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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: How many is a plateful?
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Having just passed the season of ‘turkey with all the trimmings’ I was thinking about this style of special meal with, IMO, way too many separate elements on the plate. It’s a major logistical exercise to have everything arrive cooked at the same time - and then what do you do? Put it into however many different serving dishes which have then to be shuffled and juggled around the table until such time as everyone has got meat/mash/roasties/sprouts/parsnips/sauce/gravy/sprig of holly and you can start to eat - by which time the food is halfway to cold.
As a cook I don’t mind putting any number of ingredients into a recipe, but, when it comes to dishing it should be of the order of a couple of scoops and a pour. I think I rarely do a plate with more than three elements, sometimes two.
I think it’s a dated way of serving food, fossilised into special meals like Sunday or Christmas dinner and pre-supposing an array of saucepans/crockery/utensils I don’t know that households have these days.
What do think? Dinner should not be self-assembly? Or But I want people to see the effort I’ve made!
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
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Posted
Warm the plates in a sinkfull of boiling water for 10 minutes before serving, and stand the serving dishes on one of those keep-warm thingies (the kind that used to have candles in but now you can get electric ones — don't know what they're called, we call them warminators.).
But yeah, I only make meals like that for special occasions. Once a year a friend and I host a three course Christmas dinner for 17 people. That's some logistical fun right there!
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
When I was a child we had some rather impressive chafing dishes which used methylated spirit in the burners. They looked beautiful and did a fantastic job but were dreadful to clean and, if placed on the dining table, still required a lot of plate passing.
The solution is to use your sideboard! If you don't have chafing dishes be creative and make a hay box; so long as the vegetables go into warmed dishes they should be fine in a hay box for at least half-an-hour. If there are a lot of you bring in a console table (or similar) so people on either side of the main dining table can serve themselves at the same time.
Sauce tureens remain on the table because they can easily be moved about on their stand so all that's needed is for people to remember to put the lid on once everyone has taken their portion.
The imaginative alternative is to get your old train set and lay track on the table, devise platforms for the wagons, place dishes atop the wagons, and circulate the food around the table.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I’m not the cook in our house - OH is.
I’m not bothered how hot/cool/cold my meal is - but he is and goes to great lengths for everything to be served piping hot! In fact, one oven is given over almost entirely to plate and serving dish heating ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) :
I’m not a good audience for his culinary skills, egg and chips is as good as a feast to me. So he holds regular dinner parties for suitably admiring, foody friends.
As clearer up and bottle washer I find these meals a huge chore (‘tho I do enjoy the company, but if he’s away I have them round for board games and take away curry!)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Having just passed the season of ‘turkey with all the trimmings’ I was thinking about this style of special meal with, IMO, way too many separate elements on the plate. It’s a major logistical exercise to have everything arrive cooked at the same time - and then what do you do? [..] I think I rarely do a plate with more than three elements, sometimes two.
I think it’s a dated way of serving food, fossilised into special meals like Sunday or Christmas dinner and pre-supposing an array of saucepans/crockery/utensils I don’t know that households have these days.
What do think? Dinner should not be self-assembly? Or But I want people to see the effort I’ve made!
Let's run with your example of the Christmas Turkey, or its junior sibling the Sunday Lunch. It's certainly possible to take most of the ingredients and turn them into a "two scoops" meal, but it doesn't produce the same combination of textures and tastes.
Sure, roast potatoes are a bit more effort than boiled or mashed, but they also taste nicer. Vegetables cooked separately are infinitely superior to the ghastly canteen-style "mixed veg".
Of course you can do an easy-serving meal by making a stew, casserole, or pie, and those things are perfectly fine, but they're a different experience from eating a roast dinner.
I cook roast dinners because I very much enjoy eating them, and my family also enjoys eating them, but I don't cook them very often because they do take significantly more effort than our everyday meals.
The logistics have got easier over the years, though - it took me several years to work out that I could take the turkey out of the oven to relax, then finish making the gravy with the pan drippings, and only after I had finished with the gravy did I need to boil the boiled veg. Previously I had tried to do the veg and gravy at the same time, which was rather chaotic.
And "special crockery"? Well, there's the carving dish for the roast meat, which we don't use for any other kind of meal, and I don't use the turkey baster for anything else either, but that's about it. All the other dishes I use are ones that we use on a regular basis for normal meals (it's just that at Christmas I use more or less every dish we own.)
[ 05. January 2018, 13:41: Message edited by: Leorning Cniht ]
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I have neither sideboards, hostess trollies or liveried footmen - and only recently graduated to two ovens instead of one. Despite that I can do the multiple bits and pieces, but what I’m kvetching about is the expectation that this is the way the setpiece meal is done.
I am probably embittered by the numerous magazine articles breezily assuring you it can all be done with just a spreadsheet, a stopwatch, a kitchen the size of Gibraltar and getting up at 2 a.m.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
I think our table this year groaned under thirteen items. It has been more in the past!
- Turkey
- Roast Potatoes
- Pigs in blankets
- Chestnut stuffing
- Sprouts with chestnuts and bacon
- Carrots
- Parsnips
- Red cabbage
- Sausage meatballs
- Leeks
- Cranberry sauce
- Broccoli (with white sauce)
- Sweetcorn
I'm sure there was bread sauce too.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
More is not necessarily better. What has sweetcorn to say to broccoli? Or parsnips to leeks? Or any of them to bread sauce. The point of a meal is to have each element complement or contrast.
I don’t enjoy a haphazard forkful of two or three unrelated foods as much as I would, say, creamy with crispy topping, or leafy with exciting dressing, or chewy with sauce - in short, food that has been created and put together by the cook for a specific effect.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
More is not necessarily better. What has sweetcorn to say to broccoli? Or parsnips to leeks? Or any of them to bread sauce. The point of a meal is to have each element complement or contrast.
I don’t enjoy a haphazard forkful of two or three unrelated foods as much as I would, say, creamy with crispy topping, or leafy with exciting dressing, or chewy with sauce - in short, food that has been created and put together by the cook for a specific effect.
That's very well put but on this occasion Mrs Sioni is trying to please everyone. At least everyone pitches in to prepare and clean up afterwards.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
More is not necessarily better. What has sweetcorn to say to broccoli? Or parsnips to leeks? Or any of them to bread sauce. The point of a meal is to have each element complement or contrast.
Personally, I don't do sweetcorn with a roast, because I don't think there's much of a complement there. I'll do peas every time. OTOH, as Sioni says, the large vegetable selection is often aiming to provide one or two favoured vegetables for each of several people, and if I had children who were particularly keen on sweetcorn, I'm sure I'd cook it for them.
Leeks and broccoli don't go with bread sauce. Turkey goes with bread sauce. Roast potatoes go with turkey and bread sauce. Carrots go with bread sauce. Broccoli goes with turkey and gravy.
Just because you have two things on your plate doesn't mean you have to eat them in the same mouthful.
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
The solution is simple: break away from the traditional British "get it all on a plate at the same time mentality" and eschew the dubious pleasure of spending hours feeling like a cobra that has just swallowed a goat by splitting the meal up into courses and then stagger them over a longer period of time.
Much better all around IMV.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
It’s about 200 years since service á la russe became general, but there are times when it seems to slip back to the older habit of putting everything on the table at once.
I appreciate it’s about offering choice - though not taking some of everything could be seen as disrespecting the work of the cook. And there is an atavistic pleasure in just having all that FOOD.
Maybe it’s as my appetite wanes with age (which is more than can be said for my weight) I don’t find quantity appeals any more.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
When we were in Newfoundland we were invited to friends for Christmas dinner, which was always turkey-with-all-the-trimmings (including sweetcorn), and as Firenze said, by the time you'd taken even a little bit of everything, your plate looked like a small mountain.
It was mostly lukewarm at best by the time everything was served (she never warmed the dishes or plates) and it was generally a triumph of quantity over quality. There was nothing wrong with anything, it was just never quite as spectacular as our hostess thought.
While I'm happy to eat full-on Christmas/Sunday dinner if someone else is doing the cooking, when I'm doing it I much prefer the simplicity of casseroles, chillis or paellas.
The house we had in Belfast was blessed with a double oven, and I miss it more than I can tell you. Although North American stoves are bigger than British ones*, they generally don't have double ovens, warming-ovens or separate grills. There's a drawer underneath the oven, which they say can be used for plate-warming, but someone should explain to them that hot air rises.
Our dishwasher has a plate-warming cycle, but I haven't tried it yet; it occurs to me now that if I was very intelligent with my use of dishes and whatnot while cooking, I could put the plates into the machine while it cleaned the rest, and they'd be nice and hot. Why didn't I think of that before?
My mum had a hostess-trolley in the 1970s - it made sense because she did quite a few dinner parties, and it was very useful (if somewhat naff). We had one of those "warminators" that Amorya was talking about, but because our house in St. John's didn't really have anywhere suitable to put it, we never used it, and it didn't make the move. Which is a bit of a shame, as our new house does. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
* like many things over here ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
[ 05. January 2018, 23:48: Message edited by: Piglet ]
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
Are you saying that you don't have a special warming kitchen, where you can keep all the food until the staff bring it in?
Well, my opinion of you all has gone down....
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take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
Are you saying that you don't have a special warming kitchen, where you can keep all the food until the staff bring it in?
Well, my opinion of you all has gone down....
The staff have Christmas off.
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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wild haggis
Shipmate
# 15555
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Posted
Why not give each guest their plate to hug or sit on to get warm, if staff are off?!!!!!
Why do you need to warm plates anyway if you keep them in your house? Surely your house is heated? If they are in the barn or an outhouse..................Or do you keep them in the fridge?
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wild haggis
Posts: 166 | From: Cardiff | Registered: Mar 2010
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Hot food really won't stay hot for very long if it's put on unwarmed plates - it may sound daft, but it does make a difference.
SC, I really like your idea of a warming-kitchen ... ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
I love a roast dinner with all the trimmings, and the more veg the better, with Yorkshire puddings and lots of lovely gravy, made with the veg juices.
It is all served warm and at the same time, but I must admit it would be hard to do without the second oven. I have often wondered about one of the warminators for times like Christmas day when it is all served in serving dishes on the table.
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
The imaginative alternative is to get your old train set and lay track on the table, devise platforms for the wagons, place dishes atop the wagons, and circulate the food around the table.
I can remember reading about a Maharaja in India who had a train set (probably somewhere about "G" scale) built that ran on a loop of track around his dinner table, carrying condiments and (maybe) dessert nibbles. If anything was lifted off a car, the whole thing stopped, until the serving dish was replaced.
I read this in the 1950s, and think that the actual set was probably built in the 1920s, FWIW.
Probably caused consternation among the serving staff- early technological supplanting!
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by wild haggis:
Why do you need to warm plates anyway if you keep them in your house? Surely your house is heated? If they are in the barn or an outhouse..................Or do you keep them in the fridge?
The ambient temperature in my kitchen cupboards is probably about 14 C: food coming out of the oven/off the pan is - or should be - about 60 to 70. If you rest meat, that probably drops to about 30 to 40. You’ll lose a few more degrees in the course of serving (particularly if you are operating in an uninsulated 1920s kitchen). It takes 10 to 15 minutes to eat a main so yes, if you don’t want the thing congealing before it’s finished you want to start from as high a heat platform as possible
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by wild haggis:
Why do you need to warm plates anyway if you keep them in your house? Surely your house is heated? If they are in the barn or an outhouse..................Or do you keep them in the fridge?
My attitude exactly.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
The railway still exists!
That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen - and actually not a bad idea when your dining-table seats 40.
Not that mine does, you understand.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
quote:
Originally posted by wild haggis:
Why do you need to warm plates anyway if you keep them in your house? Surely your house is heated? If they are in the barn or an outhouse..................Or do you keep them in the fridge?
My attitude exactly.
Amazing. Unwarmed plates are always colder than the food going on to them and heat won't move from a cooler to a hotter (you can try it if you like but you much better notter). I always thought of it as something that you do as a matter of course, but apparently rapidly cooling food rather than maintaining it at optimal temperature is a thing. Who knew?
[ 07. January 2018, 21:43: Message edited by: Firenze ]
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
quote:
Originally posted by wild haggis:
Why do you need to warm plates anyway if you keep them in your house? Surely your house is heated? If they are in the barn or an outhouse..................Or do you keep them in the fridge?
My attitude exactly.
Amazing. Unwarmed plates are always colder than the food going on to them and heat won't move from a cooler to a hotter (you can try it if you like but you much better notter). I always thought of it as something that you do as a matter of course, but apparently rapidly cooling food rather than maintaining it at optimal temperature is a thing. Who knew?
Perhaps it has to do with where you live. Warming the plates in advance isn’t a thing around here, except in restaurants, and food still stays hot. No problem.
Meanwhile, for my money pottery is the thing to bake and serve in. It keeps the food hot and it looks pretty.
The “problem” with a meal like Christmas dinner is that it’s not just about a nicely-composed meal. It’s about the dishes that ones family has always eaten at Christmas, and marriages just add to the mix. Where I grew up, oysters are a must at Christmas. I don’t care if no one else eats them (though others do eat them), I need to have them. They connect me to my parents and grandparents (all dead) and to extended family, to my history.
We have a galley kitchen; it’s a dance for two people to move easily in there. Normal size (American) oven. When we do a meal with lots of dishes, such as at Christmas, we cook what we can in advance and then warm it while last-minute dishes/meat are finishing/resting. And usually others are bringing at least part of the meal. Then we serve it all buffet-style to keep serving dishes off the table. Works fine.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
We had a few friends in Newfoundland who would always serve things buffet-style, and in some cases the meals seemed to be a bit of a mish-mash of lots of different dishes with very little in the way of a theme.
It seemed to be rather like a pot-luck, but mostly made by the same person, apart from things brought by guests, as Nick mentioned.
[tangent]
I was quite taken aback the first time we invited anyone for supper in Canada and the first thing they said was "can I bring anything?" - it wasn't a habit I'd come across in the UK at all.
[/tangent]
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
Hot food really won't stay hot for very long if it's put on unwarmed plates - it may sound daft, but it does make a difference.
Of course, you could use plastic plates. Low specific heat capacity and higher thermal resistance means plastic plates don't cool the food nearly as fast as china ones. ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
Sioni Sais, not for us. Far too many dishes and how could all be in proper condition?
For years now, we've had cold lunches on Christmas Day. The meals with extended families occur on Boxing Day or even later in the week. It was our year to have the surviving parents, so only 6 at lunch. We served cold roast turkey with asparagus and a creamy vegetable salad as a main course. The first course was easy to manage hot seafood kebabs, which I bbqued next to the table, as we ate outdoors. A green salad to follow, cheese and a rich Christmas Pudding with brandy butter sauce to finish. North Victorian Marsanne with the first 2 courses (I could not think of a red to go with the turkey) and a Hunter Hermitage with the cheese. Neither port or brandy goes well at a Christmas lunch here so nothing with the pudding.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
The imaginative alternative is to get your old train set and lay track on the table, devise platforms for the wagons, place dishes atop the wagons, and circulate the food around the table.
I can remember reading about a Maharaja in India who had a train set (probably somewhere about "G" scale) built that ran on a loop of track around his dinner table, carrying condiments and (maybe) dessert nibbles. If anything was lifted off a car, the whole thing stopped, until the serving dish was replaced.
I read this in the 1950s, and think that the actual set was probably built in the 1920s, FWIW.
Probably caused consternation among the serving staff- early technological supplanting!
An early version of the sushi train!
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by wild haggis:
Why do you need to warm plates anyway if you keep them in your house? Surely your house is heated? If they are in the barn or an outhouse..................Or do you keep them in the fridge?
The ambient temperature in my kitchen cupboards is probably about 14 C . . . .
This just sunk in with me, probably because when I read it earlier, I didn’t have time to convert to Fahrenheit.
I can see why there might be the need for warming now, and perhaps it is location. In our kitchen, including the cabinets where the plates are kept, the ambient temperature will be 68°–72° F/20°–22° C, depending on the time of year. That’s fairly normal for around here. Maybe that’s why warming plates before serving just isn’t a thing in these parts.
Meanwhile, as long as I’m showing my ignorance in being able to quickly calculate Fahrenheit from Celcius, what is meant by “sweetcorn”? Does that just mean corn (or “sweet corn”), or is it something specific?
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
I understand beetroot -but how is sweet corn different from just plain corn? Or is corn just what is fed to farm animals?
I have no quarrel with this. Whatever corn is called I avoid it, as it bypasses my digestive system and is excreted the same way it entered.
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
For us in Britain if you say "corn" then we think of this crop .
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:
For us in Britain if you say "corn" then we think of this crop .
Thanks. Knowing the history of the word, I wondered if something like that was at play.
When Brits say “sweetcorn,” does that simply mean what we’d call “corn,” however prepared, or is a specific manner of preparation intended?
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
In the UK we'd say:
- sweetcorn for the kernels as a fresh, tinned or frozen dish,
- corn-on-the-cob for the whole ear (recent Only Connect clue as a word derived backwards),
- popcorn for the dried corn cooked and exploded,
- corn flour for the white powder, often used as a thickening agent - traditionally in custard and blancmange;
- cornmeal for the rougher flour which is not so easy to find.
In answer to the earlier question, my mother's technique for dinner parties with all the trimmings followed in her mother's footsteps - teenage daughter in the kitchen the other side of the hatch to the dining room, cooking the starters and vegetables to order, handing courses through when ready, with the heated plates. Irritatingly my mother complained bitterly that she could only cook starters and vegetables when she left home, funnily enough I had a good repertoire too.
I suppose I did get to cook for the family occasionally (so my mother could get on with something else), cakes, buffet dishes and when extra bodies were required catering for events - village harvest suppers, sailing club open meeting evening meals (100-150): fairly rough and ready chilli and baked potatoes or ploughman's type meals. My grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary tea party (50 guests) we catered as an afternoon tea. When Paul and Mary set some challenges on the Bake Off, it took me a while to remember why they were familiar.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
The railway still exists!
That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen - and actually not a bad idea when your dining-table seats 40.
At the risk of being a bore here's a video of the train in action! It does take up rather a lot of space, though.
[ 08. January 2018, 13:50: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
Thanks, Curiosity killed ...
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Ian Climacus
Liturgical Slattern
# 944
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
chafing dishes
I never knew what these were called. Thank you.
Posts: 7800 | From: On the border | Registered: Jul 2001
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
You're welcome.
And as luck would have it, one of the sons called home on Sunday in great excitement: whilst being dragged around a flea market by his girlfriend he had spotted something he thought he recognised from old family photographs and went to have a look. Cutting a long story short, he arrived home that evening in great excitement bearing a three-sectioned chafing dish complete with lid, stand and burner. He paid very little for it (the stallholder was packing up), it is cleaning up well and should come in useful.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
A happy find. Of course you also need to find a stockist for the little tubs of flammable gel. At very well spaced intervals I make a cheese fondue and it usually only as I am getting it out of the box that I wonder if I have any fuel. We're fortunate in having a fairly local hardware shop that prides itself on stocking all the things big stores don’t.
Cheese fondue must be the antithesis of the kind of meal we’ve been discussing since all it takes is one saucepan and a few forks. I usually have one on Boxing Day.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
We have a raclette set. Preparation can take a while but the meal itself is fun and easy. I was bought it by my son, I wouldn’t have chosen one myself but I do really like it.
It’s just like this one.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
I don't need gel for the "find" - its old and requires methylated spirit.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
its old and requires methylated spirit.
Aren’t we all dearie.
I still have a bottle in the cupboard - our old fondue set used to run on it. But our new, modern German one (courtesy of Lidl) is all ceramic innards and tubs of jellied ethanol.
I have looked thoughtfully at raclette stones (also in Lidl) but reluctantly concluded that I don’t need another bulky specialist appliance that I might only use a couple of times a year. What little countertop I have is already hosting a toaster, microwave, mini processor, breadmaker and a halogen low-fat fryer.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
its old and requires methylated spirit.
Aren’t we all dearie.
Speak for yourself. Although our years are advancing, neither of us is yet at the stage of drinking metho.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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