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)

Definitely not an ‘age thing’!

I’m a child of the 60s, my mother never warmed plates and I’ve certainly never done it.

I have to be honest, I do prefer a warm plate for hot food... I'm not quite as obsessive as DM bit it has obviously rubbed off somewhere down the line!

My mums the same, drives me mad lol my nan was the same

@JulittadeMontrigord

Definitely not an ‘age thing’!

I’m a child of the 60s, my mother never warmed plates and I’ve certainly never done it.

I'm also a child of the 60s, my Mum never warmed plates either. But I much prefer hot food off hot plates.

Yessss had this issue tonight, I bought her plate warmer she usually uses lol

Thought of this thread earlier when carrying the lovely warm plates through after my dd had made dinner tonight.

The plates come out of my cupboard absolutely freezing so I do generally warm them a bit or the food goes cold really quickly which isn't always nice.

I don't remember my mum ever warming plates but I do. Not every day but I do when we have guests or special meals.

My DH is obsessed with heating up plates!! 😂

My mum insists on warming the plates. I hate it! I always end up burning myself on the rim. I ask her not to warm mine when I visit, and she usually complies. My father can't stand "cold food". Maybe it's a post-War thing.

it makes a difference,
i did persuade ds to quickly warm up plates for our christmas lunch.

dh likes to warm them

This made me smile as my mum was the same at xmas - fret, fret, fretting about warming the plates. My house isn't cold so my plates aren't icy - normal room temparature and to be honest I don't like piping hot food - I prefer to eat my meal when its a bit tepid. Hot food on a hot plate means waiting ages for it to cool to the right temperature. Plus I just can't be arsed with the faff. I think quite a few retired people start to enjoy a bit of faff as they have the time to indulge it.

@QuestionableMouse

The plates come out of my cupboard absolutely freezing so I do generally warm them a bit or the food goes cold really quickly which isn't always nice.

Same here.

Slightly warm (not burning hot) plates keeps everything warmer for longer.

Aldi have the electric plate warmer doodah in store right now...£16.99 if anyone is still battling with chilly plates and congealed gravy :o

I think its probably a throwback to the times of dinners being cooked by staff in kitchens that were quite a walk (or one of those food lift things........ cant remember what they are called!) away so the food would easily have got cold in the time it took to get to the table. Ditto restaurants.

I cant see the need at home personally. I eat my food not sit and look at it. Actually when its first on my (cold!) plate my food is hot....... so I have to wait for it to cool down. Why would I want to wait longer?

Weird. Definitely cold plates for all purposes here (ditto my parents!)

My parents (in their 80s) love their food on hot plates. Fair enough, but they're horrified if I don't have a hot meal every day. I'm not sure what they think will happen to me if I don't

My mum does this to the point of the plates being actually dangerously hot. It drives me up the wall.

I grew up in a freezing cold house where your food would genuinely get cold walking from the kitchen to the dining room (and no, I didn't live in Downton Abbey), so yes, we always heated plates, either in the oven, or by steeping them in boiling water before serving up.

I'm now fortunate enough to live in a house with actual heating, but old habits die hard and I do kind of prefer it.

[quote ditalini]Maybe I'm just a greedy guts that never gives my food time to get cold

Plate warmer you say? This is genius! Will have to remember for next Christmas. www.lakeland.co.uk/6045/Electric-Plate-Warmer[/quote]
Why not get it now?

I think it's a previous generation thing. My MIL has a heated hostess trolley ay every meal involves struggling with burning hot plates and serving dishes.

If it’s so ridiculous to want to serve hot food on warmed (to hot) plates, why then do some self serve restaurants provide a stack of warmed plates for you to pile your hot food upon.

I hate having to feel as though I’ve got to eat my food quickly before it gets (for me) inedible.

It even drives me loolah to witness people dithering to put food on their fork to their mouths………… I just want to scream “eat the bloody food!”

I’ve learned that it’s so beneficial health wise to eat slowly, as the mastication process (saliva etc) releases certain enzymes blah blah, also that if you bolt your food down, your likely to eat more, as your body hasn’t had time to register that you’ve eaten enough.

I don’t know, it may be a mental thing, coz even though I’ve learned not to eat the way I do, I can’t bear the thought of even slightly gone cold food.

The serving of hot food on cold or even slightly warm plates gives me serious ick.

I’ve even been known to vomit at the mere thought.

As an additional extra ick, I can’t abide watching anyone “mop up” the last of their (by now, cold) food with bread…

O my effin god…. Perish the thought.

Man, I have issues!!!!!

I laughed at this thread at the beginning. 4 weeks later, mid kitchen extension, with open walls, I'm microwaving our ice cold plates to stop our microwaved dinners being instantly chilled the second they get dished up. So I take it back, it's obviously a holdover from their days of much less CH when eating cold food off cold plates in a cold room was just shit.

My mum is the same, especially with Christmas dinner! The gravy has to be practically boiling in the jug before she's happy. She also displays her food hygiene certificate in the kitchen when making group meals which amuses us greatly.

When pps say it's a generational thing I never quite know whether I belong to their parents generation or not (I'm early 50s), but I have always warmed up plates. Ditto warming the teapot, using a milk jug and cloth napkins. (I didn't get my Brownies Hostess Badge for nothing you know ).

In fact, I even warm up plates when we have a McDonald's .

My mum was fanatical about it and I've followed her, I hate food on a cold plate. I've eaten at other people's places and they've put hot food onto a cold plate and the food definitely seemed to go tepid really quickly.

Hot plates for hot food for me.