How much Finger Food to make for a 'crowd' I am helping a friend plan and prepare 'finger foods' for a post-funeral gathering of about 50-75 people. Right now we are thinking in terms of a meat &amp; cheese tray with breads and crackers, a 'typical' veggie tray with ranch, etc., little smokies...

What I would like to ask is "how much" should we make?

Any great suggestions for what to include beyond the basics will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks to all who contribute.


  ps.. I tried a lot of things for tags, finger-foods, quantity,
  snack-foods, snacks that don't
  currently exist. If anybody has a
  suggestion the right 'tags' for this
  question I will appreciate the input.
This is the rule we use for kids parties in Brazil, where pretty much all that is eaten is finger food (besides the birthday cake), you can use it as a starting point for other regions as well (since portions are typically larger in the US I'd increase it a little):


6-8 snacks (savory) items per adult, 4-6 per child
4-6 sweet items per adult, ~4 per child (who will eat most of the cake)
Lots of drinks (soda, juice, alcohol for adults), which I don't remember the amount


A savory item is roughly the size of a 1" / 2.5cm diameter ball, while the sweet ones are a little smaller (1/2" / 1cm diameter).

With those quantities nobody ends up completely stuffed, and there isn't much leftover either. For kinds of food which I can reuse later I tend to get a little more than the "recommended" amounts, since I'm able to use the leftovers the following day.