How Do You Keep Hot Food Warm At A Party?

Hosting a party is never easy as there are a lot of things to prepare and manage. Aside from decoration, entertaining, food plays an important role in a successful party.

And, I got asked a lot about "How do you keep hot food warm at a party?". After many tried-and-true, tried-and-failed, here are my golden tricks:

Plan Ahead

Keeping hot food consistently warm at a party isn't easy. Aside from equipping yourself with a real-time read thermometer to frequently check food temperatures, you should plan ahead your menu.

Try to avoid those stressful situations when you realize an hour before the party starts that you don't have enough stove space and an oven to reheat or finish your menu.

It's best to have dishes that can be successfully kept warm or reheated before the party starts, along with some cold or room-temperature dishes.

Grill Steaks And Roasts Right Before Serving

It is quite tricky to keep poultry and meat warm once done cooking because reheating is prone to drying them out.

Therefore, many people choose to prepare side dishes already, then grill the meat right before the party starts. By the time the dish is placed on the table, both grilled meat and poultry rest enough to retain their juiciness.

Sous Vide Cooking Technique

Sous vide in French means “under vacuum" - which is a cooking technique where food is vacuum-sealed in a cooking pouch and bath in water specially controlled to the exact temperature you set it for.

This cooking technique relies on accurate temperature control rather than on perfect timing. Its biggest benefit is super-tender cooked foods and you've got no stress during the cooking process.

I would say the sous vide cooking method is not suited to all dishes but definitely works well on poultry breast, pork tenderloin and chops, and flank steak.

A few minutes before guests come, just grill the food at high heat to make them look more appealing.

Use Hot Sauce Or Gravy

For those meaty dishes baked with sauce or gravy, another way to keep them warm until served is to keep them in a well-covered baking tray in a 150-200F oven.

But take note that the maximum time in the oven is an hour. Longer than that, the meat will dry out.

This trick also leads to a minor caveat: when you take out the meat from the oven, let it rest, and slice before serving, they tend to get cold quickly.

To overcome that, using hot sauce or gravy is a way by microwaving them 15 minutes before serving, then keeping them in an insulated thermos. At the last minute, drizzle the hot sauce onto the baked meat and you'll see a huge difference in the taste.

Use Insulated Serving Plates

An easy yet effective way to keep foods hot for longer is placing them in insulated serving plates and covering them up or wrapping them with multi-layers of tin foil.

Warming the plate before placing your food on is another good trick. You can:

• Place Earthenware plates in the dishwasher and run the 2-hour cycle before using them
• Heat plates in a 150F oven for 15-20 minutes
• Place the plate in a warming drawer of the oven

Employ Your Cooking Equipment To Keep Hot Food Warm

If your oven or stovetop space is not sufficient enough to handle lots of dishes for a large crowd, try taking advantage of all the cooking equipment that you have to keep foods warm, such as:

Chafing Dishes

A disposable chafing dish set - which commonly includes canned chafer wick fuel, a small caddy, and aluminum pans - will be the best choice if you have a big crowd buffet to serve.

The pans can be kept warm in hours over burning flames.

Conclusion

The list above is particularly for home parties as they take advantage of the equipment that you can easily find around your home.

I hope this article gave you the best answer to “How do you keep hot food warm at a party” and helped you host many more parties successfully with less stress. Thanks for reading!