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AIBU?

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Original poster

To not heat my dinner plate?

236 replies

Jaggy1 · 13/06/2025 20:27

Just a silly one really..

My MIL has been coming to us once a week for a little while now. Every single time we have dinner whether we serve up or she does, even if we get a takeaway she always asks if I want my plate heated? Either with boiling water or in the oven if it’s being used. I just think it’s strange as I’d never do that on a random Tuesday night dinner or anything but she does it all the time 🤣
Also weird that DH never asks or cares for his plate heated any other time but he’ll always have it when she’s here.

Is this a thing? Am I the strange one 🤣
YABU- you religiously heat your plate
YANBU- never heat your plate

OP posts:
Y2ker · 14/06/2025 07:17

ProfessionalWhimsicalSkidaddler · 13/06/2025 20:29

Interested to see the answers here. I’m a heathen and wouldn’t even consider warming my plate but I think it’s an old fashioned “naice” thing to do.

I wonder if there was a publicity campaign in the 70s which said you were scummy if you ate off a cold plate😆

My mum goes on about the same. I really don't care and actually don't want to eat my food at molten lava temperatures anyway.

PuppyMonkey · 14/06/2025 07:13

Boredlass · 14/06/2025 06:14

I never do it. It’s old fashioned. I hate it when my plate is hot when I eat out as well

Grin

The laugh reaction was never so badly needed. Old fashioned.

We always warm plates in our house - if it’s old fashioned to prefer my broccoli etc warm than cold, I’ll take that. I’ve been the same ever since I first started cooking for myself, so late teens as a student I suppose.

Old fashioned. Grin

DarlingBudsOfJune · 14/06/2025 07:05

I always warm plates. I can't eat hot food off a cold plate.

ColinCaterpillarsNo1Fan · 14/06/2025 07:03

It seems ti be a generational thing because my parents and aunt/uncles do it but I don't. However, at New Year I did heat the plates because it was a longer meal & food would have cooled quickly otherwise.

Trickytrixter · 14/06/2025 07:03

I don’t but DH always does. Makes zero difference either way as far as I can tell.

Zippidydoodah · 14/06/2025 07:00

DumbbellIdiot · 13/06/2025 20:31

My MIL is obsessed with heating plates. Nothing cooler than volcanic will do for her. Last Xmas she offered to heat the plates at her house and bring them to us as mine were clearly not hot enough for her last Xmas. Utterly batshit idea.

This is hilarious! Unless you’re next door neighbours?! 🤣

PlayDoh135 · 14/06/2025 06:57

ALWAYS heat my plates. I don't like a cold plate for a hot meal.

DappledThings · 14/06/2025 06:52

Lazygardener · 13/06/2025 22:17

I've always warmed plates. Luke warm food is truly horrible.

I prefer luke warm! Same with "hot" drinks. I will regularly still be waiting for a coffee to cool down enough for me to start while people I'm with have finished theirs.

I don't like anything too cold either. Never add ice to drinks.

CeaselesslyIntoThePast · 14/06/2025 06:39

I reckon half the people here who don’t heat their plates would be the first to complain if a restaurant didn’t do it.

merrymelody · 14/06/2025 06:37

I do it for guests or if I’m serving a hot meal to more than four people. By the time the last person is served, the first person’s food is cold.

AmelieSummer25 · 14/06/2025 06:24

Boredlass · 14/06/2025 06:14

I never do it. It’s old fashioned. I hate it when my plate is hot when I eat out as well

Old fashioned 😂😂

liking hot food, hot is 'old fasioned'😂😂

notmyrealnameok · 14/06/2025 06:23

CurlyhairedAssassin · 13/06/2025 20:54

There might be steam but the food is already cooling down unevenly. Some parts wlll still be roasting hot (eg a roast potato, enough to burn your mouth), and the gravy and some part of the veg may be almost cold within a few minutes especially at the edges.

A restaurant wouldn't do that.

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I can see peas cool quickly but I like raw peas so doesn’t bother me. Also lots of gravy helps! But most foods stay pretty hot if you serve promptly. But we eat a lot of one pot style n mh eats - curry, pasta, risotto etc so don’t have that problem.

AmelieSummer25 · 14/06/2025 06:22

Jaggy1 · 13/06/2025 20:32

She can do whatever she likes with hers but I just say not to bother with mine I’m not that fancy 🤣

Can’t speak on the taste difference!

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Nothingg to do with fancy, everything to do with liking hot food, hot. Also heat my coffee cup before making a latte in it. (Not needed for tea)

bouncydog · 14/06/2025 06:21

We have a warming drawer for heating the plates and the ovens have this facility. Used daily as neither DH or I can stand hot food on cold plates!

Springtimehere · 14/06/2025 06:20

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

notmyrealnameok · 14/06/2025 06:19

Ricoletti · 13/06/2025 21:29

I do this 🤣🤣🤣

I like my toast cool so the butter doesn’t melt and make it all floppy…

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Me too I like the butter to sit on top

BigDahliaFan · 14/06/2025 06:18

I’m in my mid 50s, we have a warming drawer and in winter will always warm the plates.

DiscoBeat · 14/06/2025 06:17

I always put them and the serving dishes in the oven on low while I finish cooking. Unless there's salad. Otherwise by the time people have got to the table and we've served it all up to everyone the first people's meals could be getting cold.

Boredlass · 14/06/2025 06:14

I never do it. It’s old fashioned. I hate it when my plate is hot when I eat out as well

Etheral · 14/06/2025 05:47

We don't but I think its a thing you that you either do or don't.

Swannsee · 14/06/2025 05:34

I have never dont it but if somome wants to do it for me i am very happy to let them

I wont do it for anyone but have no issues if others want

I dont think it's weird even if I dont do it

cryptide · 14/06/2025 05:33

Ducksurprise · 14/06/2025 00:13

Gosh I hate smug posts like this.

Perfectly possible to still talk to people without warming plates. Having cold plates does not make someone a savage.

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Of course it's possible to talk to people. That doesn't change the fact that, when you're talking, you eat more slowly, therefore your food will cool. Anything which slows down that process has to be a bonus.

cryptide · 14/06/2025 05:31

BlueyNeedsToFuckOff · 14/06/2025 02:03

But it takes time. What are people doing that they don’t finish their food before it gets cold, or don’t they cook it properly in the first place?

I don’t think I’m a particularly quick eater, but I’ve never noticed my food being noticeably cold by the end of the meal.

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Mostly people aren't bolting their food. If you put hot food onto cold plates, the temperature will fall instantly, and will continue to fall more quickly than it does when put on a warm plate.

MilkyBarsAreOnMee · 14/06/2025 02:28

Team "warm plates" here. All my family do. I think it's a combination of all of us being slow eaters and growing up in cold houses in Scotland where plates straight from the cupboard could be like blocks of ice!

BlueyNeedsToFuckOff · 14/06/2025 02:03

NoBinturongsHereMate · 14/06/2025 01:41

I’m also confused as to why people think not heating plates makes the food go cold

Because of physics. It's not an opinion, it's the second law of thermodynamics.

But it takes time. What are people doing that they don’t finish their food before it gets cold, or don’t they cook it properly in the first place?

I don’t think I’m a particularly quick eater, but I’ve never noticed my food being noticeably cold by the end of the meal.