My favorite new "foodies toy"....

[catnhatnh]

...is the portable steam table I purchased on E-bay.I purchased a brand new unit with 3 pans and covers for $114 plus about $20 shipping.The unit stands about 10" tall by 22" x 14" and has a 7" water well heated by a 1200 watt element.Food pans are loaded in the top and held at a variable temperature by moist heat. Pans are available in sizes from full 12"x20" and fractional sizes of 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/9th in depths of 1" thru 6" in 1/2" steps in both solid and perforated bottoms.
If you entertain, you WANT one of these.My first excursion was a family picnic where I served up (1/3 pan) steamed natural casing hot dogs and polish kielbasa,(2-1/6 pans) chili sauce and cheese sauce, and (2-1/6 pans) two soups-french onion and cream of broccoli...In short a variety of my favorite foods hot and ready to serve ALL DAY with no drying out or need to fuss over (did check the water level twice)...It was a MAJOR hit.
Now for the best part-at the end of the day the stainless steel pans can go right in the fridge where their square,modular design takes minimum space and stacks like a dream.And once you've cleaned food incrustations from stainless you'll never go back to tupperware...And reheating-oh yeah,right back in their bath.
In short, I bought a second and extra pans and extra lids and etc,etc...I love it and bet you would too..what are your best toys??

[eleny]

1. great!

years ago, i got a small, nesco electric oven. and it has two stainless insert pans so it can be used as a mini steam table. it's terrific. so nice to have veggies stay warm throughout a meal.

i've found that as crusty as my stainless frypan gets, a little bit of soaking and they clean up easily. so, i agree about the cleanup. i hope you continue to get much use from your steam table. very cool!

[woofless]

2. Check with Husb2sparkly but I think you should reheat in an oven

to 165 degrees and then transfer to the steam table. We had to do it that way in the only pro kitchen I ever worked in. HAACP standards for food safety.

Woof

[Stinky The Clown]

3. You're absolutely right

These types of devices - even commercial ones - are absolutely NOT designed to raise the temp of foods ... only to hold it at a safe temp once it gets there.

Reheat ALL food in a proper cooking appliance before you put it into a holding device.

Period.

No exceptions.

Now, to be sure, these things will raise the temp of even a frozen item placed in them. The issue is the amount of time that takes. Almost all food can only stay in the 'danger' zone (between 45 and 140 degs) for no more than two hours. In actual fact, this can be stretched to three hours, but at that amount of time, and assuming the food was completely bug-free to start with, you're ***right*** up against a dangerously high plate count for bacteria.

These holding warmers would take many hours to raise an item through the danger zone to the safe zone at the hot side. And the denser the food (like a casserole) the longer the time. As I said, this advice applies to both commercial and home devices.

As a side note, the unit here is 1200 watts. And that's perfectly fine for general home use and will hold food safely (assuming the food does not protrude above the rim of the pan). Commercial units that look similar are in the 1800 watt range - and even they are incapable of safely reheating food.

[NMDemDist2]

4. what H2S said, it's crucial to heat the food throughly before using

the "holding" trays.

great score though!

[catnhatnh]

5. I'm sorry, and you are ALL correct....

...but since it is private and not restaurant preparation and the leftover amounts were small, I have preheated the warmer and heated this way....but no-full pans and a reheat period of over 1-1 1/2 hour would definitely be inappropriate...STILL love this sucker...