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.

My Mum bought me a full set of serving dishes for Christmas years ago and asked that I use them for that Christmas dinner :D They only come out when they visit.

We’re a pans on the table house. The food goes on the kitchen table where we eat & is served from there.

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.
Ffs I've just put in my glasses and noticed auto correct went mad and strange!

If I'm dining alone and it's a casserole or other one-pot dish, I'll put the pan on the table (on a wooden board) from which to serve myself.

When I have guests, everything goes into serving dishes.

Option C - dished up onto plates or in serving bowls.

However yes items that are cooked in fancier casserole dishes and ceramic or glass dishes such as lasagne etc go to the table if entertaining but again plated up if not

Definitely nice cast iron le creuset type pot on the table (as per image). I wouldn't put a normal saucepan on as I'd just dish that up on the worktop. Normally we just dish it all up on the kitchen worktop as we don't have a massive table.

For a normal weekday family meal I serve onto plates then give out plates, my mum used to just put the pan or jug on the table though so seems fine to me, just not necessary with only me, DH and DD in the house. When I was growing up there were us 4 kids and usually a gang of whoever we’d bought home from school so food was cooked in bulk and everyone helped themselves to what they wanted.

I've never been in anyone's house where they put pans on the table. Either serving dishes are put on the table or the food is put on the plates then brought to the table.

I think I have spoilt my own poll by saying “pans” for what other people call “casseroles”.

I’ve never seen a pan put on the table anywhere. Dinners are dished up in the kitchen onto plates.

Yes the things you're referring to are not just 'pans'. The casserole type dish is fine for the table, although a disaster with an overkeen 8yo- I dish up or if it's something like fajitas, the food to serve yourself is in cool/ fresh plates

I thought you meant saucepans until I saw the photo of the casserole dish. I like seeing those on the table, actually. Something very warming about it.

I serve up and people collect plates - we are only 3 at most but when I grew up there were 6 kids so made more sense to share stuff out etc.

I just use one big serving dish if I do a table dinner and don't serve up etc, however I now have some pretty casserole style pans with small handles so they cld go on I wouldn't mind for casual en famille eating - guests for dinner a different matter

I’d put the cast iron casserole or a gratin dish on the table but not saucepans of drained vegetables. I’ve never seen that. If I didn’t want to decant into serving dishes we’d serve up in the kitchen.

I normally serve up and bring pre-done plates to the table (it's just 3 of us) but if I am putting out food family-style then I would normally decant into bowls/dishes just because the pans take up too much room, and whichever dishes I use will generally get a lid put on and whacked into the fridge later (which I wouldn't do with a saucepan because of the space thing again)

Never heard of pans on the table. It would seem a bit unusual to me, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it😆

Seems like Hyacinth Bucket's followers are out in force. Put your pans on the table and save on the washing up and also, for goodness sake, give the environment a break. I don't even possess any 'serving dishes'.

I've never put a pan on the table, but I wouldn't be able to tell you why. Just not what I was used to growing up, I guess. Serving dishes or plating away from the table only, depending on the meal.

That looks perfectly normal in my household. Serving dishes are all well and good if those insisting on it are happy to warm them first and deal with the extra washing up.

To me they also suggest unnecessary pomp and snobbery. Do what you feel is best. Nice casserole dishes are perfectly acceptable and have rustic appeal.

Oh, something like that on the table is fine. It's just a casserole dish.

If you were plonking down a metal saucepan with a handle on the table with the wooden spoon still stuck in it, your DH might have a point, but a casserole/stew dish is fine.

Yes. It's a completely different question. The Le Creuset dishes are meant to be seen.

I have that exact orange Le Creuset pot from the picture and of course that's meant to be on the table. The sorts of things you would cook in a pot like that don't really need re-plating in a serving dish, and sometimes it would actually detract from the dish, e.g. a nice hotpot.

I have to say, though, that I actually am a metal-saucepan-plonker as well, and the rationale is:

• if it's just me, DP and two preschool-aged children, no-one cares about aesthetics, but
• we try to do family-style meals where everyone serves themselves as much as possible, because we think it's good for our kids to participate in serving themselves and deciding how hungry they are, and to see us doing that too.
• Older child is in the fussy bastard stage so if all the food is on the table he always has the option of trying some, rather than us putting it on his plate for him and then him complaining about it (making it more of a thing).

Cast iron casserole dish or baked things in the dish it’s been cooked in, yes, perfectly fine as far as I’m concerned ….sometimes the pan rice has been cooked in if it’s just family. But anything else it’s either plated up or decanted normally ….

If I've made a 'dig-in' dinner like fajitas or chilli then I would serve from the pan on the table. But I do have a special pan for such things, not just a bog standard frying pan.

Serving dishes if we're entertaining or being fancy but otherwise I dish up in the kitchen.

Whacking your drained peas in a grotty saucepan straight onto the dining table is a bit Shameless...

Depends on what the food is/who is being served the meal/what the occasion is but generally I dont bother with serving dishes - unnecessary extra washing up!