Keeping plates warm

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

Every bloody Christmas my FiL makes some passive aggressive remark along the lines of, "Great dinner, shame the plate was cold".

I have double oven but it's full of food on Christmas Day and I'm a bit wary of cracking my plates too.

So how do you warm yours? before I batter FiL round the head with the turkey carcass

Plates in sink of v hot water, and use boiling water to warm the serving dishes and gravy boat. (If you're crafty you can use the water out of the saucepans when you strain the veg).

I don't usually put dishes straight out of the oven onto the table, otherwise people can't hand them round without faffing about with oven gloves.

peggyundercrackers from what I was told years ago the water isn't to ensure that they warm up well, it's to prevent damage to the microwave because, if you just put in plates and no water, in effect you're running it empty as there's not any food or liquid in there. Something to do with there being nothing to absorb the microwaves.

I never met my mother in law but I'm told her pride and joy was a hostess trolley. Didn't they include a plate warming function ? Due for revival ?

Jamie Oliver trick: use plates instead of saucepan lids when cooking and the steam will do its' work.

whatsername24 I've never heard that about the water, been doing mine without water for 12 yrs in our microwave and it's still working fine. no idea if the water thing is true or not.

I take the grill pan out and put them in there (along with squeezed in serving plates) as it is nice and warm above the oven.

I think the dishwasher is a good idea, especially as some of the serving plates will need a freshen up from last year

I warm ours in the grill above the oven (don't think we've ever used the grill for grilling, if I'm honest)

We were looking at range cookers last year, and I couldn't find one with a warming drawer. I contacted Rangemaster who said that there was "no demand" for a warming drawer but pointed out that I could warm plates in the grill compartment above one of the ovens.

I did say that if I was spending £2k on a cooker, I wanted to be able to serve my roast dinners on warm plates without having to find somewhere to stash the grill pan while I was doing it.

I still don't have a range cooker, cos I can't find one that's 110 cm, dual fuel, with a bloody warming drawer and I'm not compromising

Chuck them in the oven whist you are resting the turkey and getting the potatoes and stuff into bowl to go on the table. Only need a few mins.

Alternatively - tell him if he wants a warm plate hes welcome to go to a local restaurant.

I've always microwaved plates UNLESS we're using fine bone china in which case I steep them in very very hot water and dry them off quickly before plating up.

Do you have a tumble drier, OP?

I don't. Tell him he's in charge of warming the fucking plates. Waste of energy.

Are you suggesting I put my plates, or my FiL, in the tumble dryer Siwi?

I heat up the serving dishes and the plates, can't bear eating off a cold plate, I also hate having meals pre-plated (we have a tiny table that we can only just fit round but have square serving dishes in a row down the middle of it).

Just pop them all in the oven, it only takes a minute, or dunk in hot water and dry.

Op, there was a thread on here some time ago when a poster genuinely came up with the idea of warming plates in the tumble drier.

It was a very nice thread, poss in housekeeping.

I'm not sure why it amuses me so much but I still SQUEAL inside when I recall the op's response to the helpful posters.

'I hadn't thought about the spinning'.

I love the thought that if she hadn't raised it first in housekeeping she would have done it.

:)

Otherwise I'm with expat.

We've got a butler sink, but any sink will do. Fill it with really hot water, put the plates in and dry them off just before serving. If the water gets a bit cool top it up with boiling water.

I put them in the grill. It normally heats up from the oven.

I have a lakeland plate warmer which I think DH bought me one year....it does the job very well.....before that I would wash all the stuff in the dishwasher to clear it and bung the plates in whilst still hot!