Warming Drawers 101

13 years ago

Yesterday I called a good friend who frequently has large parties to ask for advice about the wedding brunch I'm planning. To my surprise (and total delight!), she insisted I borrow some warming drawers she recently got from a caterer who went out of business.

It's a fairly large commercial unit -- 3 drawers in a stack, all housed in one big metal case, but each drawer has individual controls. She couldn't tell me much about it because she's only used it once and not for the same type food. I was hoping some of you could help educate me!

First of all, to recap the dishes we'll need to serve warm or hot -- egg casseroles, ham rolls, grits, hash brown casseroles, spinach squares (basically a crustless quiche) and muffins.

One big question is how more 'delicate' things like eggs hold up in a warming drawer. Do they get tough? Should I allocate more oven space for egg dishes, serving them more or less immediately, and stick stuff like hash browns in the drawers? And how does bread do? Or does it totally depend on the type of bread?

What about the time element? For instance, maybe you've found that muffins do fine in a warmer, but only if they're not left more than 30 minutes.

Are there things on the list that should be slightly undercooked if they're going to sit in a warming drawer for awhile? Does bread need to be wrapped like you do before zapping in a microwave?

I probably haven't even asked the right questions, but here's hoping somebody will have all the right answers!

Thanks --

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Comments (7)

jimster
13 years ago
I'm afraid I won't be of much help. I thought warming drawers were some sort of insulated underwear.

Jim
Teresa_MN
13 years ago
Does the warming unit look like the one in the link?

What is in the egg dishes? Are they like a strata where bread, milk and cheese is incorporated. If so they should do fine on a really low setting. If the dish is mostly eggs, and it spends too much time in the warmer the eggs will turn green.

For breads and muffins, place a wet terry cloth towel in the drawer. It will provide a little humidity to keep them from drying out.

I worked with this type of warming unit when I was with the Hilton Corporation. The units I am familiar with were pretty air tight and could hold almost anything on a low temp. The key would be the egg dishes should not be overcooked to start with.

Hope that helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: 3 drawer warming unit
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Doesn't it use microwaves to keep the food warm? If so, does that mean you couldn't put a pot in for warming? Just food in dishes? That might be all you need. I have three ovens. The other night, my ovens were full and the tsimmis (root veg and fruit dish) was in my 9-qt. cast iron bean pot on the stove. Various distractions got it started late, and there was no way it was going to be finished on time, so I kept a casserole out and put the tsimmis in the oven until the casserole absolutely had to go in, then finished it in the warming drawer on med-high. You might not have such a big pot full of food to keep warm, but would you ever have occasion to put pots in your warming drawer? Or even foil takeout containers? Do check to make sure they can be used in the MW drawer.
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Warming trays work okay for keeping hors d'oeurve from cooling before everyone has picked them up, and hold dishes on a buffet well, but they aren't designed for long term warming. They hold at pleasant to eat temperature, rather than, necessarily, food safe. Example: Orthodox Jews often keep food warm for up to three days. One, traditional, method is to place a steel sheet over the fire (or gas range), and use Turkish towels around the pots to keep in the heat. The same thing can be done on a warming tray. In a warming drawer, one just puts the pot in the drawer. That is, all around heat keeps things hot better than underneath heat only. I have an old warming tray for entertaining. Haven't used it since I got a nice, big warming drawer. But then there's the non-occasion usage. Like, if you're making a bunch of dishes and one gets done early, it's easy to pop it into the warming drawer (something it's not worth getting the warming tray out for). If you're timing for company and need to get something done early, you can consider holding it in the warming drawer for an hour or two into your timeline (works with certain kinds of dishes that are improved from sitting and reheating--though in this case it's continuous heating). Something the warming tray can't really do well, especially without the Turkish towels. You can hold made up plates of dinner in the drawer, for stragglers--the tray can probably do this just as well, but less conveniently (cover with foil either way). And if you're into dinner delivery on busy days, you can keep it warm easily in the warming drawer, and even bring it back up to pleasant temperature. You can do the same on the tray, but you can't stack things on it so it holds less. Both the warming drawer and tray can be used for plate warming and yeast proofing, but only the warming drawer is good for crisping soggy crackers and cereal, and only the warming drawer can double as a slow cooker (an off list feature for most because the makers don't want to be liable for food safety). A good old crock pot, of the kind they no longer make, has a temperature of about 160 degrees, which is in range for most warming drawers. Leave an uncooked dish for 8 hours or more, and you should have similar results--but do use a food thermometer until you know what you're doing to make sure that it rises to safe internal temperatures. Basically, you can do most warming tasks on a tray, with a little care and know how. You can do them in a drawer by just sticking your pot in the drawer and turning it on. No opinion of heat lamps other than they heat the room air as much as the food/counter. Probably better for short term things, like making up a bunch of individual servings and holding them to be served together than any long term heating.
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steelmagnolia
Original Author
13 years ago
Lol, Jim. That's my only frame of reference, too, since I've never had such luxuries in my kitchen.

Teresa, yes! I went by my friend's house to see it, and it looks almost exactly like the one in that link. Except, of course, that it's definitely seen a lot of use. We noticed that one of the doors was a little loose. Didn't look like it closed completely so it might not be airtight. If we can't get that repaired, do you think it would be better not to use that drawer at all or would it be okay short term?

Yes, the egg casseroles will be the strata type with bread, meat, cheese, etc. I'll be sure to bake just until barely set. And thanks so much for the tip about the wet towel for breads. That's just the sort of helpful info I desperately need.

One other question occurred to me when I was looking over the recipes last night. A couple of them call for resting time before serving -- anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. How do you factor that in? Do you follow directions and then stick them in the drawer, or ignore that and put them in straight from the oven?

sm
Teresa_MN
13 years ago
I think you could use that drawer. You might have to have the temp a tiny bit higher if significant heat is leaking. My guess is that the sliding mechanism for the drawer is damaged/bent. Check that out. There might even be something stuck in the sliding mechanism preventing it from closing. If it is leaking significant amounts of heat, and your hashbrowns are a "dry" dish (meaning no cheese or other moist ingred.) that drawer might be used for those. You wouldn't want to lose the crispness of the fried hashbrowns.

I would say you could ignore the resting time. The drawers purpose it to keep the food at 40 degrees or higher and that serves as the resting time. When you pull a dish from a 350 oven the resting time allows the dish to cool and firm up. If it would me I would just skip that step.

Let me know how it turns out.
steelmagnolia
Original Author
13 years ago
Gosh, thanks again, Teresa, for all the practical advice. You've pretty much confirmed what seemed reasonable to me, but I feel a lot more confident about following my instincts now.

The wedding isn't until mid-November, so I've got lots more time to obsess over the details and drive y'all nuts with questions. :) But I promise a full report!

sm

sm
Teresa_MN
13 years ago
Well if you have that much time you might want to do a test run with some items just for practice. That way everything will be perfect for the special day!
cookingrvc
13 years ago
Nothing to add except that was pretty funny Jim.

s

Warming Drawers 101

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Warming Drawers 101

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