A lot of it depends on whether you're feeding young athletes, older ladies who are watching their figures and men who are watching their cholesterol, people who've been working hard in the sun all morning, or those who've had a hearty Sunday breakfast before church and want a light lunch with good company.

The art of being a great hostess includes having some overage so you never run out, so plan on the generous side and have in mind what you're going to make with the leftovers.

Figure about an average of 2-3 tablespoons of sour cream per person, unless you know that they're really into lathering them up.

Do you have a butter slicer? It's easier to figure butter if it's preportioned so people don't just load up on more than they plan to use. There are 18-24 pats of butter in a stick, depending on your slicer. You can also do it yourself, but start with hard chilled, and put it immediately back in the fridge or on ice. Spread the pats around in a bowl to make them easier to pick up rather than leaving it stick shaped.

Sixty biscuits sounds about right since you have another starch, if it's mixed company. The teens might eat three, where the older ladies might eat a half. Figure 2-3 pats of butter (not the thinnest ones) per biscuit unless you know them to be big butter hounds. If they're the type to do lots of both butter and sour cream on the potatoes, figure another 2-3 pats per potato.

Again, I'm giving you the very generous, you'll never run out even if they act like locusts proportions here. If you are holding the line on the budget, especially if the money for the meal is coming from a non-profit kitty or something, you can be much more conservative, say three pats of butter and two tablespoons of sour cream per person, and make sure to put a small spoon in the sour cream. :)

The density of sour cream varies. I read that there are 30 tablespoons per pound of sour cream (the ounces on the labelling are by weight, not volume). I have a box of Hampshire sour cream, which is heavier, I think, than most. It says there are two tablespoons per ounce of weight, which would be 32 tablespoons per pound. So figure somewhere around there.

Two pounds of butter would be 64 tablespoons of butter, which I think would be sufficient, although people will be putting butter on both the biscuits and the potatoes, unless you have jam or something similar for the biscuits?

I'm horrible, I hate to run out of anything, so I'd probably get an extra pound of butter.

How big is the "big" container of sour cream? A pound? Two pounds? I think if they are not given individual portions, but serve themselves from the container, you are going to have people using a couple of tablespoons, at least. Using the 30 tablespoons per pound ratio, each pound would top 15 potatoes, so you'd need at least 4 pounds.

Good luck!

Annie

Thank you both. That helps a lot.
I bought some stuff but will add more. I think I have decided, as we have plenty, servers topping the potatoes for people (the way they like), with the first go through and after everyone has eaten , everything else is left for grabs.
Because the number of people can vary from 25 to 50, we usually serve normal, not huge portions first, to make sure we have enough.
Everybody knows how it works and all the deacons, the majority at the lunch, understand it well and won't eat if there are a lot of people and questionable amounts of food. Although we have always had plenty.
Thanks for the jelly reminder, need to get some.
I am grilling the chicken today over charcoal and will slightly undercook it. Then slice it thick and finish cooking in giant roasters tomorrow. Have done this many times and it's very popular. Everyone will get several slices on a plate initially, not a full breast.

I'm assuming that you have having probably 5 tables , eight at a table. So I'd probably have 4 to 5 pounds of butter. 3/4 to 1 pound per table. If you were just serving biscuits you wouldn't need as much, but some people like to put a lot of butter on their baked potatoes, especially if they aren't using sour cream. I don't think that two pounds will go far with 40 people.

~Ann

I am going to bring a third pound but everything will be on the serving table, It is all very casual and kinda rednecky, although I agree about the butter!