101 Recipes for Preparing Food in Bulk: Everything You Need to Know About Preparing, Storing, and Consuming (Back to Basics Cooking)

This is a great book. Been looking for one like this for a long time. Have not had the book long, however the recipes I have checked out all seem to be designed for 100 servings. If you are trying to figure out how much ground beef you need to buy for fixing "your" spaghetti for pre-game football team supper you will find it here. With one little exception, you will have to allow double for a football teams appetite! This book seems to have some good recipes, but even more than that you will get key information on how to "bulk" up your own recipes for prepping ahead or freezing ahead. Using the spaghetti example, you could make the recipe for your family of five and have spaghetti tonight and freeze 19 meals of meat balls and sauce in your freezer. You can turn all your family favorites into fast food. This book will give you an idea what you need to have on hand. Just think you will also have help on figuring how much to make for the family reunion. As much as I like the book, I really did not get the book I thought I was getting, as the canning jar on the front of the cover threw me off. I thought the book was about making up big recipes and also how to can the recipes. You will not find any method as far as I can see on how to can up any chicken meals, but you will find many chicken recipes and methods on how to freeze them. Even the many different sauce recipes in this book seem to be only for the freezer. This is not completely a bad thing, you can still make the large batches up and then can them using commonly known canning procedures. By the way this book does go over canning procedures briefly. Get the book if you have ever wondered how many potatoes to peel for Christmas dinner.

Recipe selection very limited. I don’t see where it tells you how many servings each recipe makes. I found about 20% of the book was useful to me. I regretted paying the high price for it.

get a bigger freezer b/c you're gonna need it!

i had this book from the library so I knew I wanted it in my personal library, very good book

great was good value

"101 Recipes for Preparing Food in Bulk" is a resource for learning to prepare foods bought in bulk. The main premise is to make preparing food in bulk "as manageable as cooking regular-sized meals". This book is written for the general reader, and is organized into each step of the process: Planning what you will cook, what equipment you will need to prepare food in bulk, storing the prepared food, and using the stored food in recipes.Mr. Helweg is meticulous in describing each detail of the process. For example, there are 2 pages devoted to cleaning your workspace prior to preparing the bulk food - and multiple references to cleanliness in other areas throughout the book. The presentation of this topic is well thought out, and is easy to follow as a step-by-step process.As I live in a remote area, it is often cheaper to buy ingredients in bulk from our local warehouse or farmer's markets. As a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, I am often at a loss for how best to preserve the abundance of produce I receive. Unfortunately, I end up throwing out spoiled or improperly stored food, negating the cost savings of purchasing in bulk.After reading Mr. Helweg's book, I have learned about proper preparation and storage methods for these items. In particular, I learned that sometimes it is best to store meals by their component parts, so the end result is of a higher quality. I tend to throw an entire package of meat or vegetables into the freezer, then complain about how difficult it is to separate only one or two servings for use in a recipe. One simple step of separating these foods into serving sizes before freezing would save me a lot of time and trouble.I also wanted to mention the valuable appendices included with this book. There are conversion charts to multiply ingredient amounts for making multiple batches of each recipe, conversion from ounces to teaspoons / tablespoons, charts to show how long you should keep specific foods in the freezer, and more. There is also an included CD-ROM disc that contains even more recipes than those found in the book itself.One cautionary note: I was a bit overwhelmed to discover that the recipes in this book are designed for 100 servings of each food. As a family of three, I was a bit dismayed at first. But I remember reading about the ability to enlist the services of a `partner'...or in my case, perhaps several partners would be needed. What a great way to maximize on sale prices and work together with friends and neighbors for the benefit of all. I can also see how this book would be very useful in churches, missions, homeless shelters, and other organizations to maximize their potential for serving meals to a large population while benefitting from sale prices and simple storage techniques.

"101 Recipes for Preparing Food in Bulk" by Richard Helweg is a cookbook with a twist; you won't find a recipe calling for 2 cups of flour... instead you will find it calling for 6 5/8 pounds of flour (for Baking Powder Biscuits, page 91). This book is not for large families, but for anyone who wants to save money and time by purchasing items in bulk and cooking large quantities at one time and freezing it to use later.The author includes what tools and equipment you will need on hand in your kitchen, buying the correct freezer to meet your needs, preparing a shopping list, getting your workspace ready, and cleaning up. He discusses how to freeze foods and how to thaw them. The book is loaded with recipes for beverages, breakfasts, lunches, dinner, side dishes, breads, appetizers, snacks, soups, sauces, and desserts. It also includes a CD-ROM that has all the recipes in the book and hundreds more.Mr. Helweg does a great job of demystifying the job of cooking in bulk. He includes freezing directions at the end of each recipe. The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is that I didn't like the way the CD-ROM was set up. I found it difficult to navigate. It would be great if the author set up a website instead (perhaps with a password listed in the book) where the reader could access these recipes in an easier manner.