How to warm plates before serving?

Question

I realize that serving on warmed dishes is preferable to serving on cold/room temp dishes, so as not to leach the heat out of your freshly-cooked food.

How can I warm my plates?

I have two kinds of dishes: ceramic (cheapo from a department store) and Noritake china (circa 1955-60).

Neither says "oven safe" on the bottom, but would a warm oven do the trick? Or microwaving? Or a hot water bath?

I'm not sure how to achieve warmed plates, but I'm tired of eating cold fish.

Asked by JustRightMenus

Answer

We do this regularly with regular dishes and fine china. Neither say "oven safe". My mother has also done it for years. The process is fairly simple:

• Put our oven on it's coolest setting (about 175F, I think)
• Wait for it to reach temperature
• Turn it off
• Put dishes in and close the oven. We just stack the dishes. As Joe points out, they'll warm faster if you don't stack them. However, I usually do this when I've got 6-8 dishes, so stack is easier.

Be careful when taking the dishes out. They'll be hot. We've never had a problem with dishes using this method. However, if you don't think your dishes will stand getting hot, use your own judgement as there's a wide variety of quality and materials used in place settings.

Answered by yossarian

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What Sampling Bread to use for Pulled Pork, open faced?

Question

I'm making a bacon based chili with smoked pulled pork (orange juice marinade by injection, smoked dried pusilla/ancho/guajillo rub) where I reserve all the liquid at the end of the process, roux it up into a gravy and fold it back in.

I am entering this stuff into a bacon recipe comp and am looking for a good bread suggestion. I am considering a monterey sourdough loaf wedge for each of the six judges bowl-plates (i.e. heel up and out for effective scooping).

• The texture and fit of the bread is great and it is very available, I am somewhat concerned about the flavor though. For my palette it is great, but I am looking for additional suggestions on what style of bread might have that bite of sourdough but maybe match the other dominant flavors more effectively.
• Also, should I back off of the sour, or push it even further?

Additional dominant flavors will include mustard, honey, brown sugar, jalapeno, tien tsin pepper, chocolate, coffee, malty beer, carrot puree and shreds.

Answer

It may be a little soft for that compared to most sourdough (but I like a softer bread for something like pulled pork, it competes less for texture), but I'd try a potato based bread. It's a classic flavor pairing with many of those other flavors (especially bacon!).

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