Cooking for 30

[JakeT]

Hello all!

I need a little portioning and marinading advice. The weekend of the 21st I'm making a Chimichuri Flank Steak Beet Salad for around 26 people and some kids. I've posted the recipe for the marinade below, which I've used multiple times on a small scale, but on this grand scale for cooking anything I'm a complete virgin. I used a recipe converter to get the portions correct for the marinade, and needless to say there is a lot of everything. Traditionally I'll put the 1# of flank steak in a ziplock bag overnight with the marinade, flipping and shaking occasionally as needed, and boom, we're good. My needed advice is for how to approach the marinade? Giant ziplocks with 5x the original in each? Or do a huge vat of marinade and load the whole thing, all 15#s of flank steak included, into a big cooler? I worry about even marinating for such large quantities.

The marinated flank steak will be seared over warp 10 coals on 2 separate weber kettles. Then sliced against the grain and served over a rainbow beet and mixed greens salad with blue cheese crumbles. Light vinaigrette dressing. Some Francis Mallman Chimichurri spread in a line over the top of the meat. I'm really excited to do my first big cook for a large amount of people...no pressure though as it's for my wife's family of self proclaimed foodies! (Though my mother in law assured me she'd provide copious amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon to stimulate their taste buds properly!)

Thanks for any advice you guys can give!!

I'm using Imperial Wagyu from Pape Meat Co in Millbrae, CA... these guys are awesome, check them out if ever in the area!

Chimi Skirt Steak
Serves: 30
RESIZED
Print Recipe

11¼ Cups Olive Oil

7½ Cups Fresh O.J.

5 Cups Lime Juice

3¾ Cups Soy Sauce

3¾ Cups Worcestirshire

2 Cups, 13 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

60 Garlic Cloves, Minced

15 Pounds Skirt Steak

[RonB]

I have a couple of suggestions for prepping the marinade.

You should start last week on squeezing limes Seriously, give yourself plenty of time because it takes 8 to 12 limes to get one cup of juice. And if you are serving foodies, they will probably be able to tell if you use bottled juice.

You might consider getting a jar of minced garlic so that you don't have to mince that many cloves. 6 cloves = ~ 1 tbsp minced garlic, so you need about 10 tbsp of the minced.

If you decide to use zipper bags, I suggest double bagging the meat. Some of the bags will probably leak.

[Spinaker]

I would use a large Cambro bucket, cooler or 5-gallon bucket. (Make sure they are really clean.) Exactly like if you were curing a brisket for pastrami.

Generally, for meat, you plan on about 1/2 lb a person, some will eat more, some will eat less.

I think you have a pretty good handle on this.

[Nuke em]

They also sell 2 gallon zip loc bags if needed

[Frozen Smoke]

Agree with Spinaker get a big enough Cambro container with cover or if you go to your local grocery store ask the bakery if they have any of the empty buckets they get pastry icing in or a restaurant and ask if they have any empty buckets they get pickles or other condiments in as these will all be food safe containers. I never liked using bags for large marinading or brining projects. Don't use a bucket from the home improvement store as these are not food safe.

[EdF]

Concur!

[Nuke em]

Also check with your local donut shop for buckets that they get their fruit and cream fillings in. My local donut shop sells em just for that. Cheap to

[JakeT]

Thanks for the input guys. I come up with just over 2 gallons of marinade alone, I think I'll do the big 2 gallon ziploc bags. Maybe to 3 bags so it's not too cramped. RonB, I actually just confirmed I can borrow a commercial juicer from a friend, not sure if my hands or forearms would handle that much juicing the old fashion way!

[EdF]

Good wishes for your cook! I'd have never done something so "detailed"!

[JakeT]

My food went off without any major set backs! I ended up using the gas grill at the house instead of bringing 2 webers, which I am glad of, because from start to finish to cook all the meat it was about 45 minutes. Keeping that much charcoal at warp 10 would have been another level of stress! I've settled on the Francis Mallmann Chimi recipe as my favorite, everyone loved it too...even for breakfast, lunch and an appetizer the following day! (tastes great with buttered bread as a dip!) The pan pictured below is about 1/3 of the total output. And the picture of the two lonely pieces was the after thought at the very end when I knew all was going to be well.

It took longer than I wanted to but I kept everyone on the hook with small sample pieces as it was coming off the grill!

The eaters raved over it, I won the unofficial award of the best meal of the reunion! Can't wait for next year to try out something else!

[jfmorris]

That meat looks really good! Mmmmm

[HawkerXP]

Very nice! Congrats!!

[fzxdoc]

Sounds like you made all the right choices--that meat looks delicious. Your relatives must have placed hints for a bottle of that chimichurri sauce for upcoming gift-giving occasions. Congratulations for a job well done.

Kathryn

P.S. I found a copy of the Francis Mallmann recipe here . How much did you end up making, JakeT --about 3 quarts as shown in the photo or was there another tub somewhere?

[JakeT]

Thank you!

Yes, I made 3 quarts. The only difference was that I used only half the amount of salt. A previous batch I felt it was way too salty. Easy to add salt, difficult to take it out. I only ended up using about half of it so I gave a bunch away already!