For many of us the village feast day is the most important day of the summer: the gates are open, relatives come from the city and from abroad, neighbours and childhood friends drop in. Over the day thirty to fifty people, and sometimes more, pass through the table. The women of the house start preparing a week ahead, and the main question is always the same: how much of all this is needed so that everyone gets enough, but nothing is thrown away?

We have collected a few simple rules: how to count the guests, how much of each dish to take, what can be done ahead and how to split the shopping between relatives. There are no prices here, because they change every week: you will see the current offers in the live blocks. Every village has its own customs, so treat the figures as a hint and adjust them to your own table.

How to count guests who arrive in waves

At a feast day the guests do not all sit down at once: they come to the table in waves, some after the service, some at midday, some towards evening. So count not the number of people but the number of "sittings". If you expect fifty people and twenty fit at the table, that is two and a half sittings, and you need food for forty-five, because some will only look in for a minute.

A practical rule: count for every announced guest and add a tenth more for those who arrive unannounced. It is better to have some left for the second day than for someone to go without. Take one set of plates, glasses and forks for every two guests, because the dishes will be washed as you go.

The skeleton of the table: what must be there

A feast table usually stands on five supports: starters (brined cheese, vegetables, cold cuts, pickles), a first course (for example zeamă, the chicken noodle soup), the hot dish (sarmale, tochitură), mămăligă and baking. Add wine, compote and something sweet: cozonac or a pie.

Do not overcomplicate it. Three or four main dishes that you cook well are always better than ten middling ones. If there is little room on the table, put the starters out at once and bring the hot food as the guests sit down.

Sarmale: how much meat and rice

Sarmale are the main dish at many feast days. Count about four or five per person when mămăligă, meat and baking are alongside. For thirty guests you need about a hundred and fifty. A kilo of minced meat and a glass of rice make roughly thirty to forty medium sarmale, so for a hundred and fifty you take four to five kilos of minced meat and about five or six hundred grams of rice, plus leaves (sour cabbage or vine leaves). The full recipe is in the article about sarmale, and a side of braised cabbage goes well with the meat on a big table.

Buy the mince for a big pot the day before or on the day of cooking and keep it cold. Buy the rice early, it keeps. Here is what there is now in meat and in rice:

In the catalogues now: meat

All offers

In the catalogues now: rice

All offers

Mămăligă and tochitură

Mămăligă for a large group is cooked in a big cauldron, and the hard part is the amount of water. Two hundred grams of cooked mash per person is enough: that is fifty to sixty grams of cornmeal. For thirty guests take about two kilos of cornmeal and enough water for a thick mămăligă. How to cook it and how to cut it with a string is in the mămăligă recipe.

Tochitură is counted like this: about a hundred and fifty to two hundred grams of raw meat per person, most often pork and a little smoked sausage. It is made on the day itself, because hot it is at its best. Mămăligă is served with brined cheese and sour cream: about fifty grams of cheese per person. Let us look at the basket for mămăligă:

What it costs: Mămăligă and plăcinte: what to buy for less

The whole set at the best prices122.45 leiFound 3 of 4 items

Where to get the set

  • Nr13 of 4 itemsMost items
    92.45 leiMissing: Cornmeal
  • Local3 of 4 items
    95.97 leiMissing: Cornmeal
  • Rogob3 of 4 items
    145.80 leiMissing: Cornmeal
  • Alvi Market3 of 4 items
    148.80 leiMissing: Cornmeal
The whole basket

Plăcinte and cheese

Cheese and pumpkin plăcinte go well beside the hot dishes and as a snack between sittings. Take two or three per person. For a cheese filling you need about a hundred grams of cheese per person if the plăcinte are cheese only, and less if you mix the cheese with potato or greens. The recipes are in the articles on cheese plăcinte and pumpkin plăcintă. Let us see where cheese is cheaper now:

In the catalogues now: cheese

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Wine and soft drinks

If wine flows all day, count a bottle for two people. For drivers and children prepare compote, water or juice separately, a litre per person is enough. Drinks are needed both before lunch and in the evening, so keep them in the shade or in cold water and top them up.

It is easier to buy the wine early and in the needed amount all at once. What the catalogues have in wine:

In the catalogues now: wine

All offers

The plan by day

Two weeks ahead: make the list of dishes and split it between relatives. Check whether you have enough dishes, tables and benches and agree who brings what is missing.

One week ahead: rice, flour, grains, tinned goods, drinks, spices, salt, oil. Everything that keeps.

Three or four days ahead: meat (into the freezer or fridge), cheese, vegetables, cabbage for sarmale.

Two days ahead: the baking, starters and sarmale. They are better the next day.

A day ahead: greens, fresh bread, fruit, ice, compote. Lay the tables in advance.

On the feast day: mămăligă, tochitură, the hot dish, and only that. The rest is already done.

A short checklist

  • The list of dishes and "who does what" on one sheet.
  • The number of guests multiplied by the norm from this article.
  • Drivers and children counted separately.
  • Dishes for half the guests, but someone to wash them.
  • Keeping products bought early, fresh ones on the last day.
  • Containers ready for leftovers: guests will be sent home with a parcel too.