Help with portion of Side Dishes

The Midnight Smoker BBQ · Posted: Jun 20 2012 Post subject: Help with portion of Side Dishes

I have been catering meat primarily but now I must start offering side dishes. The problem is I have no idea what the standard or expected portion size should be. I will be serving a 2 meat 2 side plate. The sides will be beans and potato salad. Can I get some help on the side portion sizes Please? Also, would the portion size be different if I was only offering 1 side with the 2 meats?
Thanks for any and all help with this.

P.S. I checked out SoEzzy's Catering Planner and it has a servings per sides option but I still do not know what the expectation should be. Is it 3 servings per pound, 4 servings per pound?
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Jarhead · Posted: Jun 20 2012 Post subject:

Scoop sizes chart
I use a #8 into a 4 oz squat cup per side. Sometimes it fits, others not.
With one side, I would probably go with a #4 or 6.
Best advice is to get those scoops, and see how many you get from your recipe. Then you can do the math.
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SoEzzy · Posted: Jun 20 2012 Post subject:

It depends on many factors, as most of these questions do.

Lots of people wont eat a full 4 Oz of baked beans, but they may eat that much potato salad.

Look at the plate as a whole, # of meat, how much meat, # of sides, how much of each side.

I wouldn't go above 16 Oz total, unless it's an eating contest! Wink

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Slow Heat · Newbie Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 88 Location: Virginia

To me as a caterer I don't want to run out of anything. For beans I figure 2 10# cans of Bushes doctored up with peppers, onions and stuff fill a 2 1/2" hotel pan and feeds about 50-70 people. Potato Salad for 50 people I would figure 4oz per person and add a little (10%) to that for a safety buffer. I think a little too much food costs a little money but running out costs huge in negative advertisements from clients. I still have problems myself figuring 3rd and 4th sides and end up with too much food but feel good that I don't run out.