How many potatoes for mashed potatoes?

[Anonymous]

I'm making notes in a spreadsheet to help me out for future Thanksgivings. One ratio I keep getting wrong is mashed potatoes. How many people per pound? The Barefoot Contessa recipe says two people per pound. That seemed crazy high, but I went with it.

We hosted 22 people so I cooked 10 pounds, which required two pots and was way too much. We still have leftovers. I don't remember what I did last year, but they ran out first.

What works for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm making notes in a spreadsheet to help me out for future Thanksgivings. One ratio I keep getting wrong is mashed potatoes. How many people per pound? The Barefoot Contessa recipe says two people per pound. That seemed crazy high, but I went with it.

We hosted 22 people so I cooked 10 pounds, which required two pots and was way too much. We still have leftovers. I don't remember what I did last year, but they ran out first.

What works for you?

Were you hosting carnivores? I used a 10 lb bag from Sam’s and had very few leftovers for our party of 6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm making notes in a spreadsheet to help me out for future Thanksgivings. One ratio I keep getting wrong is mashed potatoes. How many people per pound? The Barefoot Contessa recipe says two people per pound. That seemed crazy high, but I went with it.

We hosted 22 people so I cooked 10 pounds, which required two pots and was way too much. We still have leftovers. I don't remember what I did last year, but they ran out first.

What works for you?

Were you hosting carnivores? I used a 10 lb bag from Sam’s and had very few leftovers for our party of 6.

Yeah, I think this varies wildly depending on who is doing the eating. Some groups eat a lot more than others. And if you have a lot people who don't eat meat, they eat more potatoes.

[Anonymous]

I made 6 pounds for ten people and we had a lot of leftovers which I don’t mind because I can freeze them and use it for a future dinner.

Probably depends on how many side dishes you had. We had a lot of choices.

[Anonymous]

What does the recipe say?

[Anonymous]

I usually use a 5lb bag for 12 people and always have left overs. We also do sweet potatoes, stuffing, cornbread casserole, rolls amongst other vegetable sides. So everyone only takes a little of each thing.

[Anonymous]

I would be comfortable wiht a 5 lb bag for 6 people. 8 if includes some children, low-appetite eaters, or a table with LOTS of other options.

[Anonymous]

I used 5 pounds for 7 people and had lots of leftovers. However, 5/7 were women who don’t eat many refined carbs.

[Anonymous]

I err on the side of generous portions. It’s hard to predict how much the crew will eat depending on what else is being served. Leftover mashed potatoes can be reincarnated as shepherd’s pie.

[Anonymous]

I think I cooked 5 lbs for 6 people with the intention of having lots of leftovers, and it worked. For a normal dinner I plan about 0.25 to 0.5 lbs per person.

Definitely depends on how many different sides you have, though. If there are a ton of things to fit onto a plate, people will only take a tiny scoop of each.

[Anonymous]

It depends on how good they are and what other starchy sides there are. We make a big bowl: like a Dutch oven size and it goes with 10 people. But we have no Mac and cheese or stuffing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does the recipe say?

I don't use a particular recipe but looked at a few online for proportions and several, including one I mentioned in my op, said half pound per person. There were delicious and I watched people go back for seconds but we barely made a dent. They've been excellent as leftovers.

I think the probation l problem was too many sides. Several people brought surprise contributions. We had like four kinds of stuffing, a couple kinda of sweet potatoes, etc.

[Anonymous]

I did 5 lbs for 10 people and that was a good amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm making notes in a spreadsheet to help me out for future Thanksgivings. One ratio I keep getting wrong is mashed potatoes. How many people per pound? The Barefoot Contessa recipe says two people per pound. That seemed crazy high, but I went with it.

We hosted 22 people so I cooked 10 pounds, which required two pots and was way too much. We still have leftovers. I don't remember what I did last year, but they ran out first.

What works for you?

Were you hosting carnivores? I used a 10 lb bag from Sam’s and had very few leftovers for our party of 6.

No, omnivores but with lots of sides. You went through about a pound of potatoes per person?!

[Anonymous]

2lbs per person for Irish
1/2lb per person for Americans
1/10lb per person for many immigrants