With families getting ready to gather for the Easter holiday, it becomes necessary for the hostess to be prepared to feed a larger than normal number of hungry eaters.
An old-time cookbook offers a complete section for catering for 100 guests, with the provision that recipes may be halved or quartered to cover the appropriate number of family members and friends. This means the recipes, with careful calculations, may also be increased with excellent results.
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Barbecued Chicken
1 cup fat
6 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, optional
1 tbsp. salt. or to taste
6 cups ketchup
3 cups vinegar as for sweet pickles
1/2 cup brown sugar
8 tbsps. monosodium glutamate, optional
25 broiler-fryer chickens, quartered
Melt fat. add onion. Crush garlic with salt. Cook until onion is straw coloured. Add other ingredients, except chicken, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Arrange chicken pieces skin side up on racks set 6 inches from the heat. Brush with the prepared sauce.
Cook until tender, turning and brushing with sauce occasionally. Broil 45-60 minutes. Serves 100.
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Fruit Punch
6 quarts fresh tea
6-48 oz. cans fruit juice
6-6 oz. cans frozen juice concentrate
6 quarts carbonated beverage
6 trays ice cubes
Mix all ingredients, except ice, in a large punch bowl. Stir to combine but add the carbonated drinks just before serving to give a fizz to the punch. Add some ice at the last minute to keep punch cool. Replenish ice as required. This makes 200 four-ounce servings.
As an alternate way of presentation, pour enough of the mixed liquids into ice cube trays, filling to 2/3 full. Place a maraschino cherry in each ice cube area. Freeze.
Place an ice cube in individual glasses and add carbonated beverage. Stir each drink with a long wooden pick to be able to pierce the cherry once the drink has been consumed. Serving as individual drinks is much more labour intensive and should only be attempted if one has extra freezing space and abundant table-top availability.
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Spicy Fruit Sauce
4 lbs. sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsps. salt
12 cups pear syrup or other fruit juice
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/4 cups lemon juice
2 tsps. nutmeg
Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Mix with a small amount of pear syrup then add to the remaining syrup.
Cook until thickened and clear, stirring frequently.
Stir in butter, lemon juice and nutmeg.
Serve sauce warm over slices of white or lemon cake.
Makes 100 servings.
Joyce Walter can be reached at [email protected]
