To put pans on the table

[IndiaAutumn]

Slightly inspired by another thread…imagine a sort of Sunday lunch scenario…

DH grew up in a house where no saucepan would ever go on the table- everything was decanted into serving dishes.

I grew up in a house where pans regularly went on the table (ie cook peas in a saucepan, drain, put them back in the saucepan and put it on a mat on the table).

I’m in the middle I think- I don’t mind a pan on the table and it’s convenient but I’d only do this with my pretty cast iron pans, not a stainless steel pan. DH meanwhile feels that this is like living in an episode of Shameless 😂 (He is of course welcome to warm serving dishes and do the extra washing up- strangely that hasn’t happened 😂)

Yabu- use a serving dish, you slattern
Yanbu- it’s not Downton Abbey. Totally normal to put a pan on the table.

I put both cast iron pans and steinless steel pans on the table. If my family have an issue they can start cooking and washing up.

I wouldn’t put pans on the table as the norm but I would leave them on the side for people to help themselves

Ive never seen a panic on a tabl and I 5hink it would look weird to me.
Food has always been plated up and handed over or in serving bowls and people helped themselves.

I would never put a saucepan on the table - takes up too much space, for a start. You could have up to three saucepans in the table, which would require quite a big table!

I usually just dish up in the kitchen but if for whatever reason I’m not I use some kind of serving dish, which I usually forget to warm.

The only pan I’d ever put on a table would be e.g. if making a stew/casserole type meal and allowing people to serve themselves. However, if it’s just the 3 of us on a regular week night then it’s more common for us each to serve ourselves in the kitchen and bring our plates back to the table.

I was brought up to put everything in serving dishes, but I'm a lot more casual myself. We don't really have many formal meals now kids are grown up. We usually just sit on the sofa to eat etc.

But on the odd occasion when we have visitors, I always put food into serving dishes. (Lots of lovely putting away and washing up to do after )

I wouldn't put saucepans on the table, but mainly because I think the handles would get in the way. (Maybe you have a bigger table than me).

I do sometimes put dishes out of the oven on the table when it's stuff like shepherds pie, lasagne or enchiladas etc, something that people can help themselves to.

Ive never ever put the pan on the table. It would just feel so wrong. It would definitely save dishes though! I usually just put the food onto the dinner plates rather than an extra dish unless it's a special meal or I feel fancy haha

If you put pans on my glass table, I think I might thump you with it!

In everyday life, we leave pans on the hob and serve on the counter, before taking plates to the tables; at Christmas/big gatherings, we use serving bowls.

We have a pretty small kitchen / diner, so its not as if the pans aren't clearly visible anyway. I'm not decanting everything into faffy little serving dishes to transport them the ten inches from counter to table.

Well unless it Christmas or we have guests, when I do make more of an effort.

We’re exactly like @Papyrophile serve up by the cooker and everyone gets a plate. With guests, it’s serving dishes.

Are you talking about saucepans and frying pans as opposed to casserole dishes? I have never had a meal anywhere where someone has put a saucepan on the dining table.

We don’t use serving dishes for ordinary family meals though, except maybe for salad. They get served up in the kitchen.

We put vegetables into a (warmed) serving dish, but things like casseroles would go on the table. Your DH would probably approve of these as they'd be in nice pots. But we also put the pasta pan or the pot from the rice cooker onto the table (on a trivet, obvs). I guess we might try and make it prettier if we had guests. But then if we had guests we also probably wouldn't be serving a big pan of buttered pasta with some sauce in a separate pan next to it in case the guests didn't like 'wet food'.

I wouldn’t put a pan on the table. If we eat in the living room I plate up in the kitchen. I might bring pan to the living room and put it near the table but not on it.
Pans on the table remind me of my late father on the morning after being very drunk sitting in front of big frying pan. It wasn’t a pretty picture, believe me.

This sort of thing. To me that seems fine and not much different to a serving dish. Not a frying pan etc

Definitely not going to put things on plates away from the table although I can see that avoids the issue.

I would put a casserole dish or a lasagne/cottage pie on the table, with a heatproof mat obviously! But saucepans, no I'd decant to a serving dish. Wouldn't go as far as warming the serving dish though!

This is the sort of thing I’m talking about. (Image from the internet not my actual life.) I think it looks nice. DH is appalled!

Same here. Dished up in the kitchen or serving dishes on the table. I've never seen a pan on the table - definitely not posh, WC background.

Of course pans can go on the table. My plain old stainless steel pans and Pyrex dishes go on the table sometimes. I can't imagine why anyone would care, it's not like I'm hosting royalty and I'm not dirtying dishes for the sake of it.
Presumably DH is volunteering to do the washing up?

That's a bit different as it is kind of a serving dish in itself.

We don’t usually “plate up” unless it’s a few things that are just easier that way - prefer the food to be in middle of the table so we can help ourselves to what we want.

I’m similar to you OP - I’d certainly put nice cooking dishes in the middle of the table (nice casserole dishes etc) but I probably only bother with warmed veg serving dishes at the weekend or when we’re having a nicer meal during the week as well - if it’s just a totally standard quick school night “quiche veg and new potatoes” it’s all just plonked in the middle of the table, drained in the pans. Plenty of space. I’d rather that than serve everything up separately in the kitchen, as we’d be back and forth for extra potatoes etc.

I think people are conditioned to find what they’re used to “normal” so it’s not strange for him to find it odd - it’s strange for him not to be the one volunteering to wash up and warm up all the serving dishes though. He can do that when it’s his turn to cook?

I mean, the entire point of this sort of dish looking all nice to start with is so that you can take it straight to the table. It’s what it’s for! It would be LESS nice in my view to decent the whole beef casserole or whatever into some sort of warmed tureen.

My compromise would be to do all of the decanting faffing about whenever his family came round to dinner (or at least to encourage him to do it).

No saucepans never get put on the table in my house. Normally food is dished up at the counter and then brought to the table, otherwise it is serving dishes.

I just dish up directly onto plates, and am flabbergasted that other people dont :D If i had pans on the table there would be flipping food everywhere. I generally know what portions people want, and then pans are on the cooker for them to go back to if needed. Will do serving dishes for when my parents come round as they love a serving dish, or if I ever had a dinner party. But i dont.

I was brought up that meals were dished up in the kitchen and you take your full plate over to the table. So that's how I did it in my own home. Any excess food is on the kitchen counter if anyone wants to go and get more.

I've been mostly single through my adulthood (and not at all posh 😂) so was never really in the circle of dinner parties. If getting together with friends, it would generally be very informal. I don't even own a serving dish!