Breakfast Casserole
Overnight Sausage and Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole
Sausage and Hash BrowneasyCleanup score 3 of 5
Cooking for a crowd
212 recipes that scale up for 12 to 50: how many pans, pots or slow cookers, how many rounds in the oven, how the timing changes, and which ingredients not to simply multiply.
These are estimates. They come from rules of thumb, not a recipe we tested at this size. Go by the recipe's own doneness cues and a thermometer, and taste as you go.
Breakfast & Brunch (19)
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- Classic One-Bowl Banana Bread for 24: 3 pans, 1 oven round
- Freezer Breakfast Burritos with Eggs, Potatoes and Beans for 24: 3 pans, 2 oven rounds
- Glazed Blueberry Lemon Scones for 24: 3 pans, 2 oven rounds
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- Freezer French Toast Sticks for Kids for 24: 4 pans, 2 oven rounds
- Ham and Cheese Egg Muffin Cups for 24: 4 pans, 1 oven round
How we work it out
- How it cooks decides how it grows. Baked dishes and casseroles are made as separate batches of the recipe as written, one pan's worth at a time. Soups, stews and chili go in one bigger pot, or several. Slow cooker and pressure cooker recipes get one batch per cooker or per round. Roasts become more roasts, not a bigger one. Skillet, griddle, grill and fried recipes cook in rounds.
- Pans and the oven. We assume a home oven with two racks, two baking dishes or cake pans per rack, or one sheet pan per rack. More pans than that means another round in the oven.
- Pots. The volume comes from the weight of the ingredients (about a liter for each kilogram; dry pasta, rice and grains count 2½ times, since they soak up water), in a pot no more than 3/4 full.
- What we don't simply multiply. Salt: add 3/4, taste, then the rest. Cayenne, chiles and hot sauce: start with 2/3. Ground spices and dried herbs: start with 3/4 once it's 3 batches or more. Bay leaves and other whole spices: about half the extra. Baking soda, baking powder and yeast: batch by batch. Frying oil and the water for boiling: by the pot, not the recipe. A big pot of soup or stew: hold back a tenth of the liquid.
- Timing. Each extra batch adds about 3/4 of the recipe's prep time. A big pot takes about 3 more minutes per extra quart to come to a simmer on one burner. Meat browns in batches no bigger than the recipe's. A full oven bakes a little slower: swap and turn the pans halfway, and allow 5 to 10 minutes more.
These are our rules of thumb, not tests of each recipe at each size. The recipe's own doneness cues and a thermometer come first.
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