To not heat my dinner plate?

[Jaggy1]

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

You serve salad in a separate (cold) bowl, alongside the hot plate. I don't understand why everyone doesn't do this!

Nothing worse than hoit food put onto cold plates.

You've led a charmed life @Hadalifeonce 🙂

Why is everyone's food going cold so quickly? 🤣

I personally hate boiling hot food that you cant enjoy for 10 minutes incase you scald your mouth.

It's definitely this. One flat we lived in the cupboard where we kept the plates was on an exterior wall, plus it had horrendously expensive storage heaters, so we didn't bother turning on the kitchen one since we spent so little time in there and when we did we were cooking so we had the warmth from the cooker anyway. In winter the plates would feel like you'd just taken them out of the fridge. Helpful for small DC (though didn't affect their plastic plates as much as our ceramic ones!) but it used to drive me crazy because your food would be lukewarm within minutes. Certain things seem to cool down much more quickly than others as well so if we were having spaghetti bolognese the sauce would be hot/warm but the spaghetti around the edges would be stone cold. Or if DH made a cooked breakfast with scrambled egg, the egg would get cold and rubbery and contrast unpleasantly with the warm sausage and lukewarm beans.

It might be that people are more or less sensitive to this though, it never really bothered DH and it REALLY bothers me, unless it's part of the experience e.g. a hot brownie with ice cream, I really really don't like hot and cold food mixing in my mouth.

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.

Eh? What has cold gravy got to do with being racist?!

My DM used to do it all the time until the day when she was complaining about having to hack baked on food from the plates when doing the washing up, and I pointed out to her that it would slide right off if the plates weren't so hot when she dished up.

I never heat my plate but my home is nice and warm, and the food I serve seems to stay warm too.

You think hot plates is odd. My mother insists that her tea cup is swilled with boiling water from the freshly boiled kettle and then emptied to "heat the cup". Immediately before adding a teabag and some more boiling water, which is clearly just not enough to do the trick.

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.

My oven literally has a plate warming function.

I dont always heat my plates but I’d say I often do. It also depends what the food is. Things like veg or beans that go cold very easily I prefer to warm the plate. I can’t stand cold food.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Me too I like the butter to sit on top

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!

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)

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.