Anyone else obsessed with hot plates or is it just my mum?

[ditalini]

My mum is absolutely obsessed with keeping food hot and is convinced that hot food being put onto cold (or even warm) plates will make the food "freezing" in the time it takes for it to be brought to the table.

This caused much angst at Christmas when there was a constant juggle of needing space in the oven/microwave for cooking, and for endless piles of serving dishes and plates to heat up. (I am kind of with her on serving dishes although I wouldn't consider a meal ruined if they weren't red hot)

Both my brother and I have on separate occasions reassured her that no-one in our respective households is bothered by hot plates so if she needs the space she could just heat her and my dad's plates and we would be fine, but to no avail.

Obviously when she eats at my house I make sure her and my dad's plates are hot as this is her preference.

So, what is it with hot plates people? As I stood at a sink of very hot water on Christmas Day dunking plates I really was wondering.

(She also has a thing about pasta going cold and shrieks from the kitchen to eat up before it freezes as I'm carrying plates through)

It will be interesting to see what the “hot plates” replacement debate will be for the next generation. But rest assured, there’s something sensible that you do now that the next generation will disparage you for.

Oh god this a running joke with my lovely Dad. He is obsessed. He was trying to put my pretty metallic Christmas plates in the microwave as I was dishing up the turkey this year, despite us having the same conversation for the twenty years I've been hosting. I put them in the oven as I'm dishing up the last few things. They don't go in the microwave. I'm so wishing I'd got him a plate warmer for Christmas now!

Mmm my parents warm plates too, I don’t but top tip though put the dishwasher on an hour before dinner ( or however long your dishwasher cycle is) warm plates voila! Or you can warm them in the microwave.

You're mum is right! Plates need to be hot so that the food on them stays hot longer.

Although I now have a plate warming drawer which just warms plates- perhaps I am turning into my mum!

My DDad will only eat a meal if it’s off a plate that is too hot to handle. He complains otherwise 🙄. I have to say though our plate cupboard is very cold inside so I microwave our plates to warm them up before serving, but only enough so they’re touchable.

Yep my Mum too....I just warm hers only before the meal and all good

My mum was obsessed with this growing up.

I honestly don’t think it makes any difference.

I sit mine on the drop down oven door when finished cooking, warms base where food goes but edges keep cool. Turn oven on for warming if cooking on stove top but do always just warm up (not hot)

I didn't know that ceramic plates could be placed in an oven? You learn something new every day, I guess! 👍

@ditalini
www.aldi.co.uk/ambiano-electric-plate-warmer/p/809232542228200

£16.99 and they are in stock

[quote NannyGythaOgg]@ditalini
www.aldi.co.uk/ambiano-electric-plate-warmer/p/809232542228200

£16.99 and they are in stock[/quote]
Ooh thanks! Perfect.

I really don't like eating food from a hot plate , it's something that irritates me , perhaps I'm just a greedy bugger and the food doesn't have chance to get cold

19 people are looking at that Aldi plate warmer right now.

I wonder how many followed the link in this thread

Oh god this brings back memories!

As a child, hot plates seemed more important than the food itself, and as I grew older, it was the one thing which would wind me up.

This exactly. It didn’t matter what it was but it had to be hot plates with food steaming so much that you couldn’t actually taste anything it was all so hot. Even takeaways didn’t escape the drama of a hot plate production. Everyone ate making gross slurpy noises because it was too hot in the mouth to manage silently. Meat would be ruined through the various heating methods. Veggies wilted beyond recognition, but it was just lovely because it was so hot!! Er no.

I actually developed a stomach condition where it was recommended I don’t eat very hot or cold food for a while. My mother could not get her head round it and still cooked til smoking, put on the nuclear reactor plates and then microwaved before serving. I begged to just cook my own or stick it on a cold plate, must have been about 15 so perfectly capable of doing it myself but she wouldn’t have it. If I waited til it cooled it pissed her off and she started moaning about her wasted effort and the ‘ruined stone cold’ food. I ate it to shut her up and would be in physical pain because of it.

Years later same with my nieces and my kids, multiple burnt little fingers crying their eyes out because the plates HAVE TO BE HOT!

We don’t eat with her anymore. And everything goes on a regular plate, out of the warm kitchen with no fuss because we all like to taste the food. And we have serving dishes with lids if needed.

Never occured to me to heat the plate. It's not necessary. If your food is cold when you're eating it , either it wasn't cooked through properly or you're a very slow eater and if needed you could microwave it.
It's not necessary as a default.

My fil insisted on a separate bit under his oven to heat plates. Tbh I don't notice any difference in my enjoyment or quality of food whether the plate is hot or not.

My parents are obsessed too. I always make sure serving dishes are warm but I've never been bothered about plates. I now however own a plate warmer!!

My mum is exactly the same. She heats all plates, dishes etc to the point where you can’t even hold them. Everything has to be carried using tea towels. I quite like a warm plate so pop it in the microwave to warm it up but I’m nowhere near as evangelical about it as my mum.

My dad warms his teacup too, before putting the teabag and boiling water into it!

@Pyracanth

My dad warms his teacup too, before putting the teabag and boiling water into it!

Aah MIL did this, she would ask us to "scald the pot first" (pour boiling water into the empty cup and leave it for a minute).

Team Mum here.

And for those big, multi plated meals, a life changing tip coming up…

Put everything on a cycle in the dishwasher. Leave it closed till you are about to serve… et voila! Hot Plates!!

GAME CHANGER!!!

My parents insist on warming plates. I'm sure they've ruined loads of plates by bloody cooking them in the oven!! We never warm plates but are also not that bothered about food being so hot it burns your tongue. When my parents came to dinner I warmed just their plates so they didn't go home saying "the food was stone cold" lol.

Yes! My mum is obsessed. I always ask if we're going to "roast" the plates

All the people who are using a microwave to heat your plates.... I thought the idea of a microwave was it heats the food and NOT the plate! The only time crockery in my microwave gets hot is if it's cracked.

My parents put theirs in the oven and they're so hot you burn your hand on them. Sod that.