Cowboy Stew for 30 people?

[LSR]

We've got Iditarod coming up and the LSR Troop has an abundance of attendees. Our Webelos Den Leader pushed it and between her Cubs, parents and Scouts, I have 18 Webelos/Scouts and 12+ adults. (I LOVE our Chuches' Cub Pack Leadership!)

I've been researching recipies as I've never had to feed that many before. One of the leaders suggested Cowboy Stew (I'm not trying for a spot on the Food Network on my 2nd campout as SM.) as it's pretty foolproof. At 2 cups/person witha fudge factor thrown in, I'm looking at about 2 1/2 gallons.

Any suggestions for recipies?

[kwildman]

check your math... 2 cups/per person * 30 people = 60 cups 60cups divided by 16cups/gallon = 3.75gallons You are going to need a very big pot for this. A 14" deep dutch oven only holds about 10 quarts and a 16" dutch oven holds 12 quarts.

I think 2 cups per person is going to be a bit shy. i would check over on the forums at the international dutch oven society www.idos.org for recipes and suggested quantities. There are lot of scouters over there so you should get help. Cup for cup you will feed more people with chili then with stew (just a thought).

I would also recommend doing a couple of dutch ovens full of rolls. Get the cheap tube bisquits (generic pillsbury) and load a dutch oven full of them by laying them on their side in concentric circles and stack them on top of each other if needed. You can get about 60 in a 12" oven. Brush the tops with butter and cook them up at about 350deg. It comes out like a large loaf of bread that separates into dinner rolls. Warm rolls and stew....mmmmm.

[mt_goodrich]

You might want to think about cooking your stew in one of those large pots that are used for frying turkeys and use the propane burner that comes with it.....or two pots going.

I am looking for a recipe at the moment.

I LOVE the rolls idea.....mmmmmm!!!

[VenturingL]

I agree with the big pot/kettle from a propane cooker. I grew up with a soup nick-named "slop-jar soup". Basically, what you have goes in the pot, with some degree of discretion - great way to use up those partial bags of frozen veggies, etc. I knew a family who did this at their annual reunion - host family started the stew with a meat (cut up beef, turkey, hamburger, sausage, whatever) & a tomato juice base. Each family (this was a BIG family) brought some sort of canned vegetable & added it to the pot - a gigantic thing suspended over fire. Slow cooked most of the day & enjoyed by all.

[kwildman]

careful with the turkey fryer thing... those basically heat at one level which is a blast furnace. That combined with an aluminum pot means that the food will be cooked extremely fast due to temperature. Good stews (and chili or soup) need to be slowly cooked to allow all the flavors to meld and also to make the meat tender. I would recommend doing a couple dutch ovens over the fire or with charcoal.

Did a quick look over some of the cooking sites i had bookmarked and found this one which looks easy/good.

http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/dutch-oven-recipe-wagonmstrstew.htm

[alex gregory]

30 to 40 people - no problem.

Get two dutch ovens going with ground beef and sloppy joe mix, probably 10 lbs. of beef.
Get another oven going with rolls (great idea) - or just go with hamburger buns.
Get another oven going with some kind of hot veggie dish.
Get another two ovens going with a cobbler.

The great thing about dutch oven cooking is that it basically takes care if itself once your ingredients are prepped

[AquilaNegra2]

Unless you have a lot of 11 and 12 year olds, I think that 2 cups per person is way low. Love the biscuits idea! That will help stretch. You probably still want to add something else to fill them up.

[LSR]

Thanks all! Iditarod went well (three sleds evenly populated with experienced Scouts, new Scouts and Webelos. We won third place.) I needn't have worried about the food. One of the Webelos dads is quite the Creole chef and we now have Creole Cowboy Stew. (We are so going to own the leaders' cook off next year!)

One of the Webelos moms was in charge of the prep work. She demonstrated how to chop the onions and the potatos by doing the first one. The Webelos/younger Scouts rotated through 2 at a time and delivered the results to the cooking dads. The stew had 10lbs of hamburger, 3lbs of corn, 6 of ranch beans 4lbs onions and 10 lbs of potatoes, 1 gal of wal-mart's version of V-8 juice and lots of garlic, Tony Chachere's and hot sauce all in a large crawfish boiling pot.

We had enough for the pot luck, more for the troop/parents afterwards and leftovers to take home for the families (We made closer to 5 gallons because we could!) Instead of biscuits, we had Pillsbury canned French bread. Very good in a Dutch oven! I can't wait until the chef's son bridges over!

Later, we introduced the younger Scouts to the three pot washing method.

[mt_goodrich]

Mmmmmm!!!! Sounds like a great time had by all!!!!