An Easter table is rarely just a dinner. Relatives, neighbours and godparents come, and by the end of the week the fridge has to hold a lot of everything at once. The trouble is always the same: in the last three days everyone rushes to the shop together, and you buy twice what you need, and pay more for it. It is calmer to sit down once with a sheet of paper, count the people and spread the shopping over time.

Below is a simple plan: what is on the table, how much per person, what to get early and what on the last day. We do not write prices, because they change every week. You will see them in the live blocks: these are the offers the shops are showing in their flyers right now.

First count the people, then the dishes

Take a sheet of paper and write three numbers: how many adults, how many children and how many people might drop in without warning. The last group is always two or three, and that is normal. Then multiply by everyone, not by "about ten people".

The skeleton of an Easter table in our house is usually this: pască and cozonac, dyed eggs, one hot meat dish, a couple of starters, one or two salads, horseradish with beetroot, wine and something non-alcoholic. Everything else is decoration. The longer the list, the greater the chance that part of it stays untouched. Better five dishes that get eaten than ten that you keep finishing until next Friday.

Eggs: two or three per adult

For the table, count two or three dyed eggs per adult and one or two per child. If you also dye some as gifts, add a dozen. Count the eggs for the dough separately: a cozonac usually takes three or four, a big cheese pască about as many, and salads and starters a few more. For a family of six that comes to about four dozen eggs, and it is not too many.

Buy the eggs a week or a week and a half ahead: they keep a long time in the fridge. But dye them a day or two before, so the shells do not go dull. Here is what the flyers have in eggs now:

In the catalogues now: eggs

This is not in the current catalogues right now: eggs. As soon as it shows up in a promotion, the cards will appear here.

Search the catalogues for something similar

Flour: for the cozonac and the pască

One large cozonac needs about six or seven hundred grams of flour, and a pască from yeast dough the same. If you bake both, get a kilo to a kilo and a half of flour, plus a reserve for dusting and for pies. We described the full recipe in the article about cozonac, with the weights of everything else.

Buy flour and sugar early: they do not spoil, and before the holiday the choice on the shelves shrinks. Do not forget yeast, vanilla sugar and walnuts for the filling: these are always remembered on the night before baking, when the shops are closed. What is on offer in flour now:

In the catalogues now: flour

All offers

Cheese: the sweet pască and the starters

A sweet pască is made from cottage cheese: for one you take about half a kilo (the recipe is in the article about pască). Cheese is needed in two more places: brined sheep or cow cheese for starters and pies, and an ordinary hard cheese for the platter. For the platter about thirty grams per person is enough, and the same again for a snack with wine. If you make cheese plăcinte, add a hundred grams of cheese per person.

It is better to buy cheese three to five days ahead: it has a shelf life and slices dry out quickly. See where it is cheaper now:

In the catalogues now: cheese

All offers

Meat: what to take and how much

The hot dish is the centre of the table, and this is where people most often get it wrong. The rule is simple. Bone-in meat: about two hundred and fifty grams raw per person. Boneless meat (loin, leg, chicken fillet): about two hundred grams. If the table has starters, cold cuts and baking, go for the lower figure. For a family of eight that is two kilos of bone-in meat, no more.

Some roast lamb, some pork or chicken: each family has its own way. Buy the meat three or four days ahead and put it in the freezer at once, then move it to the fridge a day before. Check what the flyers have now:

In the catalogues now: meat

All offers

The shopping calendar: two weeks, one week, two days

Two weeks ahead: wine and soft drinks, flour, sugar, yeast, walnuts, vanilla sugar, egg dye, sunflower oil, spices. Everything that keeps for months.

One week ahead: eggs, hard cheese, brined cheese, mayonnaise and tinned goods for salads, horseradish and beetroot.

Three or four days ahead: meat (into the freezer), cottage cheese, sour cream, butter, milk.

A day or two ahead: greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, fresh bread, fruit for the table, lemons.

If the days before the holiday are busy, split the list between two people: one buys the dry goods and drinks, the other the fresh things. That way there is no crush in the shop on the last evening.

A ready-made basket: check yourself

When the list is ready, compare it with the ready basket "for Easter". It is a set of staple products that the table is built from, and each product shows the shop with the best offer:

What it costs: Easter groceries: where to buy them cheaper

The whole set at the best prices97.13 leiFound 4 of 5 items

Where to get the set

  • Linella4 of 5 itemsMost items
    81.96 leiMissing: Eggs
  • METRO4 of 5 items
    113.60 leiMissing: Eggs
  • Slavena3 of 5 items
    51.85 leiMissing: Eggs, Sugar
  • Nr13 of 5 items
    79.10 leiMissing: Eggs, Flour
The whole basket

The basket will not replace your list, it is there so that you forget nothing: eggs, flour, cheese, meat and the rest in one place. The other fresh offers of the week are in the discounts and on the catalogue pages.

A short checklist

  • Count all the guests and add two or three extra.
  • Write a menu of five or six dishes, no more.
  • Split the shopping into "dry" and "fresh".
  • Buy the dry goods two weeks ahead, the fresh a day or two ahead.
  • Meat into the freezer, fresh greens on the last day.
  • Keep one evening free of shopping, just for cooking.