Help · Recipes and meals

How to plan a party menu, scaled to your guests, with a cook-ahead timeline

A holiday dinner or a birthday party means cooking several dishes for more people than usual, all ready at once. A party menu in Fridge Door scales each dish to your guests, makes one shopping list, and lays out a timeline of what to start when.

Step 1: start the menu

Open Recipes, choose Menus, then New menu. Name the Occasion (say, "Christmas dinner") and set the number of Guests.

Step 2: add the dishes

Choose Add a dish and find each recipe: starters, mains, sides, dessert. Give each a Course. Every dish is scaled to serve your guests, and More guests or Fewer guests rescales the lot if the headcount changes.

Step 3: set when you're eating

Add the date and time you're Eating at. Fridge Door works back from each recipe's prep and cooking times to a cook-ahead timeline: what to start when, so everything lands together. Adjust a dish's time if you know better.

Step 4: one shopping list

Choose Add to a list to put every ingredient for the whole menu, scaled and merged, onto your shopping list, or a separate list just for the party.

Step 5: print it

Print gives you the menu and the timeline on paper, for the fridge or the counter on the day. Add Notes for anything else: who's bringing the wine, the oven plan, allergies to watch.

Questions

Does it change my recipes?

No. Scaling for the menu only affects the menu and its shopping list; your recipes stay as they were.

Can I reuse a menu next year?

Yes. Menus stay under Recipes › Menus; change the date and guests, and it's ready again.

What if a recipe has no times?

Add its prep and cooking times on the recipe's Edit page, or set its start time on the menu yourself.

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