Hot Pot advice

Advertise with us
Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
rickbern

rickbern

KKF Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Messages
1,611
Reaction score
2,585
Location
Brooklyn NY
I'm planning on making a hot pot dinner along with some friends from Taiwan for new years and I could use a little advice on infrastructure. This is all new territory for me.

I'll be doing this in a loft style open plan apartment.

We'll have about 30-40 people here. Am I better off with (a) induction burners, (b) butane stoves or (c) crockpots/Instant pots?

Secondly, what level of quality do I need. This is probably not something I'll do frequently but I know I need to be able to moderate the heat.

Next, my large table is about 40" x 20' (1m x 6m) and seats somewhere around 24 people. Do you think three setups is okay for that many people at that size table?

Lastly (so far!) should I serve this meal in dinner plates (10"), salad plates (8") or wide rimmed soup plates?

Thanks for the advice!
 
I wouldn’t do more than six people per nabe, just so everybody can get to the food. While I personally prefer butane, it might be easier to do IH.

Have you done a party this size before? That’s a lot of prep unless you’re getting all your ingredients pre-prepped for you...

As far as serving goes, most set ups have people mostly serving themselves. Usually people like to have a bowl for things they grab from the hot pot and a bowl for some sort of dipping sauce. At least in Japan, nabe is often served with rice. Having some light munchables nearby for people to crunch on while the ingredients are cooking is also usually a nice touch (like pickles).
 
Wow that's a lot of people you're having over!

I'd go for induction hob, something that goes up to 2000W, no need expensive ones, just some cheap adjustable one. Butane works fine as well to be honest it depends on what you have on hand (and buy a few more bottles of gas).

Probably want more than 3, 4 at least for 30-40 people? at home we do 2 per 15 ppl ish.

Plates are probably not the best option for hotpot, may want to buy some bowls. self-service like ochazuke said.

You can set out a few jars of condiments and dipping sauces for people to mix themselves, e.g. soy sauce, sesame sauce/paste, spring onions, garlic puree, chili oil/laoganma.

enjoy! and good luck with the logistics, you won't be able to have all the food on the table.​
 
I agree with Ochazuke, you don’t want more than 6 ppl per 1 standard size pot. I personally would suggest you to have a practice run early, for example order 1 pot get 5 people over (including yourself will be 6), go out and shop, try out the soup base (hot or not hot) and make the decisions yourself afterwards.
 
Thanks. I’m pretty good at making dinners that size, I probably do it about 8 times a year.

Anybody have any experience with that integrated pot/heating element I posted the amazon link to? That seems helpful
 
Here’s the setup. The table in the back gets another two meters long.
familyDinner_rosh2014-0018.jpg
 
rickbern said:
Thanks. I’m pretty good at making dinners that size, I probably do it about 8 times a year.

Anybody have any experience with that integrated pot/heating element I posted the amazon link to? That seems helpful
Click to expand...

To me it seems like the heating element is built specifically to the shape of the pot, so might not be that useful after the hotpot is over. Are there other more versatile flat induction heaters which can be found for a similar price?
 
i have a specified electric hot pot thing.

i wouldnt do butane. but i'm paranoid. i know those burners are indoor rated, i just dont know what happens when you run five of them indoors side by side.

my wife is taiwanese and we do hot pot any chance we get.
 
I don’t have experience with your link, but I’m with everyone else: get an IH that you can use for other things too. You never know when you might do a cooking class (or something similar) where a bunch of portable ranges would be very useful.

The only last concern I have is if your apartment can handle 6 or so IHs all plugged in and running at the same time?
 
Running all of those hotpots would be a nightmare. I've done as much as three and it wasn't fun as a host. Ever sat down with people who never had hotpots and end up doing most of the work? Now imagine doing that for at least 6 tables.
 
I've made 10 gallons of soup in a parking lot an hour from home many times.
Something to think about to get you started
40x 12 0z serving = 480÷36 = 13 qts or 3 plus gallons of soup.
Do you want seconds?
What size pots do you have. And are they induction capable. Those small butane burners used at Asian restaurants are not powerful enough for large pots.
Good luck
 
Ochazuke said:
The only last concern I have is if your apartment can handle 6 or so IHs all plugged in and running at the same time?
Click to expand...

Oh, good call! I knew I wanted a little advice. Probably three electric and three gas. Maybe I’ll scale back my ambition and make something supplemental that doesn’t need tableside cooking.

Thanks, great advice
 
boomchakabowwow said:
i have a specified electric hot pot thing.

i wouldnt do butane. but i'm paranoid. i know those burners are indoor rated, i just dont know what happens when you run five of them indoors side by side.

my wife is taiwanese and we do hot pot any chance we get.
Click to expand...
Boom, I’m a 66 year old New York Jew. I worked on a team with three kids from Taiwan who were 25-30 years old for a while, I started making lantern festival because they were far from home. Love these kids, they became part of the family, they’re super excited about being able to do hot pot at my house.

I’m gonna figure out a way to pull it off.
 
rickbern said:
Boom, I’m a 66 year old New York Jew. I worked on a team with three kids from Taiwan who were 25-30 years old for a while, I started making lantern festival because they were far from home. Love these kids, they became part of the family, they’re super excited about being able to do hot pot at my house.

I’m gonna figure out a way to pull it off.
Click to expand...
i believe you!!

just picturing the big piles of frexh veggies now! cleaning and prepping that many heads of napa cabbage would buckle me :)
 
You need BEEEEF and lots and lots of it thinnly sliced. Veg/mushrooms/soy products/fishballs of diffrent types/noodles

If they are from taiwan you MUST get Sa Cha sauce
https://www.amazon.com/BULL-HEAD-BBQ-SAUCE-1x26OZ/dp/B005WG1UII

Other condiments are green onion, cilantro, minced garlic, fried shallots, seasame paste, hoy sin sauce, oyster sauce, fresh chilli, chilli oil, soya sauce, etc
 
Last edited:
rickbern said:
Xenif, do you slice that by hand? And how much boneless protein per person?
Click to expand...
Yes Sir. This case I just deboned a short rib, kept the bones for stock and have some very fatty beef for hot pot, but takig all the silver skin and following the twisty grain takes a bit more time. I would prepare between 15-25 slices per person (baseball card sized slices). Just be aware that it will take time to process that amount of meat, but is there a beter time to pull out the suji/yani ?
DSC_4216.jpeg
DSC_4220.jpeg
 
I think the go-to meat for a hot pot is lamb.

then seafood. A variety of fish balls is a treat.
 
rickbern said:
what cut of lamb do you use? Do you think leg is too lean?

And also, is tongue appropriate?
Click to expand...
Yes tongue is appropriate as well thin slices. With Lamb I prefer a stronger aromatic soup base, like Xin Jiang or Mongolian flavored. But soup like that will make your house smell of spices for weeks. I usually cut lamb shoulder for hot pot.
 
rickbern said:
what cut of lamb do you use? Do you think leg is too lean?

And also, is tongue appropriate?
Click to expand...

Just had tongue in Chinese style hot-pot the other weekend and it worked wonderfully. Such a nice texture.
 
Not made by me. I ate this at a restaurant in Sunnyvale a few months ago. Absolutely amazing: Taiwanese stinky tofu wok with chilies, pork, pork blood, mushrooms, intestines, and bok choy.
image.png

The restaurant was quite large, with a lot of Asian customers. In fact, I was the only non-Asian person there. I got quite a stare from the waiter when I ordered this. He considered it for a moment, then asked "you sure want this?" I got quite a larger stare when he came back to clean up my table and and saw that I had eaten the lot :)
 
rickbern said:
what cut of lamb do you use? Do you think leg is too lean?

And also, is tongue appropriate?
Click to expand...

man..great question. i dont know!! i buy it in pre-sliced packages from our chinese grocery store. or Korean markets.

i truly like the veggies better. there is a dark green plant with lacy leaves that is amazing. no idea what it is called.

and lotus roots..the one that look like wagon wheels. yum!!
 
I’m glad to see I’m not the only kkf’er that was contemplating buying pre sliced meat!

I’m doing most of the marketing with the taiwanistas so I should be okay with that. I was thinking of getting something special that I prepared in addition.

This all kind of started with a bolito misto I made for Hanukkah this year. I had 35 people and my Asian friends loved it, they thought the hot pot would make a great cross cultural counterpoint.

If you’re a hotpot afficianado and you’re looking for something related, give that a whirl. I found an article that you can get online from fine cooking that really explains the whole process. The French make almost exactly the same thing called pot au feu, different sauces.
 
Posted in the wrong forum haha :D

I have a question about slicing meat for hot pot: did anyone try thicker cuts of fatty beef to make it rarer? I always worry about the texture in that case but must be doable?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top