2 Answers

Portion control is normally 0.75lb per person.

15 to 16lbs should work, worth doing a little extra though.

11 years ago. Rating: 3
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I learned that four pounds of potatoes will provide about 10 servings. However that figure is based on peeling the potatoes and you have specified small reds as your choice so you can reduce the quantity by about 10% to 15%. I’ll assume that you are using unpeeled potatoes (reds are best unpeeled). The calculation is as follows; 60 servings equals 6 units multiplied by 4 yielding 24 pounds less 10% to 15%. So the amount of small reds you’ll need is approximately 20 or 22 pounds to serve 60 people.
Re the baking time; that doesn’t change based on the quantity. You want to roast them in a single layer so they will all have some sides exposed to the dry oven heat in order to brown appropriately. To cook you’ll need enough cooking fat to coat the potatoes and enough salt and seasoning to suit your taste. Dry the potatoes thoroughly after washing. If necessary you can cut the larger ones in half to ensure that they are all cooked at the same time. Coat with fat, spread on a baking sheet (not too closely packed) and salt them just before you put them in the oven. They should all be tender and nicely browned in less than one hour when baked at 425 degrees F. You will want to stir them occasionally during the roasting so that they brown evenly. How often to stir is an eyeball thing. Look at them and stir them when the exposed sides are lightly browned. Start testing for doneness at 40-45 minutes and remove when fork tender. Serve immediately or they can be held for about an hour in a warm oven but don’t cover them. If you cover them they will steam and lose the crisp skin you achieved by roasting them.
You want to use a roaster oven so I’ll guess that you’ll have to repeat the roasting several times to produce the quantity you need. I can’t say exactly since I don’t know the size of the roaster you will be using.
Re my choice of herbs, oils etc.; I use light olive oil as my cooking fat and I am inclined to use a mixture of fresh, not dried, chopped chives, flat leaf parsley, rosemary and marjoram (since I have them in my garden it’s easy for me).The exact proportion of each herb is another eyeball deal so just use the amount of each that you have available. (I like lots of chives.) I do urge you to use fresh herbs since the dried versions don’t taste the same. You will need about one and one half cups of chopped herbs and 1 ? to 2 cups of oil to cover all of the potatoes. First I coarsely chop all of the herbs. To season the oil before coating the potatoes I chop 2/3 of the herbs more finely and whisk them into the oil (don’t heat the mix) then pour it over the potatoes in a large bowl and toss until evenly distributed. I reserve the other 1/3 of the coarsely chopped herbs for garnishing the finished potatoes.
BTW: you can parboil the potatoes to reduce the roasting time if you wish. If you chose to do that you should add some of the herb mix to the cooking water – helps infuse the flavors into the potatoes. I prefer to do all of the cooking in the oven because the potatoes are crisper but I have a large oven to play with.
Good luck and happy eating!

11 years ago. Rating: 3
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