Help for the numbered impaired...Tuna Noodle Casserole for 60.

R

richard-in-cincy

Well-known member
I need to make tuna noodle casserole to feed 60 people. I bought 5 pounds of noodles and 4 26-oz. cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup (hey, I know, ugly, but feeding 60 people is also ugly), then I thought, I better calculate this out so I don't come up short.

And thus, I am numbered challenged.

First, does anyone have a basic TNC (noodles, tuna, soup, milk, peas, cheese, breadcrumbs)recipe that serves 60?

The problem is that multiplying out a standard receip serving 4-6 is tricky. For example, the official recipe states "2.5 cups of COOKED noodles." OK, what the hell am I supposed to do with that? I have 16 oz. bags of UNCOOKED noodles. How many cups of cooked noodles will 5 pounds of dry noodles equal? I dunno.

I found another recipe serving 6 that uses 16 oz. noodles, is that dry weight or cooked weight??? I dunno.

Can someone who knows something about large scale feeds help me out with this? There will be lots of carry in appetizers and I'm serving tossed salad and french bread with the casserole.

 
PS: Don't you just wish someone would ban the tired cliche "Crowd-Pleasing"?

Trying to google TNC for a crowd and all I'm getting is 4-6 serving sized recipes that sure are crowd pleasin! Pulease.

 
Here's one that serves 20 - 30 - Think you could just triple it

TUNA CASSEROLE FOR A CROWD (20-30)
3 c. grated sharp cheese
3/4 c. chopped green pepper
3 c. sliced celery
2 c. chopped onion
1 stick butter
1 1/2 c. milk
3 cans mushroom soup
24 oz. cooked noodles
5 cans (6 1/2 oz.) tuna
1 c. sliced almonds
1 1/2 c. mayonnaise
3/4 c. chopped pimientos
Cook celery, peppers and onions in butter 5 minutes. Blend soup with milk and cheese, heat until cheese melts.
Combine noodles, tuna and pimientos with mayonnaise, then pour over other mixture. Put in 2 pans, 9x13. Sprinkle almonds on top. Bake 425 degrees 35 minutes.l

 
Here's a link to a recipe that lets you enter the number of servings.

Looks like you'd need 30 cups "hot cooked noodles."
This site: http://www.ilovepasta.org/faqs.html#Q10 says that 8 oz. of dry egg noodles makes 2.5 cups, so each of your bags will make 5 cups cooked noodles. If you follow the recipe I linked, you'd need one more 16-oz. bag.

For the cream of mushroom soup, the linked recipe calls for 161.25 oz. of condensed soup. You'd need a little more than two more 26-oz. cans to get that much. A total of 6 26-oz. cans plus half of a 10.75-oz can would be just about right.

I'm no expert on crowd-feeding, just numbers. Maybe you can get away with just 50 servings, in which case you'd only need your 5 bags of noodles and 5 26-oz cans of soup plus a little less than half a 10.75-oz can.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/campbells-kitchen-tuna-noodle-casserole/detail.aspx

 
I agree. Otherwise the measurement would likely be in volume and not weight. Richard,

You could always cook one pound of the noodles, measure the volume, and compute it that way. But still I can't imaging a more forgiving recipe than tuna noodle casserole, so wing it. (I also can't imagine it without Campbell's Cream of Mushroom--that would be un-American.)

 
Richard, you have an unspoken sense of volume so don't worry

You have the right amounts of stuff. Your tuna casserole will be better than anyone else's ever was because you will do your thing and add stuff as you go along.

This will be wonderful. Trust yourself.

 
LOL. Yes, that unspoken sense of volume gets me into trouble...

I'm not worried about throwing a TNC casserole together that will be flawless, I am worried about making too much and thought I could approach this scientifically by calculating how much stuff I'd need to serve 60.

I did this event last year and had so much left over. I just went and bought what I thought I needed and maded 6 large hotel pans of pasta. Used half of them.

I learned that sense of volume from grandma. 10 coming for dinner? Make enough to feed 50.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top