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| Vintage enamel chafing dish by GSArchaeologist |
Is there anything more elegant and graceful on a buffet table than a vintage chafing dish? Whether it’s made with warm burnished copper, brightly colored enamel or shiny silver plate, you could fill your chafing dish with any one of Purina’s excellent Chows and the presentation would be so convincing that your dinner guests would rush for their smart phones to tweet about your excellence as a cook.
Cherries Jubilee immediately springs to mind when the subject of chafing dishes comes up. The waiter rolls a trolley to your table, full of deep red cherries bubbling in the elevated pan. With a flourish, he lights the brandy and blue flames dance for a moment before he spoons it gently over the bowl of vanilla ice cream that you hold breathlessly between your hands…oh my! We interrupt the blog post for an intervention. Tastes Like Vintage has been indulging our sweet tooth a little too much of late. If we intend to maintain our ability to zip our high-waisted 1970s Sasson jeans, we must step away from the dessert trolley and roll out a lovely main dish instead.
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| Vintage copper chafing dish by NimblesNook |
The use of chafing dishes dates back to medieval times, but most of us vintage lovers think of them atop a lovely mid century teak buffet in the late 60s and early 70s. The perfect place to find something savory to serve on your buffet is Favorite Recipes, a comb-bound community cookbook compiled by The East Williston Chapter of the Nassau County Homemakers’ Council in 1972. Mrs. Howard Freitag of Mineola, NY, submitted her recipe for Seafood Regina. Judging by the penciled in notations, this recipe is a crowd pleaser.
Seafood Regina
2 lb. shrimp cooked and cleaned (note says “good”), or scallops, lobster, etc. (note says “cod?”)
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| Vintage silver plate chafing dish by BridgewoodVintage |
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. thyme
Dash cayenne
2 tbsp. chopped onion
1 cup canned tomatoes
1 tsp. salt
1 can mushroom soup
1/3 cup sherry
2 pimentos, cut up
1 bay leaf
Cook onion in melted butter; add tomatoes, bay leaf, salt and thyme, cayenne and sugar. Dilute mushroom soup with sherry; add to mixture. Finally add shrimp and pimento. Cook 10 minutes. Serve with boiled rice. Makes just enough for chafing dish.
Respectfully submitted by Recent History.
That recipe sounds delightful! I'm going to have to test it out. I'm a big fan of using chafing dishes for special dinners. There's just something fun about it and isn't that what good food and friends are for….FUN!
I must. get. a. chafing. dish! Wow, I am a huge fan of fondue but I have never heard of a chafing dish. Now I want one!!
Nice recipe, these Chafing dishes would work great for this recipe and so many others. Like MozART said this can be so much FUN. Thanks for featuring my copper dish.