If you’re hosting a barbecue party, keeping meat warm might be easier as you have all the supplies you need. You might have a warming rack, food warmers, and other things that can keep food warm.
However, what if you’re bringing meat to a party or a picnic? How are you supposed to keep the meat warm for hours without the aid of electricity or other heating materials?
Well, surprising as it may sound, it’s actually easy, and below are the four of the best and surefire ways:
- The Towel Method
- The Brick Method
- Using a Cooler
- Using an Insulated Thermos
In this article, we’ll share the step-by-step process of how you do each of these methods. So, if you’re interested, read on…
The Towel Method
The towel method is probably the easiest method that you can use. And as the name implies, you’ll be using towels to cover the meat so that heat wouldn’t be able to escape. If done right, this method can keep the meat warm for hours.
To start, grab any container that you’d use for your meat. Then, line its floor with two layers of towels.
After that, grab your meat and wrap it with aluminum foil. Double the layer, as well, and place the meat on top of your towel.
Once done, grab a few more towels and place them on top of your meat. Add more towels if you need to so that you can ensure that heat doesn’t escape.
Close your container to prevent the heat from escaping. Don’t open it until you’ve reached your destination or until the food is ready to be served.
The Brick Method
The next method you can try is the brick method. This is one of the best methods to try if you’re going somewhere cold, probably on a picnic, backyard party, or some outdoor places.
As the name implies, this method requires the use of bricks.
To start, grab your bricks and wrap each brick with foil. After that, heat them in the oven at 275–325 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes.
Grab your container and line it with some towels. This will serve as a barrier between those hot bricks and your container. After that, line your hot bricks on top of the towels, and cover them with more towels.
Next, get your meat and cover them with aluminum foil, just like with what you did at the towel method. Place your meat on top of the towels and grab more towels to cover it. This makes sure that the heat just continues to surround your meat.
Close your container and don’t open it until the meat is ready to serve.
This method can keep food a lot longer than the towel method; thanks for the help of the hot bricks. If you’re going out on a cooler method, it’s the best to use. But if it’s summer, just do the towel method for less hassle.
Use a Cooler
Next, you can use a cooler.
Coolers are usually used to keep cold foods cool for long hours. However, it’s also very effective in keeping food warm because the container helps trap the heat inside. To ensure this, you just need to do a few more additional steps.
First, you need to make sure that you buy a high-quality cooler. If you’re confident that it can let ice stay cool for long, it can also help the heat stay inside. There are cheaper coolers in the market, but this may not be as effective to use.
Before you put anything inside your cooler, you need to preheat it first. The walls of your cooler must be heated up so that it will not suck out the heat from your meat.
Simply boil water and fill your cooler with it. Let the water stay there for 30 minutes to 2 hours or until you think the cooler is hot enough. After a certain amount of time, pour the water out and pat the walls of your cooler dry.
Your preparation is not done yet. You still need to line your cooler with aluminum foil so heat wouldn’t be able to escape. And that’s it! Your cooler is ready to do the job!
To place your meat inside, you can follow the two methods above.
You can first place two layers of towels at the bottom of your cooler. Then, wrap your meat with aluminum foil and place the meat on your cooler. Cover the meat again with towels, and you’re done! You can also use cardboard or paper, too, for additional insulation or to fill up some space.
If you want to add more heat, you can use some hot bricks. Place them on top of your towels and cover with another layer of towels before adding your meat. If you can’t use bricks, a hot water bottle or some heat packs will be effective, too.
Close the lid of the cooler and make sure that it’s sealed. And just like with the two previous methods, don’t open the cooler until meat is ready to serve.
Insulated Thermos
The last method we want to share is using insulated thermos.
If you don’t want to depend on just random containers in your house to keep your food warm, then you can buy yourself an insulated thermos. These are thermoses designed with double-wall stainless steel, which is very effective in keeping the heat in.
This is the best trick that you can use if you’re not bringing a lot of meat with you. On top of that, it helps keep the food warm for more than 6 hours, longer than the other methods above.
But of course, to ensure great effectiveness, you need to make sure that you’ll only buy high-quality insulated thermos.
Wrap-Up
Keeping meat warm for hours is not as hard as you think. In fact, you’d only need a few items:
- Reliable container e.g., cooler
- Aluminum foil
- Towels or cardboard
- Hot bricks or heat packs
The four methods above have been tested and proven to work by so many people. So, if you’re planning to bring meat to a party next time, any of the four methods is worth the try. And also, let us just add that the methods above are effective for any type of food.
