Gumbo for 30

30 servings. That can be thirty 12-ounce servings, which would be one bowl.

30 X 12 ounces = 360 ounces

360 ounces / 128 ounces per gallon = 2.8 gallons.

You need to cook a minimum of 3 gallons, so cook a 5 gallon pot.


Rice - for 12 ounces of gumbo, figure 1/2 cup of cooked rice. You need a minimum of 16 cups of cooked rice.

Raw to cooked rice is a ration of 1:3. 6 cups of raw rice yields 18 cups of cooked rice.

I don’t have the roux ratios or recipe ratios in front of me at the moment.

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Good job Barone!

I did a survey of gumbo recipes in my large Louisana cookbook collection. The ratio of liquid to flour ranged from 20 to 1 down to 6 to 1.

6 to 1 is very thick, 20 to 1 is very thin.

1 cup of flour and 1 cup of oil makes 1.3 cups of roux, with a teaspoon or 2 of excess oil.

HERE is a link to download my (incomplete) Gumbo Calculator Beta. Play with it to help you plan.

I would appreciate that data, Barone.

4 people per every chicken (3 pcs. each) = 8 chickens
2-3 people per link of sausage = 4 packs of smoked sausage
Rice I use 1/2 cup max of cooked rice per person = 15 cups of rice

Water- Start with 4 gallons of water/chicken stock (2.5 water/1.5 stock

Roux- eyeball that shite- for 4 gallons of water I would go with +/- 20-24oz of roux. Just open a big jar of Savoie's Roux and use most of the jar.

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amount of roux to liquid ratios

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That's exactly what I struggle with every time I make gumbo. I don't make it often enough to be second nature.

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That is an EXTREMELY thin gumbo. Am I missing something? My math brain is a little rusty.

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okra?
filé?

As I said it’s more of a shopping list than a recipe, but the critical parts are ratioed close enough to serve at a Cajun Christmas, I have the last 5 years.

File is available and added to individual’s bowls more for taste than consistency.

I don’t measure okra, and I don’t always add it, especially if planning on leftovers, or large groups

A 25:1 ratio or whatever the calculation was of bacon grease, duck fat, ghee, or some other form of solid fat at room temp based roux gives a velvety richness to the gumbo you wouldn’t get from a 6:1 ratio of vegetable or canola oil based jar roux, and doubling to hit a scientific ratio some cookbook mentions would take away from everything else in the pot.

The picture I posted is the only one I have, it’s not the world’s greatest gumbo, you’d probably expect better from a 5* restaurant. However, I’ve been looking for constructive criticism for years, have gotten very little negative feedback, they keep asking me to cook it, and there’s almost none left at the end of the night.

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4 gallons of water is 512 ounces. 512/24 = ratio of 21.333.

That is a VERY thin gumbo.

CORRECTION: The ratio you gave is liquid to roux, not liquid to flour. The correct ratio is 28 to 1. 24 oz of roux contains 18 oz of flour.

512/18 = 28.44 to 1.

That is an EXTREMELY thin gumbo.

Am I missing something? My math brain is a little rusty

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Bro, this is not a meth class. My gumbo is not thin. Maybe I did not review my calculus before posting. I do everything mostly by feel when I cook.

How is 4 gallons of water/stock thin if I put a whole 32oz. jar of roux in it? Plus the chicken sausage, trinity, maybe tasso, etc.