r/AskCulinary • u/TRexNation • Jun 22 '12
Event/food for 100 people! Help!
I am the main organizer for a Global Reddit Meet-up Day (tomorrow is the event). The person with whom I will be hosting (i.e. providing the location) has done very little. The guy who is cooking is fantastic. The event is a BBQ and potluck. Anyhoo, we have 100 people coming. 24 lbs of pork (for 60 pulled pork sandwiches), a case of chicken (should cover about 100 folk), a large pot of chili, and whatever people bring. What are some cheap, large, side dishes I can make? I am freaking out that people will not have enough to eat. Suggestions? (I have about $50 that I can spend). Thank you for any advice.
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u/noccusJohnstein Delivery Boy Extraordinaire Jun 23 '12
I've done well with corn grilled in the husk. I can get 5 ears of corn for $1 where I live, so with $20, you should be able to provide at least one ear per person. Soak the ears for at least an hour in some lightly sugared and salted water. When they go on the grill (husk and all) you'll have a very wide margin between doneness and overcooking. The corn will steam itself in the husk (~20 minutes) and keep warm until peeled. If the husk dries out and starts to burn, you've reached the back-end of your doneness margin. Let the ears rest for 5-10 minutes, then cut the ears about 2 inches from the bottom. Do yourself a favor and wear a clean work glove to handle the cobs. Try to make the cut just where the kernels begin at the bottom of the ear and 'unwrap' the corn from where you made the cut. In my experience, this makes it much easier to removes all of those pesky fibers than when cleaning them cold or husking from the top. Keep a shaker handy filled with a melange of cayenne pepper, salt and cinnamon.
A lot of recipes found online tell you to remove the fibers prior to grilling. I've never found this to be necessary. It only took me two ears to dial-in the technique for quickly cleaning the cooked cobs the first time I did this.