good laugh:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooki....._list

thunderstorm

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 8:20 pm

daagahminayin wrote:

I think 16 quart is good for 25 people so think double. Maybe make 2 batches of 16 quart. That's what I plan to do . I'm going to my in laws and she asked me to bring a huge pot for soup . So I'm also looking to buy one. Any recommendations?

daagahminayin

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 8:26 pm

Bizzydizzymommy wrote:

Thanks. I’d rather just make a single batch if possible. Also to clarify, the bowls we will be serving the soup in are quite small.

nicole81

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 8:55 pm

I make a 20 quart pot of soup and it feeds my family of seven, five times over. This includes using the soup for weekday meals and serving huge bowls full with some bread or matzah balls for dinner.

Given this, you would probably be ok with 20 quarts, but I'd go with 25-30 to be on the safe side.

ra_mom

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 9:09 pm

Are you sure you want to wash and store a pot that's bigger than 16 quarts? Where will you even wash it, in the bathtub and scratch the porcelain? Where will you keep it, in an industrial size garbage bag in the basement where it can get dented? Honestly, for me the hardest part is storage. I hate bringing things up and down and breathed easier once I got pesach storage near the kitchen (no more boxes up and down). Easy storage is better than slightly easier cooking.

daagahminayin

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 9:13 pm

ra_mom wrote:

Ok good point... I will think about it! Maybe I can use it to store my other Pesach things?!

lkwdlady

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 9:22 pm

This style pot is not so high. It is very wide and I store mine in the box that it came in.
It holds 32 quarts.
https://www.houzz.com/product/.....kpots

Notice how high this one is and it is 22 quarts. Very hard to wash - https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tra.....h=sem

If you need it for this yr only, I would say not to get it. If you already have a 16 quart pot maybe just buy another 16 quart on the cheaper end and make the soup in 2 pots.

Someone told me that she peels all the veggies and cleans all the chicken for soup and then freezes everything together in a freezer bag. On yom tov she just empties the bag of frozen vegetables and chicken into a pot and ads water, salt and pepper. I never tried this but she said it tastes good and fresh. I think she has a few bags ready to put in pots and cooks them as needed. I would assume she is cooking up 8 quart pots as she seems to keep needing more fresh soup. (it would save you from buying a new pot that you might not need again)

Last edited by lkwdlady on Mon, Mar 05 2018, 9:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

nicole81

Mon, Mar 05 2018, 9:29 pm

ra_mom wrote:

My 20 quart pot fits in my dishwasher (and my sink). It's really not so big! OP, see if you can check them out in person so you can get a feel of what would work best for you.

daagahminayin

Wed, Mar 14 2018, 9:35 pm

OP here - so I looked over my Pesach stuff and it turns out I already had a 12 qt pot which I know fed 25+ people last year. So I went and bought another one of those.

Now my next question is how much chicken to put in each pot. Is one chicken per pot enough?

lkwdlady

Wed, Mar 14 2018, 9:46 pm

daagahminayin wrote:

Yes, that’s what I would use ..

ra_mom

Wed, Mar 14 2018, 10:09 pm

daagahminayin wrote:

2 chickens or 4 pounds bones.

lkwdlady

Wed, Mar 14 2018, 10:54 pm

Everyone will do something a little different... what do you do during the yr?

I use 2 chicken bottoms or a package of chicken bones for a 6 qt pot

I would be more concerned about the quantity of vegetables since that gives so much flavor

daagahminayin

Wed, Mar 14 2018, 11:06 pm

lkwdlady wrote:

During the year I use a smaller pot and use the equivalent of half a chicken, but if I want it extra special I’d use a whole chicken.

Thanks for your help!

ImaLAEma

Wed, Mar 14 2018, 11:09 pm

I just made a Bar Mitzvah this past shabbos and used a 12 quart pot with 3 chicken bottoms (poulky and thigh), plus some necks and backbones. It was enough chicken and I fed 22 people and had almost half the pot leftover.

Iymnok

Thu, Mar 15 2018, 7:03 am

If you won’t be serving the chicken, cut it at every joint. I have made a very flavorful 8qt soup with the wings, neck and backbones of one chicken.
You can often get low guilty wings for cheap, toss in a whole package.
Use a soup bag if you don’t want the bones getting in your way.