Since so much of Thanksgiving involves prepping ahead, it’s always nice to have solutions for keeping food warm until it gets to the table.
If you have enough space, just using your stove or oven to keep things warm is the most obvious solution, but in case you’re short on space, here are some other ideas:
Water coolers can be used to keep food warm too. Line it with aluminum foil, and pad it with towels. Avoid having hot dishes touch the sides of the cooler directly so that it doesn’t melt the plastic cooler.
Use coffee carafes or ice buckets. Thermal
carafes and insulated ice buckets are also great at keeping things warm. You probably can’t fit as much, but they’re the perfect size for something like gravy.
Use a tinfoil hat. No, not to make sure that aliens can’t read your mind. Make a tent with the foil with the shiny side down, and cover things like turkey to retain the heat.
Make a hot water bath. Like Kirk from mmm-yoso mentioned on the mashed potatoes post, you can put smaller pots or bowls into a bigger pot with a little bit of hot water, then cover it. It will keep things nice, warm, and moist.
Use a chafing dish. The high-end version of the water bath is to use a chafing dish. They can be pricy, but if you entertain a lot, they look nice on the table, and they’re very convenient.
Use your crockpot or slow cooker. Just set it on low and use it for things like soups, mashed potatoes, or stuffing.
For ovens, use a moist towel under the pot cover. If you are putting dishes in the oven to keep them warm, consider putting a damp towel under the lid of dishes that you want to keep moist like mashed potatoes.
how would you keep a pizza warm
Comment by person — June 4, 2006 @ 4:38 am
Hmm… keeping pizza warm would be tough. My instincts would be not to bother because I think that cold pizza tastes pretty good.
If you have access to an oven at serving time, I would probably just bake the pizza ahead of time, let it cool, then pop it in the oven for a few minutes to heat up right before serving. It’s pretty much what pizzerias do when they sell by the slice, and I think it stands up very well. If you wanted to keep it warm continually, I’m afraid the crust would dry out and just taste terrible.
Comment by howie — June 4, 2006 @ 8:13 pm
Just put in the oven back to reheat.Easy right.
Comment by Day — September 3, 2006 @ 6:30 am
I invented the ceramic “heat retentive plates” (They will be in the market soon). You can prehea them (”Zap them”) for just one minute in a microwave oven and they will stay hot (Still hot) after 30 minutes. They can be handled by the rim (It does not get hot)..
The heat is released slowly, at a controlled rate to keep your food hot at the table.
Just type:” heat retentive plates” in yahoo, google, msn, etc.
It is a totally new technology based on black body radiation and the Stefan-Boltzmann law, but the design is purposedly simple and low cost.
Juan J. Ramirez
El Paso TX
Comment by Juan J. Ramirez — September 12, 2006 @ 6:28 pm
Would my snack stay warm in plastic or Foil? And what are some of the reasons if it would stay warm in plastic as well as foil?
Comment by Wanda — March 4, 2007 @ 12:30 am
Hi, Wanda,
I believe that the food would stay warmer if you wrap it in foil. Aluminum foil is good at reflecting heat. So if you wrap a hot food in foil, the foil will reflect the heat back into the food, keeping it warmer longer. I don’t think that plastic wrap has the same ability to reflect heat so it probably isn’t going to insulate food as well.
Comment by howie — March 5, 2007 @ 5:39 pm
Just type “heat retentive plates” in your search engine and you will find the most practical way to keep your food hot while you eat it.
Comment by Juan J. Ramirex — September 1, 2007 @ 1:16 am
How do I keep garlic bread and lasagna for 75 people warm for 2-3 hours?
Comment by teresa — September 18, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
Hi, Teresa,
The lasagna could probably be kept warm using steam trays. You could probably rent one from a party rental company. The garlic bread be harder to manage.
If you have ovens available, maybe you could bring out the lasagna and garlic bread in waves. Every half hour or so (or whenever you run out), you could heat up a new batch of garlic bread and lasagna, and put it on the table.
Hope that helps…
Comment by howie — September 19, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
how to keep grilled chicken wings warm before serving and while laying out on a buffet???????????????????
Comment by Mike — September 27, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
How do you keep food warm for 2-3 hours?I need it to be able to hold a lot of food and portable for on the go.
Comment by Krystle — November 24, 2007 @ 8:05 am
Mike and Krystie, for keeping food warm and portable, I would try going with using a big cooler lined with aluminum foil. I’m not sure it would last 2-3 hours, but it’s probably your best option.
You could also try using a chafing dish or pan over a can of sterno to reheat the food later, but keeping it under heat for 2-3 hours will probably dry out the food. It will probably be better if you just use the sterno to reheat, then serve the food over a short period of time. You could also use a portable stove for reheating.
Comment by howie — November 24, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
how could i keep water cold.
Comment by Clarisa salgado — December 12, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
how could i keep water cold.
Comment by Clarisa salgado — December 12, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
Clarisa, put ice in it, or cover with aluminum foil, and then a paper towel
Comment by @_@ — February 27, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
Clarisa, put ice in it, or cover with aluminum foil, and then a paper towel
Comment by @_@ — February 27, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
I would like to serve pizza at my daughter’s graduation party. I’m wondering if I wrapped each individual slice in foil and put them in a chafing dish if this would be effective. Anyone ever tried this?
Comment by Julie — May 6, 2008 @ 7:17 am
how do you keep water warm?
Comment by Allie — June 9, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
Julie, sorry for the delayed response, but it seems like pizza might get dried out or if the foil retained a lot of steam, it might get soggy. It’s worth a try, but if it’s at your house and you have an oven, I might just reheat the pizza in batches as needed.
Allie, I’m not sure how much water you need to keep warm and for how long, but a good thermal carafe or coffee dispenser will keep water warm for a few hours. I might be tempted to use one of those Igloo coolers with the spigot too, but it seems that putting hot water into a plastic container will make it taste like plastic.
If you have an electric outlet, you could also try either an electric boiler or electric kettle. Electric kettles can heat up water very quickly (about a minute) so you could make as many batches as you want when you need them.
Comment by howie — June 9, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
Hi there.
We train students in computer courses and collect food in ceramic plates covered with plastic wrap from a resturant about 5 minutes down the road. our students have complained about cold food especially with it being winter. Is there a special bag I can get that will hold 10 - 12 plates and keep the food warm and secondly what keeps hot chips warm???
Comment by Natasha — June 24, 2008 @ 2:36 am
Hi, Natasha,
If it’s just 5 minutes away, using warm ceramic plates and tin foil instead of plastic wrap might help. The foil retains heat better than plastic wrap.
If that’s not convenient, you might be able to use those insulated pizza bags that pizza delivery people use to keep their pizzas warm. Here’s a search that might be helpful:
http://www.google.com/products?q=pizza+bag+&btnG=Search+Products&show=dd
As for keeping the chips (or fries as we call ‘em in the US), I don’t think there’s a great solution. Covering them makes them soggy since it traps the steam from the fries. The best solution might be to use tin foil and loosely wrap them and poke holes in the foil for steam to escape.
Comment by howie — June 24, 2008 @ 7:29 am
How would you keep popcorn warm? I am going to bring it to school at 8 am and serve it at noon. Is there any possible way that it could be warm even at noon?
Comment by hi — September 4, 2008 @ 10:22 pm