24 replies to this topic

[liuzhou]

Microwaves, plate drawers, blowtorches.

How do you do yours?

[KennethT]

Since I rarely use my oven, and have practically no counter space, I set my oven to as low as it'll go. Winds up around 180F. My parents have tons of space - they have an electric hot-tray which works very well.

[Chris Amirault]

Moist plates and the microwave if we are short on time (which is typical).

[Darienne]

I'm with Chris Amirault here.

[sadistick]

Preferably I fill the sink with hot water and submerge - I find you get a more consistent overall plate warm - the only down side, is drying.

I hate the microwave and try to use it as little as possible! Evil spawn!

[DiggingDogFarm]

I pull the trays out of the dehydrator and set it on high, it'll warm plates in short order.


~Martin

[dcarch]

I bought workshop cotton towels from Home Depot, 50 white ones and 50 pink ones. They are about 12" x 12" each.

Put one wet one in between every two dishes and microwave. You will have a pile of hot hot hot dishes. The pile stays hot for over and hour until you put them out.

The towels are for general kitchen use, White for clean, and pink for dirty. When they get soiled, they go in the washing machine. It is very convenient to have lots of towels in the kitchen and not have to use paper towels.

For large serving platters, I use a table top butane stove under the platter. It keeps the platter and the food hot the entire dinner. Never cracked a platter.

For some recipes, I have a large block of Himalayan salt that I heat up in the oven to serve food on.

I refrigerate the salt block to keep sushi cool the entire meal.

dcarch

[Darienne]

I bought workshop cotton towels from Home Depot, 50 white ones and 50 pink ones. They are about 12" x 12" each.

Put one wet one in between every two dishes and microwave. You will have a pile of hot hot hot dishes. The pile stays hot for over and hour until you put them out.

The towels are for general kitchen use, White for clean, and pink for dirty. When they get soiled, they go in the washing machine. It is very convenient to have lots of towels in the kitchen and not have to use paper towels.

For large serving platters, I use a table top butane stove under the platter. It keeps the platter and the food hot the entire dinner. Never cracked a platter.

For some recipes, I have a large block of Himalayan salt that I heat up in the oven to serve food on.

I refrigerate the salt block to keep sushi cool the entire meal.

dcarch

Brilliant!

[huiray]

Hot water from the kitchen sink faucet. Rarely, a minimum-temp oven.

[Crouton]

The oven if it's not being used or the warming drawer if I remember to turn it on in time as it takes forever to come to temp. I have an unfounded fear if heating empty plates in the microwave.

[ScottyBoy]

Never even thought of microwave, I'm a 175 oven man.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Warm oven works for me.

[Bojana]

Dry plates, 8-10 mins at 1000W microwave, works like a charm. Need oven gloves to take them out

[andiesenji]

I just use a king-size heating pad. I've tried all the other methods listed above but I keep going back to the heating pad.
Mine is like this - I got it at Walgreen's for half price. (17.95) when my old one died after 20 years...

It turns off automatically.

Edited by andiesenji, 17 December 2012 - 09:14 AM.

[dcarch]

Dry plates, 8-10 mins at 1000W microwave, works like a charm. Need oven gloves to take them out

You are probably doing stoneware plates. Some of them can get hot in a microwave.

I just use a king-size heating pad. I've tried all the other methods listed above but I keep going back to the heating pad.
Mine is like this - I got it at Walgreen's for half price. (17.95) when my old one died after 20 years...

It turns off automatically.

The wet towel method, I can stack 12 plates 5 minutes in the microwave.

dcarch

[Baselerd]

I like to place the plates in my oven for ~10 minutes at 200 F.

[andiesenji]

My good china can't go in a microwave because it has gold trim and it doesn't go in the dishwasher for the same reason.

[patrickamory]

I think hot plates are overrated.

Except for pasta. I put the bowls in the oven set to "Warm" about 10 minutes before serving.

[HowardLi]

My cooler. Why? It can have an immersion heater controlled by my sous vide system. While I'm keeping beef warm at 132-135 F, the plates too can be readied.

[forever_young_ca]

I just use a king-size heating pad. I've tried all the other methods listed above but I keep going back to the heating pad.
Mine is like this - I got it at Walgreen's for half price. (17.95) when my old one died after 20 years...

It turns off automatically.

What a great idea. Do you simply wrap all the plates in the heating pad and keep them nice and cosy? If you have 12 plates or so do you need to layer the heating pad every few plates to make sure they all get warm?

How long does it take?

[andiesenji]

I just use a king-size heating pad. I've tried all the other methods listed above but I keep going back to the heating pad.
Mine is like this - I got it at Walgreen's for half price. (17.95) when my old one died after 20 years...

It turns off automatically.

What a great idea. Do you simply wrap all the plates in the heating pad and keep them nice and cosy? If you have 12 plates or so do you need to layer the heating pad every few plates to make sure they all get warm?

How long does it take?

I just wrap the entire stack - I set the stack half way on the end opposite the cord, bring the pad up over the top and tuck the end with the cord under - everything sets on a sheet of the non-slip shelf lining material but you could use a towel. I turn it on medium till the plates are warm and then turn it to low which keeps them just right. I actually have two pads because if I'm serving soup I also wrap the soup bowls.
I generally set this up hours ahead of time so all I have to do is flip the switch when the time is right. I do set a timer to remind me to turn it on.

[forever_young_ca]

I just use a king-size heating pad. I've tried all the other methods listed above but I keep going back to the heating pad.
Mine is like this - I got it at Walgreen's for half price. (17.95) when my old one died after 20 years...

It turns off automatically.

What a great idea. Do you simply wrap all the plates in the heating pad and keep them nice and cosy? If you have 12 plates or so do you need to layer the heating pad every few plates to make sure they all get warm?

How long does it take?

I just wrap the entire stack - I set the stack half way on the end opposite the cord, bring the pad up over the top and tuck the end with the cord under - everything sets on a sheet of the non-slip shelf lining material but you could use a towel. I turn it on medium till the plates are warm and then turn it to low which keeps them just right. I actually have two pads because if I'm serving soup I also wrap the soup bowls.
I generally set this up hours ahead of time so all I have to do is flip the switch when the time is right. I do set a timer to remind me to turn it on.

I can see a second blanket being useful for platters and serving dishes. My good dishes have a gold rim, so can't go in the microwave. I will be trying this for Christmas dinner. I like the idea that you can set it up ahead of time and virtually forget about it. Thanks for the tip.

[OliverB]

Mostly I warm them with the food I put on them ;-)

Other than that I use the oven, but I rarely remember. I like the wet towel in the microwave idea. Not sure about the dry plates in microwave though, as far as I know you're not supposed to run those empty and an empty plate would still seem "empty" to me? Also microwave safe dishes should not get warm at all in there. Check your manual, warm plates are not worth shortening the life of the machine.

[HungryC]

The dishwashers rinse and heated dry cycle works well.

[andiesenji]

You can also get a "heating pad" specifically for plate warming (more expensive - Amazon sells them too)
Like these.

If you need to warm a lot of plates and don't want to use the dishwasher (like me).
You can also use a warming tray. I have several that I used a lot when I was catering and they are often found at reasonable cost on eBay.
I saw one at a thrift shop last month, NEW in original box - $10.00.