Can someone please tell me how you can set up a grazing table and keep it chilled until the guests arrive?

Hi Sues2, I have done a few grazing tables and generally don't set up highly perishable food until the last minute.
Things like side of salmon and pate etc... I leave a space for and just slot them in before people arrive.
Cheese I put in earlier as think that it is best at room temperature.
I also add the sliced baguette in at the last minute so it doesn't dry out.
Crackers, popcorn, pretzel, cheese, chips all goes in to form the base and then the other things at the end.

Thanks for that Helen. I love the look of them and thought I would set up one for my 60th.

I had not heard of grazing tables. Is that a buffet set up for nibbles?

Here's a link to a site which will give you a good idea of what a huge grazing table looks like from Food to Love newsletter. Makes my mouth water!
[www.foodtolove.co.nz] and at the bottom of the web site - don't forget to click on this link [www.platterandgraze.com] to see the most beautiful table creations.
Regards,
Dawn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2019 10:23PM by Dawn.

Great links, Dawn. Looks amazing, so colourful and imaginative. I’ll try something like this when the opportunity arises. Personally, I’d go for bite sized food that can just be picked up and will leave the platter with an appetising look till the end. I saw on one site a platter with hummus where oil had been poured into an indentation and I could imagine that it would get rather messy looking when it runs into adjoining food. However there are ways around it. There were also halved passion fruit which would require a spoon for scooping unless this was just a photo prop. Yes, I am definitely going to do this.

Oh yum. Eating with eyes is in full force here!

Doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. I'd much prefer a proper buffet and not lots of bits and pieces.

Kone Wrote:
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> Doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. I'd much
> prefer a bproper buffet and not lots of bits and
> pieces.
B
I too love a good buffet. I would use this instead of the various things I put out for drinks s o that people could help themselves instead of me/husband passing plates and bowls around.

I felt the same as K - far too much to be appetising.

Stephanie39 Wrote:
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> I felt the same as K - far too much to be
> appetising.

Me too. I like food to look clean and uncluttered, and to me those table displays are overhandled and messy, not appetising at all.

Grazing tables have meant that I am happy to entertain more often.
I get put off having drinks because of the amount of fiddly food that is time consuming to create.
With a grazing table you can put everything out and people gravitate to it as they like.
Quite a few of our friends have done the same over summer.
I think what I like about them is the ability to pick a bit here and a bit there.
I buy a roll of thick brown paper from Look Sharp and yes while oil does show, the paper is pretty thick.

I did a sweet one for my daughters birthday gathering. The teens had a lovely time oohing and ahhing over simple things such as pineapple lumps, berries, little meringues, gummy snakes etc...

If I invite people round for drinks, I enjoy stretching myself to make foods they will hopefully enjoy. Never ever would I go out and buy stuff from a supermarket deli. I find most of charcuterie available there way too salty anyway... and decorously arrange it on a brown paper cloth to make it look more than it was. To me this is the epitome of lazy invites not to mention it is very expensive. Way more expensive than my own efforts. When I entertain I want to do it with a joyful heart and expectations of - ooohhhh that was soooo good - not have everybody know that I was so overworked I couldn't be bothered making something special for them.

Totally agree Kone, Stephanie and TPANDAV - it looks to me like a pig swill, so unappealing.

Of course there is the added benefit of rolling up the brown paper afterwards and putting it in the bin - no washing up required (read: hosing out the pig stall).

Also from experience I know that people are more likely to take something from a platter that is offered than go to a table and help themselves. For that reason I like to put platters in strategic places around the room so that I can offer food as I circulate. I like to have someone running around with the warm/hot food.

So it's platters for me and hopefully grazing tables will quietly disappear and be remembered as a passing fad.

Regards,

Barbara Anne



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2019 12:46PM by Barbara Anne.

I do see your points but I still think there is a time and a place - at our place anyway.
Daisy and her teen friends loved the sweet table that I did for Daisy's birthday gathering.
There was virtually nothing left. I have also seen some with just summer fruit and they look so beautiful.

A friend of mine did one when she hosted about 50 of us - to compliment some hand around food as well.
I had great conversations with people over the side of hot smoked salmon and pouring over delicious oozy cheese.

As I said earlier, we had drinks for about 60 pre Christmas and while I stood in the kitchen cooking whitebait fritters for the first hour, once they were done and dusted it was the grazing table. Most of it was eaten.
I guess it depends on how you set it up and how crowded the food is. Or we just all agree to disagree and thats fine too.

I'm quite enjoying the diverse takes on this topic. I can appreciate the sense of it being the way to go at your age and stage, Helen. I had lunch with three women friends earlier in the week and we were bemoaning the fact that entertaining is just too hard at our age, so anything that makes social activity easier and fun is a good idea. Take photos of your next grazing table to convince us!

As with Stephanie39, I enjoyed reading the different takes on the suggestion of a grazing table vs other preferences.
To each their own.

This was a really interesting topic, I'd never heard of grazing tables before. I'm in the camp that doesn't find them appealing and I've been staring at the photos trying to figure out why. I think it's because the food's all so close together that it would be very difficult when people are taking it for them not to touch all the other food and that gives me the shudders. To me it's something that's more for Instagram than for actual people, but all power to the people that like them! Nobody's forcing me to make one.

Entertaining is difficult at any age now with the diverse food preferences that have sprung up in the last 20 years. My husband took a shine to a couple a few years ago and invited them to dinner. I contacted them to ask if they had any dietary likes and dislikes and was advised they were Vegan. "Oh poopski". That first effort of mine went down a treat and they were keen for a repeat invite. Everything in that first meal was grown above the ground. I asked if they'd enjoy a curry next and it was a resounding YESSSSSSS, we love curries....caveat...not too spicy. .

I made a lovely vegetarian curry which they only picked at. Not a hot one, but a mild tasty one. Turned out they didn't eat anything grown under the ground, such as kumara, potatoes and carrots.Didn't eat peas either. They picked at cauliflower, green beans and were rather tentative about the pumpkin too. They ate huge chunks of bread I'd made without any of the special vegan spread. For dessert I'd made a chocolate mousse and had forgotten that eggs were on the no go list as well and the Black Boy Peach preserves I served with it were treated with much suspicion when told they were peaches. That didn't go well either.

Disaster. Last time I let my husband invite anyone to dinner.

Oh Kone that is too funny.

At this time in my life, if I had to make every morsel I served, I would never entertain. Time is just too short. My preference would be to make everything, but it's just not realistic right now. Most of our friends are in the same boat, and we're happy to spend time together nibbling on perhaps some mediocre food, but very much enjoying each other's company.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2019 01:32AM by Jenna.

I agree with Marnie, interesting comments and each to their own, and Jenna re time.

No criticism meant to any of the thoughts and expressions in the posts above , but I would enjoy the experience of a grazing table, and I would hate to think that guests might think less of the host/hostess for not going to more trouble by providing home made food for nibbles/nibbling.
Regards,
Dawn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2019 02:53AM by Dawn.

Jenna Wrote:
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> At this time in my life, if I had to make every
> morsel I served, I would never entertain. Time is
> just too short. My preference would be to make
> everything, but it's just not realistic right now.
> Most of our friends are in the same boat, and
> we're happy to spend time together nibbling on
> perhaps some mediocre food, but very much enjoying
> each other's company.

Jenna, that ‘mediocre’ food will taste absolutely fabulous when it’s accompanied by a glass or to of your preferred beverage.

Changed to to two.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2019 03:49AM by Chris.

Chris -- a stirring round of Cards Against Humanity helps remove attention from food too! If you're not familiar with it, it a hugely offensive, but hilariously funny adults card game

Jenna Wrote:
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> Chris -- a stirring round of Cards Against
> Humanity helps remove attention from food too! If
> you're not familiar with it, it a hugely
> offensive, but hilariously funny adults card game
>

Will check it out!

Hi Jenna - completely off topic but I loved Cards Against Humanity when we played it on Christmas night after a few glasses of 'lemonade'. I just about needed a change of underwear seeing the things I had to read out! and the rest of the family were laughing at me laughing!
And as for a grazing table, I'm afraid I'm in the yuck camp - doesn't seem to be any serving utensils, and the thought of others' sticky fingers...

Sometimes I like to make a special effort with new exciting fully prepared dishes but like Jenna if I did that all the time we would never entertain.

I have only eaten off a couple of grazing tables and I think they are fun trendy way to entertain.

I also like sausage rolls (purchased) cooked with tomato sauce (purchased)

I quite like ready salted chips with traditional onion soup dip too.

I am very happy to cater for vegetarian, kosher, halal, vegan, gluten intolerant friends........ The only eating things above the ground fad is a step too far for my sanity levels....... If you wish to eat that way (and this is a choice, not an ethical, religious or allergy based decision) you probably should not expect others to pander to you......

I think it is just a way of people selecting what they want to eat. Hamburger Friday is like this at our place but on a much smaller version. Ingredients for everyone, all separate, sauces , toppings, etc. Frees up the cook and people tend to chat to each other while they are constructing.