Best Ways to Reheat Your Food Quickly for a Party

how to keep food warm for a party

Nothing can beat a freshly cooked meal but meal prepping is often required on several occasions. Without the proper reheating facility, the prepped meal becomes a massive failure. Therefore, you need to know how to keep food warm for a party or other occasions. Proper reheating of leftovers will give the taste for fresh meals even when you are in a hurry to serve for a party. And you can get pretty close to the original taste just adopting the right methods.

But are toaster oven worth the investment? Give it a read.

Basic Thumb Rule for Reheating

The most convenient method to attain best reheating result is to heat the leftovers where it was first prepared. This holds pretty well for particular foods like soup or chicken roast which can reach almost the original freshly meal taste.

But in some cases, you can’t go for this rule. In fact, slow cookers provide heat very slowly and it is not a good choice for reheating your leftovers. Meanwhile, microwave, stovetop and toaster ovens offer better performance regarding this basic rule.

But before proceeding, it’s vital to have a clear concept between conventional vs. microwave vs. toaster? Clarify your thoughts now!

Reheating Leftovers Using Toaster Oven

Common toaster ovens are the main appliances suitable for quick reheating. There are several great models of the toaster oven to choose from and you can go through them right here.

Toaster ovens can deliver gentle, fast and sufficiently even heat distribution for your food. To prevent excess drying out of food liquid, you can cover the leftovers using foils. Keeping a low cooking temperature (not exceeding 350° F) will give perfect reheating according to the food type.

Foods to reheat using a toaster oven –

  • Baked Products: Muffins, pies, tarts and similar baked goods can be reheated without making them soggy. You can put to heat the stale cookies to give them a new life within minutes.
  • Crusty Bread: For reheating, you can put it inside the oven for 5-10 minutes to make the exterior hard keeping the interior soft.
  • Roasted/Grilled Meat: Setting the temperature low enough, you can easily heat BBQ chicken and other types of grilled meats without overcooking.
  • Other Leftovers: You can insert different types of fried goods and some fastfoods into the oven. Particular seafood also gets reheated enough to serve in a party.

Reheating Leftovers Using Stovetop

A stovetop is indeed a great option for perfect reheating of various foods in a faster way. Not to mention, you can get close to the original texture and taste for leftovers rich in moisture like stews/soups. It only requires low to medium heating and frequent stirring promotes the retention. One important factor about reheating on the stovetop is choosing the right cookware according to the leftover type.

Suitable pans/pots according to food types:

  • Pasta, Rice & Noodles: Reheating these things on the stovetop is quite effective, though they require some splash of water or convenient liquid. It provides a great result if you use liquids from the originally prepared dish.
  • Grilled/Roasted Meat: You can easily retain the original seared flavor of the meat by heating over pan made with cast iron.
  • Soups & Stews: Containing lots of moisture, pots having lids or conventional saucepan is enough to do the reheating tricks.
  • Stir-Fries/Sautes: For reheating this kind of foods, you should take a frying pan or shallow pan. Using these will do the perfect job all the way.

Reheating Leftovers Using Microwave

Though it comes at the last, this is the most common reheating medium till this date. Being a common and popular kitchen appliance, many people rely on microwaves to reheat the foods. Foods having crisp crust don’t get reheated that well in microwaves and you should attend enough care regarding this issue. But others hold really great with microwave heating all the way.

Reheating in microwave requires some specific technique to attain the best output at once. It is better to spread out the leftovers in an even layer inside the oven for uniform reheating. You can use a damp paper/tissue to maintain the food moist preventing possible dry out. Try to stir things frequently to promote regeneration of the taste.

Careful reheating is a must when you want to heat different types of food at the same time. For dense leftovers, you should keep the microwave preheated to some extent to ensure faster heating with better uniformity. For some particular foods, microwave holds the key for a successful reheating. This goes well for stews, soups, boiled/steamed vegetables, casseroles, rice, noodles, pasta, stir-fries and sautes.

These are the most important considerations you should attend while comparing the ovens. There are some other things you need to consider regarding your choice and applications. In fact, you need to weigh all these points with care along with your cooking requirement, frequency, time, and ingredients. But, this Black and Decker toaster oven got me hooked with its auto shut off feature. Absent-minded people like me will find this helpful. Because now they don’t have to worry about whether they have turned off the toaster oven after use or not.

Also Read: Safety features you should be aware

Verdict

The aforementioned is the simplest means to breathe the life back for premade meals with utmost comfort. Leftovers are a blessing for busy people and reheating is essential for preparing a tasteful meal without delay. With our article, you can easily address the problem regarding how to keep food warm for a party with the maximized performance for sure.

In case if you have any question feel free to visit the FAQ section.

Roja D’Costa
Hi there, it’s Roja D'Costa. I have been crazy about food for a very long time. I think from this, I got my passion for cooking. Cooking is my everything if I describe myself in a word. We all know that kitchen appliances play a great role in good cooking, That’s why I decided to give reviews about kitchen appliances. My reviews will not only help you to find the best kitchen appliance but also will help you to maintain the quality of your dish and most importantly it’s Taste. So brace yourself and be ready to explore what’s best for you. Happy Cooking!