Insulating fabric

[Quizmonster]

Currently, we keep breakfast plates hot - after warming them in the micro - by wrapping them in kitchen foil. The problem is that, once the foil has been used and restraightened two or three times, it starts to tear and is soon useless. Ideally, I'd like to find a fabric insulating wrapper that would not be prone to such 'failure'. I've considered Thinsulate but does anyone have any better ideas?

[alfiebrady]

I'm sure you could get heat-keeping bags like pizza couriers use...

[andy-hughes]

Something you don't know QM? Where's the calender, I'll make a note!

AH.

[Clanad]

Q, we simply use a heavy duty paper plate for underneath and one placed on top when the plates are in the microwave. They make good "pot holders" for handling the warmed plates when taking them out and they do keep the plates warm until my world famous sourdough pecan pancakes are ready to place on them for serving. These paper plates are fairly heavy cardboard, not the flimsy ones. By the way, our every day dishes are heavily glazed pottery type dinnerware. After leaving the plates in the microwave for a little longer than usual, I noticed the glazing, which also constitutes the color was finely webbed with crazing. This type of finish apparently is susceptible to this damage if left in to long... Enjoy!

[logman]

Why not warm the plates for a few minutes in a conventional oven and remove them when your ready to dish up the grub ?

[Quizmonster]

Alfie, we do in fact put the heated plates plus food into an American 'device' - for want of a better word - called a casserole tote. (This is in fact, more or less, a pizza courier-bag.) That is, the food is on one hot plate which is covered by the second, inverted, hot plate and both are put into the tote. However, the food is only pretty warm, I'd say, rather than piping hot when it is taken upstairs.

Andy, as I've said before, you could fill hangars with stuff I don't know!

C, I'm not sure how the paper-plate idea would improve things.

Logman, I'm also unsure how the conventional oven would get the plates any warmer than the micro. I even usually heat a pizza-stone in the conventional oven and put the double-plate + food on top of that. However, the food is still less than piping-hot by the time it gets upstairs!

I just have this notion - however nerdish that may seem! - that there must be an alternative to kitchen foil, such as an all-enveloping wrap-fabric of some kind in which I can swaddle the stone, the plates and the enclosed grub in order to have a stonking-hot, steaming breakfast once it's all delivered to the bedroom!! Maybe I'm just dreaming?

Still, thanks for all the suggestions, folks.

[Clanad]

I'm probably not getting the intent of your question, Q, it is, after all, Monday. But this link describes what I had in mind. We even use them to take dishes to carry-in dinners. Sometime regular dinner plates fit inside of them... one on bottom and one on top. They do add quite a lot of insulation. At any rate, best of luck!

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article.php?id=117

[gammaray]

Why do you need to "warm" breakfast plates? Why do you need to warm any crockery for that matter? Unless you keep the plates in the freezer or are incredibly slow eaters, your breakfast won't cool down that much... will it?

[Quizmonster]

That's an interesting link, C. I'll have a closer look at it later. I didn't mean to sound dismissive in my earlier response, I was just concerned at the possible effect of putting 'paper' plates on top of an extremely hot pizza stone. I know that carrying a flamb� meal into the dining-room can be most impressive, but I had a vision, rather, of a towering inferno!
Just take it from me, Gammaray, the plates need to be heated.
To make the picture totally clear, here is what is layered, one atop the other, on my kitchen work-top just before I head upstairs...
a. Tray
b. Open tote-bag/pizza-courier bag
c. Sheet of foil
d. Hot pizza-stone
e. Heated plate with newly-cooked food
f. Heated plate inverted as lid
g. Sheet of foil

I then fold the two foil-sheets around the contents, close the tote-bag, add coffee, juice etc to the tray and...Off we go!
All I'm looking for now is a sheet - a metre square perhaps - of insulating fabric to replace items 'c' and 'g' above. Does anyone know what that might be called and where I can buy it in Britain? Cheers

[woofgang]

I have these plate warmers which are rubbery pads that you interleave with the plates in the microwave. You can also put them under the plates (on an insulated surface) to keep the food hot while you eat

http://www.merevale9.freeserve.co.uk/Page1.htm

Have you also thought about wrapping the plates in "space blanket" theat foily/thin plastic suff that is used to wrap the runners in at the end ofg the london marathon

[woofgang]

didn't realise that space blankets were so cheap!

http://www.sportswarehouse.co.uk/acatalog/Silver_Space_Blanket.html

[mimififi]

what about using sheet polystyrene instead of foil. That is quite good as a lagging material. Easily and cheaply acquired at B&Qs.

Alternatively, you could make a fabric by layering some wipeable fabric, like plastic table cloth available on a roll at C&H fabrics then foil, or space blanket, then more fabric. This would be wipeable and thus reusuable. Alternatively, C&H fabrics also do like a table cloth fabric which is actually designed to protect a high polished table from the heat of plates. It is thermo-protective and also fairly wipeable. It is normally cream in colour and slightly rubbery to touch and has like an indentation of hexagons all over it. It is available to buy by the meter. It doesn't fray so would be easy to make into some kind of blanket to wrap your breakfast in.

Alternatively what you need to do is invent some kind of electric, battery operated heating device to illiminate the need for the hot pizza stone which must be a) heavy and b)dangerous to carry. That way you could switch on your electric plate heating device, like a fabric hostess trolley and carry just the plates upstairs. Or you could fit a heating element into a large tray, then you would only need to carry two plates and their lids upstairs and they would be kept warm for the duration of your breakfast. patent the idea and sell to lakeland plastic.

Alternativley, install a dumb butler in your house.

[Quizmonster]

Some more fine ideas there, ladies. I'll certainly give them serious thought. I like the idea of inventing my own solution, but - given that I'm the sort of 'handyman' who could have the house reduced to rubble if given sole control of a hammer - maybe I'll leave that one alone! Cheers

[sense4all]

What about the stuff they sell to put behind radiators, plasticised silver one side, cushioned foam on the other, pretty maleable as well , wipe clean , insulated and cushioned too! Give it a whirl !

[markja]

wickes do a blow torch very cheaply & you can buy refills! this will reheat your food to pipping or hotter and will have the added advantage of giving you a crispy top to your grub. you can't beat a crispy top!!! hope this helps. not to be used by pyromaniacs

[Quizmonster]

Thanks for that, Sense. I'll have a look at that product next time I'm in B & Q...assuming they sell it. I'm a trifle concerned, though, that something designed to be stuck on a wall behind a radiator and never moved thereafter might not be up to being folded and unfolded on a daily basis!
I think the same possibly applies to the 'space-blanket, W. I'm sure that - once the victim is off the mountainside - the thing is thrown away. Nevertheless, that is the first solution I mean to apply.
Love the blow-torch as a concept, Mark! Unfortunately, our bacon etc is as crispy as we like it at the end of the cooking process, so your procedure would render it rather too frangible. In addition, if there's one thing we hate, it's crispy eggs!

Thanks to all of you. I've noted the various points and websites and will be investigating them further. Cheers