What Is a Chafing Dish?
A chafing dish is a set of two nested pans, the bottom pan containing hot water and the top holding food. Both sit in a portable wire frame above a fuel source--historically a wood alcohol lamp or an electric unit, today a canned heat source like Sterno. The pans can be made of anything metal, from aluminum foil to silver. Does this Spark an idea?
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Origins
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The chafing dish was popularized in the era of Louis XIV (circa 1700), and reached its greatest popularity in the United States in the 1890s and again in the 1950s. The flat, shallow double boiler atop its own mini-stove provided a simple way to keep food warm, but people cooked with it too. This is why in traditional models the top pan, or blazer, had a long, practical, skillet-like handle. Traditional models are small, the blazer holding about 2 quarts of food. Contemporary chafing dishes commonly hold 8 quarts, and sometimes as many as 11.
Uses
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Fannie Farmer in her Boston Cooking School Cookbook (1896) said that the chafing dish had two advantages. It provided an amusing way for the "society girl" to learn to cook, and it freed women who had no maids to spend more time with their guests by quickly cooking and keeping food warm right at the table. Cookbook authors from the 1950s added that the chafing dish allowed small portions of food to be prepared precisely to the individual guests' tastes. The chafing dish also made hot, fresh cooked food available for late-night parlor suppers or breakfasts in the bedroom, bypassing kitchen fuss.
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Foods
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The chafing dish was used to prepare simple but delicate things like eggs, sweetbreads, mushrooms and chicken livers. These foods can be ruined by just a few minutes of overcooking,. They also cool down and congeal quickly. The dish was used for fancier party fare as well. Showmanship always accompanied the chafing dish. "You are the star performer" when handling it, one pamphlet from 1956 exclaimed. Typical recipes then featured spicy or creamy sauces over meats, unusual curry dips and complex souffle-like concoctions.
Drawbacks
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The obvious problem with the chafing dish is that it makes cooking clumsy by taking the cook, and her portable stove, out of the kitchen just as she is ready to finish the job. Cooking at a crowded table is not easy, and to prepare the food entirely in the kitchen first and then "turn it into the chafing dish" to keep it warm dirties two extra dishes that will be hard to clean at the end of the meal.
Today
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The chafing dishes most people see today are the disposable aluminum foil kind, holding large portions at a wedding or buffet. The food is still kept warm over hot water, since direct heat under thin foil would scorch the meal. And you can still buy chafing dishes, costing anywhere from $40 or $50 for stainless steel to over $200 for silver plate.
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