I'm helping with my godmother with preparations for my godfather's 50th birthday. She's organising a surprise barn-dance for him in our local village hall.
So my job is to cook baked potatoes for 80 people. I'm fine with cooking them but the conundrum is how do I keep them hot? I'll be cooking them at my house but transporting them down the road to the hall... I thought maybe an insulated cool-box to keep in heat but there's no way I'll have enough room for that many baked potatoes!
Any ideas? Any handy boy scouts out there?
Thanks in advance for your useful suggestions!
2006-11-21 01:17:19 · 9 answers · asked by amyeighteenlancaster 2 in Food & Drink ➔ Other - Food & Drink
In the days of "Big" houses when they all went on a picnic, the maids cooked all the spuds and then they were packed in straw for transportation to the site. In their case the straw was in large wicker baskets, but you could just as easily use cardboard boxes.
2006-11-21 02:03:20 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get a large cardboard box that will hold all the potatoes. Now find a larger cardboard box that will take the first one with plenty of room to spare. Stuff the gap between with old blankets, bits of polystyrene, old towels etc etc. Straw and hay work well too (actually this is a variation of the hay box idea for slow cooking stews) and would be in keeping with the barn theme. Hey presto - insulated potato carrier! (Thinking about how many potatoes you'll need you probably need several boxes)
If you can be bothered if you wrap each potato in foil it will help keep it fresher too.
Any chance you can have a suprise bonfire at the barn-dance? Then you could just bake the potatoes there..........
2006-11-21 01:27:21 · answer #2 · answered by Quorlia 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
If none of the answers you've already got suit you - get a few house bricks, hose them off, wrap them in foil and put in the oven until they're hot too, the bricks will act like hot water bottles and hold in the heat. Completely surround each brick with spuds for best effect. This should keep them hot for a while.
2006-11-21 01:33:05 · answer #3 · answered by rusty b 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They should stay hot just by packing them in a newspaper insulated box. Baked potatoes are pretty hot, keeping them all together will help them hold that heat.
2006-11-21 01:23:37 · answer #4 · answered by professor grey 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Plain and simple tin foil I think would be your best bet, you can wrap them individually too so they're not all opened at once, or a big aluminium bowl but one big enough for 80 spuds would weigh some!
2006-11-21 01:24:44 · answer #5 · answered by Trixster71 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the village hall doesn't have an oven you can use ask around friends and family to borrow a hostess trolley.
2006-11-21 01:24:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I like Professor Grey's answer, but in addition, some hot bricks (Russ B) can be put in the bottom of the box. (heat rises).
2006-11-21 03:13:13 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rent or buy chafing dishes. They're great we use them in every family gathering.
2006-11-21 01:28:15 · answer #8 · answered by Cindy V 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Use more than one cooler.
2006-11-21 01:26:23 · answer #9 · answered by rustybones 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋