To serve hot food on cold plates?

[PerspicaciousGreen]

I've been chuckling my way through this thread and the desire for hot plates thing keeps cropping up: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1651633-Omg-such-anality-from-pil-Come-and-share-your-anal-behaviour-stories-lighthearted

My parents got a new kitchen and had a special plate warming drawer installed in their oven. For the two of them. They put it on every night to preheat the plates before they carry them two steps to the kitchen table. Before that, they used to turn the whole oven on to heat the plates! My mother thinks hot food on cold plates is "disgusting", which is one of the reasons they are no longer invited round for meals if we can help it. (Believe me, there were many other complaints, it wasn't just that.)

But the reason they need to warm the plates is because they piss about so much between dishing up and eating! They've got to clean half the kitchen, load the dishwasher, wipe the counters, lay the table, wash their hands... Whereas in our house it's out of the pan, onto the plate, sit down, start eating.

They also distribute microscopic portions of food across enormous plates. They could practically just eat off side plates but have the most enormous dinner plates John Lewis could sell them. We have smaller plates and bigger portions so the food keeps itself hot.

I cannot be the only person who thinks it's actually more disgusting to use good energy to heat up plates every single night when it's your own fault the food gets cold.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's actually "more disgusting" I really couldn't be bothered with heating up plates either but I think it's one of those each to their own things - I for example think people who don't wash meat & chicken are pretty filthy but I do understand the guidelines on chicken. Again each to their own foibles.

.... are you my cousin? Because this is my Auntie to a tee.

I find heating plates to be quite an outdated thing to do if anything imagine eating from a hot plate do they never have salad with tea? Warm lettuce is not nice 🤢

Hot plates at my auntie’s were the bane of childhood except she would lower the oven to 100 degrees and heat the bloody things whilst food sat ‘cooling’ - it was maddening. Endless burnt wrists from leaning on them too!

I've never heated a plate in my life.

Nope! Hate hot plates when dishing up, food stays molten hot when everyone's hungry.

Also, my home is heated (unlike childhood home), so food stays hot in transit from oven to table.

My mum always warms plates, and she’s so English she apologises if they aren’t warmed, the daft bugger

I’ve never warmed a plate in my life and it’s never been a problem. I do warm teapots and thermos flasks.

If I were to redo my kitchen, I don’t think a plate warming drawer would have even crossed my mind to put in.

My mum heats plates for dinner (but in an oven already on) and I have no issue with it, but we never do it ourselves. Our kitchen came with a plate warmer and I don’t even know how to turn it on. I think it’s a generational thing?

Have also never heated a plate in my life.

I really dislike having hot food that is tepid by the time I eat it, so, unless we're having salad as well, we always heat our plates by putting them in the top oven for a few minutes.

I rarely heat plates but our kitchen is so cold the plates are like ice slabs sometimes so it does really bring the temperature of the food down. I wouldn’t heat the whole oven up for it though. A blast with hot water and a dry works.

I heat plates before serving a hot meal. Especially for a takeaway (roast or otherwise). Especially useful at a large gathering when it takes a while to serve, or when the house isn't super warm, or eating outside.
Either warm in an already hot oven, or flick with water, 1 min in microwave.

I don't heat plates. But often I reheat my entire dinner in the microwave

I like my food really hot so I often heat plates . Think food stays warm for longer.

If I don’t heat our plates the food goes cold. The microwave does a good enough job at warming them

I never did. However the old fashioned cookers with the grill above used to be handy for putting plates on. They sometimes had a shelf underneath for plate warning or a rack above. My DD qualified as a chef and now I have to warm the plates. I put them in the oven while I'm preparing to dish up. We don't have a microwave. My DD pours boiling water from the kettle over them and then wipes them with her designated cloth (as would be done in a professional kitchen). We always use charger plates, so the temperature isn't an issue. glasses are also kept in the fridge. If I was getting a big new kitchen I'd want a plate warmer and separate wine/drinks/glass fridge. When you aren't dishing up for a family, with young children under your feet, you can do the niceties.

My mother too is a keen plate warmer. She inherited my great aunts 1970s hostess trolley (the hostage as my brother and I used to call it). She'd use it at any possible opportunity to warm those plates and let Pyrex trays of vegetables stew.

Plates then too hot to touch/eat off.

Even now she will run them under to hot tap firstand mutters when I just get them out of the cupboard and serve up.

I've never heated plates either.

I like to warm my plate by putting it in the oven for a couple of minutes before I serve. It doesn't matter for most food but things like currys and stir fries seem to go cold quickly. I don't always do it, i don't really care if I forget but I feel weird eating without needing to blow my food to cool it. Like I make a scalding cup of tea because the idea of actually drinking a cup of tea straight away is just wrong, you have to wait for it to cool.

I'm another person with a draughty ancient kitchen, and I sometimes warm plates because they're icy, but only if the oven is on, otherwise I might run them under a hot tap and dry them -- assuming we're eating hot food.

But I'd prefer a cold plate to what my mother does, which is to heat the plates in the oven until they're so hot you would burn a hand on them at the table even for small children and the food bubbles and crisps at the edges, because the plate is way hotter than the food.

My dad heats my mums plate every night or she moans about her food getting cold. She is a pain in the arse

I heat plates when my dad visits, it's a simple thing and it makes him happy. I just run them under a hot tap.

Cold food cold plates. Hot food warm plates.
DC gets cold plates.
I don't see the point in making a lovely hot meal for it to be cold by the time it hits the table. But I don't want warm salad, either.

Whereas in our house it’s out of the pan, onto the plate, sit down, start eating.

The speed of serving up isn’t really the point though, you are still serving onto a cold plate so your food will go cold more quickly.

I don’t warm plates in the oven or have a special warmer, but I will put plates on them back of the cooker for a few minutes at the end of cooking, so they are warm before serving.

If I remember and have the oven on I'll put the plates in the top oven to warm through. My DH moans if his plate isn't warmed but if his moaning gets too much I tell him to piss off and make his own dinner which works 😁 to be fair he does most of the cooking especially the roast on a weekend.

Ah yes, my lovely MIL likes to bake the fuck out of her plates, and then regales us with stories about how her parents always ensured they had hot plates and couldn't bear tepid food whilst we all sit around politely waiting for the food to cool to a temperature that doesn't strip the skin from your mouth. However, she never says a word about our (straight from the cupboard) plates when eating at ours, so all is good!

Sometimes I microwave plates. Which seems more efficient. I have 6yos so let the food cool little before serving if I’ve got a hot plate it’s fine but if not I have to microwave my dinner.