How Much?

Yes, how much booze do I need? 


We can stop pacing and wondering, because I have GREAT NEWS! On page 176 of The Guide (which I’ve come to think of as “My Guide”, sung to the tune of “My Guy”) is a reference table, and I have to say a spreadsheet has never spoken to me the way this one did. Charts and graphs usually leave me pretty cold, but not this one, which is a 1935 style spreadsheet “for determining approximately how many bottles you may need for various occasions.” Turns out that the recommended number of cocktails before dinner is between 2 ½ and 4!! Per person!! AND, it is recommended that to be extra safe, substitute quarts for fifths! I couldn’t have said it better. For the novice, a fifth refers to 4/5 of a quart so, in short, always have more, more, more!!

It’s another story for a buffet, where we are told to plan 2 cocktails, 2 glasses of wine, 1 liqueur, and 2 highballs, again, per person. I can’t stop smiling even writing this. The news is just too good. Wanna come to my house for a buffet? Yes, I thought you would!

Several years ago I brought Sangria to a Christmas pot luck dinner for about 15 people. People. I’d found a recipe on Epicurious that said it would serve 100. Once I managed to get up off the floor from laughing, I began to imagine -- one hundred what? One hundred who? Certainly not the people in our crowd, who managed to finish it over the course of the evening. Check it out yourself, epicurious.com, Sangria for 100. And then stick with me.