Chafing-dish
Encyclopedia
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
in a brazier
Brazier
A brazier is a container for fire, generally taking the form of an upright standing or hanging metal bowl or box. Used for holding burning coal as well as fires, a brazier allows for a source of light, heat, or cooking...
, and used for foods that require gentle cooking, away from the fierce heat of direct flames. The chafing dish could be used at table or provided with a cover for keeping food warm on a buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
. Double dishes that provide a protective water jacket are known as bains-marie
Bain-marie
A bain-marie is a French term for a piece of equipment used in science, industry, and cooking to heat materials gently and gradually to fixed temperatures, or to keep materials warm over a period of time.- Description :...
and help keep delicate foods such as fish warm while preventing overcooking.
History
Fragments of ceramic chafing dishes are common in the archaeology of medieval city sites, such as York, England.Chafing dishes in the form of charcoal-burning braziers are familiar in 17th century American inventories almost from the start. François Pierre La VarenneFrançois Pierre La Varenne
François Pierre de la Varenne , Burgundian by birth, was the author of Le Cuisinier françois , the founding text of modern French cuisine. La Varenne broke with the Italian traditions that had revolutionized medieval French cookery in the 16th century...
, Le Cuisinier françois (Paris, 1652) mentions the use of a réchaut in a recipe for champignons à l'olivier. In describing the Velasquez genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
painting (illustration), sometimes art historians not handy in the kitchen describe her as frying eggs in her earthenware dish. In 1520, Hernan Cortez reported to Charles V the manner in which Montezuma
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma , also known by a number of variant spellings including Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520...
was served meals in Tenochtitlan:
- "He was served in the following manner: Every day as soon as it was light, six hundred nobles and men of rank were in attendance at the palace, who either sat, or walked about the halls and galleries, and passed their time in conversation, but without entering the apartment where his person was. The servants and attendants of these nobles remained in the court-yards, of which there were two or three of great extent, and in the adjoining street, which was also very spacious. They all remained in attendance from morning until night; and when his meals were served, the nobles were likewise served with equal profusion, and their servants and secretaries also had their allowance. Daily his larder and wine-cellar were open to all who wished to eat or drink. The meals were served by three or four hundred youths, who brought on an infinite variety of dishes; indeed, whenever he dined or supped, the table was loaded with every kind of flesh, fish, fruits, and vegetables that the country produced. As the climate is cold, they put a chafing-dish with live coals under every plate and dish, to keep them warm..." http://www.ancientmexico.com/content/documents/cortez_letter.htm
Abraham de Peyster
Abraham de Peyster was Mayor of New York City from 1691 to 1694.-Life:De Peyster was born in New Amsterdam on July 8, 1657, to Johannes and Cornelia Lubberts de Peyster. He married his second cousin, Catharina de Peyster on April 5, 1684, while visiting Amsterdam.He was appointed mayor by...
's death in New York, 1728, though only two colonial New York examples are known to survive.
By the 19th century the chafing dish was familiar object:
- My father was the keeper of the Eddystone LightEddystone LighthouseEddystone Lighthouse is on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, south west of Rame Head, United Kingdom. While Rame Head is in Cornwall, the rocks are in Devon and composed of Precambrian Gneiss....
, - He slept with a mermaidMermaidA mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a female human head, arms, and torso and the tail of a fish. A male version of a mermaid is known as a "merman" and in general both males and females are known as "merfolk"...
one fine night. - Out of this union there came three:
- A porpoisePorpoisePorpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen...
and a porgySparidaeThe Sparidae is a family of fish, included in the order Perciformes. The fish of the family are commonly called sea breams and porgies . The sheepshead, scup, and red sea bream are species in this family. They are found in shallow temperate and tropical waters and are bottom-dwelling carnivores....
and the other was me! - Oh for the life on the rolling sea!
- "Oh, what has become of my children three?"
- My mother then inquired of me.
- "One’s on exhibit as a talking fish
- The other was served in a chafing dish."
- Oh for the life on the rolling sea!
In a light form and heated over a spirit lamp, a chafing dish could also be used for cooking various dainty dishes at table— of fish, cream, eggs or cheese— for which silver chafing dishes with fine heat-insulating wooden handles were made in the late 19th century, when "chafing-dish suppers" became fashionable, even in households where a kitchen maid prepared all the ingredients beforehand. Specialized chafing-dish cookbooks appeared from the 1880s. A book of chafing-dish recipes printed for the silversmiths, Gorham Manufacturing Co.
Gorham Manufacturing Company
The Gorham Manufacturing Company is an American manufacturer of sterling and silverplate.-History:Gorham Silver was founded in Providence, Rhode Island 1831 by Jabez Gorham, a master craftsman, in partnership with Henry L. Webster. The firm's chief product was spoons of coin silver. The company...
in New York, (2nd edition, 1894), featured a brief history of chafing dishes, followed by proper instruction for use, suggesting its novelty. Fannie Farmer
Fannie Farmer
Fannie Merritt Farmer was an American culinary expert whose Boston Cooking-School Cook Book became a widely used culinary text.-Biography:...
's Chafing Dish Possibilities was published in Boston in 1898.
Modern chafing dishes are made of light metal or ceramic casseroles with handles, sometimes covered with a Pyrex
Pyrex
Pyrex is a brand name for glassware, introduced by Corning Incorporated in 1915.Originally, Pyrex was made from borosilicate glass. In the 1940s the composition was changed for some products to tempered soda-lime glass, which is the most common form of glass used in glass bakeware in the US and has...
lid. Classic uses of a chafing-dish are in preparing Welsh rarebit or cheese fondue.