large quantity frittata?

I'd like to appeal to the collective wisdom of the forum chefs: I have plans to host a brunch for a friend and the guest list has gotten rather large. I had planned to serve several kinds of frittatas, but now fear I don't have enough large oven proof skillets. Does anyone have experience or advice with making very large frittatas in something more like a lasagna pan? Does it work?

Alternately, I've never tried making stratas, though I know they tend to be baked in large pans - but I'm thinking the bread enables the egg in the middle of a big pan to get cooked...have any strata recipes that aren't bland?

Much obliged!

Hi AnnaK:

I make a sausage strata each year for our family's annual Christmas baking brunch. Over time, I have made it more of a garbage strata, throwing in whatever cheese and veggies I have at the time. The basic recipe is:

pork sausage
loaf of french bread (a few days old)
shredded cheese (cheddar, motzarella, Parm, whatever is on hand)
12 eggs
2 cups milk
salt/pepper
1 t. ground dry mustard

Cook sausage, drain and set aside. Layer bottom of baking dish with thickly sliced bread, sausage and cheese. Beat together eggs, milk, salt, pepper and mustard and pour over sliced bread in baking dish. (This is where we throw in whatever extras we happen to have on hand... we like sliced onions, green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc)

Refrigerate overnight.

Remove baking dish from refrigerator at least 30 minutes before baking. Bake in 350 oven until knife inserted in center comes out clean (approx. 2 hours). Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 8-10.

Again, this is the basic recipe, and I don't think I've ever made it the same way twice. Sometimes, I carmelize onions... sometimes I just use raw. Sometimes I grab sage sausage, sometimes not. I guess it just depends on how I'm feeling that day and what I feel like/don't feel like buying.

I think the key is the overnight refrigeration. Aside from that, the type of bread, cheese, whether or not to add vegetables is up for grabs.

Good luck!

annak,

I would hardly call this gourmet but it's a strata my family enjoys, and works well in a 13 X 9 pan. Plus you can make a few the night before and just bake them off as needed the next day. I kind of eyeball everything but this would be my guess on the ingredient amounts per pan.

1 lb. fresh ground italian sausage
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 yelow onion, diced

6 slices white bread
6 eggs
1 cup half and half or milk
1 generous tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar, divided

Take the crusts off the bread, cube, and let it sit and stale up a little aside.

In a large skillet, brown the sausage, seasoning as you go, and when it's about done, add in your veg (their liquid will deglaze the pan) and sautee until the veg loses most of its' liquid. Set aside and let cool.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and whisk in the half and half/milk, salt, pepper, and mustard. Fold in a cup of the cheese and bread cubes, then the cooled sausage/veg mix. Combine thoroughly. Pour into a buttered 13 X 9 pan, top with the last 1/2 cup of cheese, cover with plastic and let it setup overnight.

Bake at 350, uncovered, until the egg is just set in the middle, about 20-25 minutes.

Best of luck!

Note that most strata recipes aren't really different from quiche recipes. For instance, take these two recipes I found at random on Epicurious: a Zucchini-Bacon Quiche and a Spinach and Cheese Strata. If you multiply the quiche recipe by three, so it contains the same number of eggs as the strata, you've got very similar proportions (there's a difference of 1/2 cup of milk, but in a large custard that's soaking into bread, I don't think that's a major difference)

Do you have a favorite quiche recipe that you don't think is bland? You can multiply it to the size you want (and maybe add a little extra milk, but I don't think that's necessary.) Pour it over cubed good bread and follow the directions for a strata. You could even modify your favorite frittata recipe accordingly (though I wouldn't add potatoes to a strata, but that's just me.) One of the things I love about custards in general is that they're fairly forgiving - you can flavor them any way you want (I have a recipe for a strata that I haven't tried yet that uses cream cheese, brown sugar and cinnamon.)

Thanks so much for these helpful recipes and suggestions. I think my concern about blandness was related to the necessity of using bread in order to set the eggs when using large quantities -and so in some ways I was asking whether anyone has made bread-less egg dishes like frittata or quiche in a large pan and not had trouble with setting. But the strata recipes have me convinced to try bread by just ensuring flavorful elements overall. I think I'm going with leek, smoked salmon, and goat cheese (maybe with mushrooms) and with roasted-tomato, spinach, and carmelized onion. If it works, I'll post pictures. Thanks!

I've made Strattas in 9x13" pans with success but I wouldn't go much bigger than that. What happens -- and unfortunately, I know this from experience -- is that when you go larger, the edges become overdone way before the center sets. This is pretty typical of baked egg dishes in my experience (even brownie recipes suffer from over-batching). The inclusion of bread doesn't seem to help the centers cook.

I suppose you could compensate by cooking it at a much cooler temperature than you otherwise would but with eggs, I'd be hesitant to do so unless I was very familiar with -- and confident in -- the source. If you did decide to cook it cooler, my guess is that you'd also have to substantially increase the cooking time.

Good luck with your brunch,

=R=

annak wrote:I think I'm going with leek, smoked salmon, and goat cheese (maybe with mushrooms) and with roasted-tomato, spinach, and carmelized onion. If it works, I'll post pictures. Thanks!

Those sound like two delicious stratas!