Outdoors board cooking experts...

Looking for help determining approximate amount of ingredients to feed about 80 football players and 10 staff, planning on cooking for about 120-140 to account for teenage boys. It is a game day early meal, so not going to let them gorge, but do want to feed them good.


Tortillas
Eggs
Bacon or Sausage
Hashbrowns

How much of each ?

I did a google search and there is no consensus on eggs per person, etc that seemed correct.

Anyone cook for a group this large?

Thanks!

Big difference in feeding the j.v. or varsity. I've done both.

Sunday night I made up a batch of breakfast tacos for my son to eat before two a days and one for in between. Coaches wanting him to eat 12-1600 calories before noon.

I used 18 eggs, 1# of sausage, 1.5# bacon and about 1# of cheese. This netted 12 breakfast tacos (burritos). Next batch I'll add refried beans and hash browns. And stretch a little further.

I would do precooked bacon. Either strips or diced.

Where are you located?

The last four posts are stellar.

I cooked 100 tacos three weeks ago for adult men after a workout, it sucked cooking everything that morning and while everyone else socialized.

My tacos consisted of eggs, cheese, sausage, bacon.

I cooked 84 eggs, 4 lbs of sausage, 3 lbs of bacon and a couple of the giant bags of cheese from costco.

didn't have anything left, used small tortillas.

Most guys ate 2-3 tacos each, but they also weren't stuffing their gullets.

Taco Cabana !

Make bean & cheese, too.

You need an assembly line. One cooking, one filling, one rolling. Buy thin sheets of foil off Amazon.

Love the idea of beans and chorizo, but also need to think about any potential stomach issues later during the game. Beans not so much, they can just blow arse in the pile, but greasy chorizo squirts need to be considered.

Also for filler with bonus hydration -- put another family on watermelon duty and bring a ton of slices.

From my trusty Food For 50 textbook, here's a recipe for an egg, bacon or ham, and potato casserole that might be useful for portion work, or even just make a few of these then cut and put into tortillas if you don't have a good way to scramble 150+ eggs.

Yield 56 6oz portions

50 bacon slices - bake in oven at 400F til crisp, remove put on paper towels. Set aside
OR
4lbs diced ham, mix in with potatoes, reduce salt to 1 Tbsp

9 lbs diced potatoes - brown in bacon fat
Split potatoes between two 12x20x2 baking pans

Mix:
36 eggs, beaten
2oz salt
1tsp white pepper
1 tsp red pepper
3 quarts milk, heated

Pour liquid over potatoes. Bake for about an hour at 325 until set. Serve with a strip of bacon on top.

Also, use liquid eggs.

Might also consider making some without eggs. In a group that large, there's bound to be a few egg allergies.

I developed a slight egg allergy in my 30's, so it sucks to not be able to eat traditional breakfast tacos. My go to now is bean, potato, bacon (or chorizo), and cheese.

I did this very thing a week ago. I had 51 varsity/jv players and about 10 coaches/staff. We were on a camping trip outside of Bailey, CO. The parent who was supposed to do breakfast on Sunday couldn't get there so I had to go try to find food at 6:30 am in that part of the world. Not easy to do. I wound up buying all the eggs and bacon and cheese that the Jefferson store had. It was 4 dozen eggs, 6 packs of bacon, and 2 of the smaller bags of shredded cheese. Cooked it all on my cowboy wok.

I was able to get everyone one decent taco out of that. Was pretty happy with it.

I'd go for breakfast sausage rather than links or bacon since you can actually shop ahead. Cook it, drain some grease, then scramble the eggs right in there with it. It is just easier than bacon.

In the past I've done 1 lb sausage per dozen eggs, add cheese to taste. For your crew I'd go 10 dozen eggs and 10 lb sausage, one big bag of cheese. Potatoes are cheap filler but I'd skip them if cooking on site, they take a while and it's easy to burn them when you get in a hurry. If done ahead and just warmed up on site, go for it.

I recently helped at a scout fundraiser where we did a breakfast taco fundraiser.

The best answer on quantities is to make a few for yourself, and then see how much you want to use. The amount of egg will be highly dependent on the size of your tortillas, but 1 egg/1 bacon, and a couple good spoonfuls of sausage or cheese are about right.

To the guy that said 20 pounds of bacon for 200 tacos... you realize there are 16 standard slices of bacon per pound right? So that would be 320 slices. Bacon is the most expensive purchase and that could be way too much unless you're just stuffing them with bacon.

Buying the thin foil that comes in pre-cut sheets will make your assembly line easier, and if you're doing different kinds you can get cheap stickers made... or just write a letter on them with a sharpie.

And they're kids so maybe they won't care, but a handful of taco sauce packets may be very appreciated. You can buy a box of those, or get an extra handful or two every time you go to a taco shop.

I get the idea of gluten free, but we had over 500 customers to the breakfast, and only had about 2 that wanted corn tortillas/gluten free tacos. And we had gone to huge lengths to avoid cross contamination. Maybe people who go to scout-run breakfasts aren't those who tend to be concerned about gluten, but if I did it again we wouldn't try to keep the corn tortillas warm and ready. You can get away with using cold flour tortillas, but you'll need to warm or even fry or steam the corn, or they're going to be a dry mess that break. Maybe if you're make them all at once they'll get soggy from the egg and hold up, but otherwise you may want to just consider a different option for anyone who is gluten free.

Keep it simple.

1. No bacon. Too much work and sausage works best anyway. Easier to cook and melds with the eggs better. With most breakfast sausage you don't have to drain the grease.

2. Have a little variety. Have a basic egg/sausage, egg/potato, then the works. Not everyone likes everything in there (I don't like potatoes in mine). But at the same time, 2 or 3 options is enough. This way, the guys that don't want sausage for stomach issues (as mentioned above) won't have to worry about it. Plus, they'll get protein and carbs.

3. The idea about corn tortillas is a good one, but I wouldn't pre-make any. Just make it known that they are available if anyone wants them. If you must premake some, do 3-4 of each mix.

4. Don't forget salsa. I would just get however many bottles of On The Border salsa at Sams you think you need. It is flavorful, isn't too spicy, and is relatively inexpensive.

https://www.samsclub.com/p/on-the-border-medium-salsa-47oz/173024?xid=plp_product_1

5. Don't be afraid to use a little seasoning on the mixture. Mexican places do this and it makes somewhat bland, homemade breakfast tacos taste better. Unfortunately, I don't have a seasoning mix but I'm sure you can easily find one. Just don't go overboard. 2-4 spices in a large shaker bottle for the entire cook will work fine.

Figure out how many eggs you'll need and crack and scramble them ahead of time. Cut up the potatoes (smaller the better) and mix in a little olive oil, rosemary, garlic powder, and oregano (though not a lot). Get a few ice chests and make the tacos an hour ahead of time -- they will easily keep that long -- and wrap in the previously mentioned individual foil wraps. Each ice chest contains the same makeup (egg/sausage; the works; etc.).

Plan this out and it should be a piece of cake.

I make breakfast tacos for people here in East Tennessee who don't like spicy. But, they love the tacos I make.

- flour tortillas
- eggs
- jalapeños
- garlic
- shredded "mexican" cheese
- hot sausage
- Tony cachecheres spice

I think I use about 18 eggs, 1 (maybe 2 sausage), one package of cheese, to make 40? I use the pre-cut foil wrappers, wrap them, and put them in my yeti. They stay warm for a while. Have Herdez salsa verde, salsa, or my homemade salsa in small cups with lids. Never have any left.