bworthey wrote:
> Okay, I posted about this a while back, below is the original message
> I posted. Basically I am working to cook enough lasagna, salad, and
> bread for ~80 people on two different nights. I think I've gotten
> everything figured out except scheduling for the day of the cook. Someone
> suggested cooking the lasagna a day ahead, which I'm really
> thinking about doing because to me the lasagna is better the next day
> anyway. If I do that, my question is this, how long do I give them
> to reheat and do I put the whole pans in the oven?
You can put the whole pan into the oven. The typical health district
standard is that you *must reheat to 165F within one hour*. Once reheated,
you can hold the lasagna so that its temperature doesn't drop below 140F.
>The ovens look
> like they will hold about 4 9X13 pans and there are two ovens, which
> will give me 8 pans at a time. The other question I have, and I
> think I know th answer to this one, is do I need to allow for more
> cooking time having that much in there at once?
It will take longer; but a lot depends on the oven.
> The church where
> I'll be cooking also has one of the things to keep food warm (not
> sure what the correct name is),
It is a holding oven. Alto Shaam -- which is what I use -- is one brand.
> but its a vertical machine that you
> can put pans in,...I've never used one of these before and would
> assume this would not be ideal to warm the lasagna back up for the
> night of the actual dinner. Any other thoughts tips would be
> greatly, greatly appreciated!
Unless those ovens can reheat the lasagna to 165 within one hour, and they
aren't typically designed to do so, then you need to use a different method
to reheat. Once you have don the reheating, they can be held in the holding
ovens -- which are designed to HOLD the temperature of food -- for up to 4
to 6 hours.
If the holding ovens are ALSO designed to reheat as well as to hold -- and
there are some designed to do so -- the thermostat will go above 300F.
--
Dave
www.davebbq.com