Rice Quantity

• With rice, portion size is a moving target. Carb-averse Westerners might take only a small spoonful, while diners from other cultures might expect to fill up on the rice. Usually, your best rule is to consider how the rice will be served. If it's part of a full plate with an entree, sauce and several vegetables, a half-cup of cooked rice per person is usually adequate. If the pulav will be your only side dish, a full cup of cooked rice per person is a more reasonable allowance. One cup of uncooked rice yields three cups of cooked, so for 45 one-cup portions of cooked rice you'd need 15 cups uncooked.

Other Ingredients

• Ideally, if you're going to prepare pulav in that large a quantity, you can start with a commercial-sized recipe. Otherwise, you can scale up your favorite home-sized recipe or simply work from rules of thumb. A flavorful pulav usually requires about a cup of diced or slivered onion for every 4 cups of cooked rice. If you wish you can add up to a cup of other vegetables, in total, for every 3 to 5 cups of cooked rice. You'll also need salt and other seasonings to taste.

Preparing the Pulav

• Cook your onions in oil or butter in a large skillet or Dutch oven until they're translucent, then add any other aromatic ingredients such as garlic, bell peppers or celery. Cook gently until they're soft, working several batches if necessary. Then add your rice to the skillet, stirring it until it's well heated and coated with the fragrant oil. You might need to add more oil, depending on the size of your pan. Transfer the rice to your rice cooker, stirring in the sauteed aromatic ingredients and any other vegetables or seasonings. Add 27 cups of water or broth for long-grain rice or 25 cups for basmati, and press the "Start" button on your rice cooker.

The Cooker

• Large-capacity rice cookers are a commercial product intended for restaurants, so you won't find one at your nearest department store. They're usually measured in cups, rather than quarts, so you should search for an 80-cup model. If a group of 45 is the largest you'll usually cook for, a 55-cup model would be adequate. They're much more widely used than 80-cup models, and easier to locate.