3 Best Ways To Keep Takeaway Food Hot!
The best way to keep food hot once it’s arrived in your house is to keep it insulated.
Fortunately, most people already have a ready made device at home that will help to do this:
- A microwave oven
- A conventional oven
- Bags with insulation
Both kitchen appliances mentioned above have insulation surrounding them. This means that heat retention in these applicances is better than just leaving the takeaway bag on a kitchen table
An oven has built in insulation properties. Source: knaufinsulation.com
We tested this theory to keep takeaway food hot
We ordered two Chicken Tikka Jalfraezis and some naan breads from our favourite local Indian takeaway.
The order arrived within 35 minutes and after tipping the driver, we immediately took the bag of hot food to our kitchen.
Opening the bag, we saw that both curries came in an aluminium foil container as shown to the right.
We then did the following:
- Took a temperature reading of both Chicken Tikka Jalfraezi containers
- The recorded temperature was 75C for both
- We then put one container in the oven* and left one on the kitchen worktop
- We returned after 25 minutes and measured the temperature of both dishes
You want to know the results, right?
So the worktop kept Jalfraezi was still hot at 66C, but the oven kept Jalfraezi was at 71C – a five degree celsius difference!
Admittedly, it’s not a massive difference, but it’s enough to demonstrate the insulating properties of a conventional oven. The surrounding air in the oven also felt warmer than the air in the kitchen.
* The oven wasn’t switched on, nor was it warm from any food stuff being heated from earlier.
This tip doesn’t cost you any extra money!
What I really like about this idea is that it doesn’t cost you any extra money.
I would assume that you have either a conventional oven or microwave oven in your home.
If you don’t have these, then think about what else you have in your home that has insulating properties. Naturally, you don’t want to be using anything that isn’t normally exposed to hot food – so don’t go and place your next Indian takeaway into the washer machine!
If you don’t have any of the options above (or even if you do), then we suggest picking up one of our ‘takeaway bags for life‘ that are also used commercially by takeaways and restaurants.
These keep food hot for upto 90 minutes and are available for a bargain £8.95 including delivery. The best thing about them is that they can be used over and over again for your hot food takeout orders if you collect them.
