5 Unconventional ways to use commercial kitchen warmers

Culinary & Serving Solutions
2021.06.08

Commercial warmers are an essential piece of equipment for keeping foods fresh and at consistently safe temperatures all day. While intended for holding more traditional menu staples such as soups, stews, and sauces, they are also extremely versatile and can be used in unconventional ways in your foodservice operation. Here are five creative uses to leverage commercial kitchen warmers beyond their classic capabilities.

Bain Marie

This “hot water bath” is ideal for cooking more delicate foods that require slow and low, consistent heat. This technique is commonly used to help prevent breaking that occurs using dry heat – perfect for crafting crème anglaise, mousse, any temperamental sauce as well as for melting chocolate. Easily convert our Soup Warmers for your Bain Marie applications.

Beverages

Holding batches of pre-made warm drinks or festive cocktails is easy and convenient with our Mix-N-Serve™ Warmer/Mixer. This unit reduces labor by automatically stirring your beverages to keep them from separating, maintaining a consistent temperature, and conveniently dispensing drinks with its spigot-style faucet. Mix up your beverage menu with seasonal drink offerings or create weekly LTO specials to keep your menu fresh.

Cooking & Infusing

If you’re low on burner space, you can use an IntelliServ® Food Pan Warmer in place of your cooktop. For example, creating dulce de leche is simple (and delicious)! Turn up the warmer to the highest setting (above boiling) and put cans of sweetened condensed milk inside. Turn down and let the milk cook and cool until ready to use.

Infusing vinaigrettes with the IntelliServ warmer is easy and requires little labor. Simply mix your olive oil or vinegar base with whatever herbs or zest you desire and pour into the 1/6-size pan. Turn the unit to low or medium temp and let the unit do the rest.  

Steaming

Soup warmers work great for steaming applications, too. Simply fill your warmer with a couple inches of water and use a steamer pan or basket to cook foods thoroughly. As Asian cuisines continue to rise in popularity, steaming bao buns or dumplings would be a tasty, on-trend and easy menu extension for your operation.

Toppings

While we all love to finish desserts with warm gooey garnishes, our Topping Warmers work great for savory toppings, too. Try dispensing au jus or other flavorful sauce on birria tacos and specialty sandwich orders. And, use our Mix-N-Serve Warmer/Mixer to heat and hold hollandaise or lemon butter sauce for topping veggies, poached seafood, specialty breakfasts and more.

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