re: How much to cook for a crowd?

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How many gallons of gumbo would you cook for 50 adults?

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Adults from south LA, or adults from somewhere else?
What other food is on the menu?
How large are the serving bowls? Work backwards from the size of your bowls....12 oz bowl will hold a 3-4 oz scoop of rice, plus 10 fl oz of gumbo, leaving you enough "freeboard" not to spill. 10 oz x 50 ppl = 500 oz, or just about 4 gallons. If you are serving this as the entree with minimal other food (ie, just french bread and a green salad), round up to 5 gallons to allow for seconds.

Now, if you are serving gumbo as a first course along with other food, you might be able to use a smaller bowl and round down to 3 gallons.

For many, many years, I cooked gumbo for a large festival in 60 quart pots. We got 200 servings out of a 60-quart pot, which averages to 9.6 fl ounces per serving.