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Cooking for a crowd

Classic Double-Crust Apple Pie for 24

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.

The plan

Make 3 batches of the recipe as written: about 24 servings.

The recipe serves 8. How it cooks: baked in pans.

Pans, pots and the oven

  • 3 × 9-inch pie plate.
  • A home oven fits 4 at a time (two per rack on two racks), so that's 1 round in one oven.

Timing

  • Prep: about 2 hours 30 minutes of hands-on work for 3 batches (the recipe's 1 hour each, a little faster once you're set up).
  • Oven: about 1 hour 5 minutes, one round.
  • With both racks full the oven bakes less evenly: swap the pans between racks and turn them halfway through, and expect about 5 to 10 minutes more than the recipe says. Go by its doneness cue, not the clock.

Good to know

  • Make it as 3 separate batches of the recipe as written, one 9-inch pie plate at a time (two at once if your mixer or bowl holds a double batch). The salt and spices in each batch stay as measured.
  • Don't put two batches in one deeper pan: it takes much longer and the middle can stay underdone. A bigger, shallower pan works if you rescale for it with the pan size converter.

Using bigger or different pans? The pan size converter rescales the recipe for them.

Ingredients for about 24

The totals to shop for. Each batch uses the recipe's own amounts, so mix and season them one batch at a time.

  • All-butter crust
  • 7 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
  • 3 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 3 cups unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1 ⅛–1 ½ cups ice water
  • Filling
  • 9 lb apples, about 7 medium, a mix of tart and sweet such as Granny Smith and Honeycrisp
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
  • ⅝ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ¾ tsp kosher salt
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • Finish
  • 3 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon milk
  • 3 tbsp coarse or granulated sugar

Rounded to kitchen measures. Eggs are rounded up to whole eggs.

Keeping a big batch safe

Back to the recipe More recipes for a crowd

How we work it out

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.