There’s no way to serve food hot for 11 diners

[Brightun]

Overheard my SILs bitching about me.

Hosted today for 7 adults and 4 kids. Classic Christmas roast and trimmings. Despite my best efforts, after getting everything to the table and doing crackers and saying a toast it was not piping hot and the last couple of people (before me and DH) actually asked to pop their entire plates in the microwave for a minute which made me want to die in a hole of embarrassment.

I don’t know how to do it! I’d got everything out of cooking dishes/pans into warmed serving dishes, warmed the plates, made sure gravy was piping hot but the food just wasn’t by the end of serving.

Am I missing something or is it just not possible and I have bitchy SILs who won’t be invited again?

Hostess trolleys are your friend

@Brightun

Logistical nightmare in my opinion. There's no way in hell I'd be preparing big roast hot meals for 11 people. Also, my little kitchen would not be able to cope with it LOL. I think probably five or six people would be my absolute maximum. Then THAT would be stressful!

I did a big buffet for 10 people last week, but I spent about 3.5 hours doing it, and had about four lots of stuff in the oven over 2 to 3 hours. Plus stuff out of packets, like pringles and peanuts and tortilla chips etc. I started doing it approximately 4 hours before they were due. And then much of the stuff had cooled off or was still warm ish. And it was all absolutely delicious and perfect and everybody loved it.

There's absolutely no way in hell, though, that I would have been able to do hot food/roast meals for 11 people. Next time do a buffet!

Can't see anything wrong with someone asking for a warm up in the microwave though. I would,. Wouldn't want to be eating lukewarm/cool food (that was meant to be hot!) You said you heard them bitching? Did you really though? Or were they just commenting about how 'the food was a bit cool but at least we could get it in the microwave for a minute!' Why would they 'bitch' about you?

I don’t understand how you struggle with this. Or why anyone thinks it’s impossible.

you keep everthing on heat till it’s all ready and then you put it on the table piping hot, food takes quite a while to cool enough to need reheating,

you ensure the glasses are filled before they sit. You call them through, then you put the hot dishes on the table. Unless a toast takes 30 mins,and then it would still be piping hot when the toast and crackers were done.

all I can think is you’re taking the stuff out too early

i dont mind my food cool but its rude to sit there bitching-she should be greatful you came round and cooked

Definitely don't plate up!

I have two ovens and a warming drawer, which makes a huge difference - it's impossible if you only have one oven.

It's not impossible but it does require planning and some equipment.

I served for that many today and everything was hot for everyone.

I'm lucky that I have a massive cooker that has a big hot plate that I can warm serving dishes on. In addition I have my grandma's old school warm tray you plug in.

Upshot is if you put hot food into cold serving dishes/plates it will get cold.

Routine after starter is DH carves the meat onto hot plates whilst I'd get all the veg into hot dishes and on the table for people to help themselves.

Timing everything is down to experience if I'm honest and after 20 years hosting I've got it sussed.

All that said I think if someone is doing all the work on Christmas Day then you should suck it up and be grateful.

After two decades of hosting I'd bite your hand off for a lukewarm meal with hot gravy that I didn't have to shop/prep/cook and imho the people most apt to criticise are the buggers who've never actually hosted on that scale before

I cooked for 12. I told people they were welcome to use the microwave if it was no longer hot enough for them. No one used it, parts weren't as hot by the time it got to everyone. I would not have been offended by anyone warming it up, but moaning about it is shit.

I think it really depends on people too
My mum would drink a cup of tea straight out the kettle, halfway down it was "too cold"
Same with soup, it could be bubbling and she would eat it and then reheat it halfway through as it was "freezing cold"
If I tried it, I would burn my mouth!

Oh and we sit down to eat, toast/crackers before I serve the starter (which is cold - smoked salmon today).

That means when we "launch" the main course there is no buggering about.

Gravy is the only essential part of a roast dinner that has to be piping hot. My MIL, rather ingeniously this year, put all the gravy in the slow cooker to keep hot and everyone helped themselves. Everything else was various degrees of warm but she was cooking for 18 of us and I was bloody impressed with the overall result.

Your SIL’s sound like mean school kids. I’m always grateful someone has actually gone to the effort of cooking a meal for me (especially on Christmas) and I’d never be so rude.

Honestly, I mean this politely. But I think your mother is quite unusual,I’ve never heard of someone who needs to reheat their soup half way through the bowl that’s really unusual.

assuming the ops guests didn’t have this unusual quirk then any food served straight from cooker to table should still be hot enough for most people.. the op herself says it wasn’t.which says some messing around happened.

ours is literally out the oven,tip into bowl, straight into table.

But the op herself says it wasn’t warm .

I did lunch for 13. I have those plug in hot plates and everyone serves themselves carvery style.

It's hard cooking for that many. The dishwasher has been on about five times today. Your sister in Law was very rude though if anyone had complained I'd have been tempted to shove the hot plate up there arse.

Hostess trolleys are your friend. My mum actually has nightmares about hers blowing up as it's now of a certain vintage! She also warms plates in it, which helps. If not the trolley try some table top warmers.

Tbh I don't like straight out the oven or off the hob anything- much too hot for me so your food sounds the perfect temp. Nice and warm but unlikely to give me 3rd degree burns.

Who expects their Christmas dinner or any roast dinner “piping hot”? Actually the phrase “piping hot” gives me the rage a bit - it not necessary for food to be that hot.

The point of gravy, I thought, was to make your food warmer again?

We use a hostess trolly and there were only 5 of us!

I cooked my first Christmas dinner ever today and my head is still spinning. For 5 but it was still so hard! I did start snapping at people as I was trying so hard to get it all out hot and on time. Despite meticulous planning including a timeline we still sat down 2 hours after it was meant to be ready. Was supposed to eat at one. We had to break after starters to watch the King at 3! Plates were sizzling hot - but not by the time we ate it - actually thinking about it nobody moaned that it was cold though. They all loved it. I just can’t believe how stressed I got about it. I did snap at someone who shut the back door. I was boiling and had sweat pouring off me! I did apologise after for yelling. But they do know me well and took the words out of my mouth when they suggested I might have ADHD. I was fine planning and preparing everything on my own however. It was when other people were there that I just really struggled. I guess it’s always going to be a challenge to deliver the bloody thing with all the trimmings… so many trimmings!! No wonder it’s such a stress. Some stuff didn’t faze me at all. When my unwatched cooked ham leapt of the side and bounced across the kitchen floor me and dsis just laughed! And got the dog to clean up the mess!

Thinking about it though. I did yell at the dog quite a bit too. And I never yell at him! People yes. Ddog. Never!

Anybody needing a laugh have a listen to the latest Marian Keyes chatty thing on Radio 4. Is it ‘We have to talk’? It’s hilarious and does pose the question, Why?!!

I did Christmas dinner for 7 today, it's been 8 or 9 some years (we've lost a couple over the last 2 years). My Mum and MIL have hosted several times too. It's never piping hot at any of our houses, and no-one has ever complained, although it's become a bit of a tradition for the host to apologise and cue a conversation about how impossible it is to keep food hot. All of us know what a challenge it is and we're all bloody grateful for a cracking dinner and the chance to all be together.
Plate warmers could well be your friend here but guests need to remember that they're in your home, not a restaurant.

Here it is!

Don't worry about it x

Completely normal! We were talking about this today: every year we go through the rigmarole of putting serving dishes and plates in the oven and foil over the first things on the table to be whisked off when it’s all there, but that much food is inevitably going to get cold once you factor in X people needing to sit up to table then serve themselves X different types of food, cutting small kids’ food, enforced sprouts on every plate, saying “has everyone had the gravy” and “did we not do cabbage – oh, there it is” and pouring drinks and doing toasts and crackers and someone putting their sleeve in the candles and fishing the party popper entrails out of the bread sauce.

Thank you op for your post, it’s cheered me up after spending all day running around cooking and moving food to keep it hot to an electric warmer (Aldi special) and using a plate warmer only to find a mythical cold breeze has reduced the temperature of 8 dinners. Ive just been drawing pictures of how to cook next years dinner until I read this. Thankfully my guests were happy, so sorry you had bad mannered SILs. Good tips for next time in other replies; cooker for gravy heating, help yourself may be better than dishing up, or microwaving each plate before handing it over.

I like my food hot. We tend to keep everything warmed in oven in dishes or hob or slow cooker. Heat plates in microwave then plate up directly in kitchen and take each one through as plated (usually have 2 adults going back and forth)