Westinghouse Roaster question / Thanksgiving

[paulg]

We do Thanksgiving every year and the totals vary from about 15 to 25 attendees (rare).
Well here we go.... we're up to 25 this year.
Last time we had 25 people we ran short of mashed potatoes. We have two Westinghouse roasters.
(We also have a Jenn-Air double oven. We expect to use one for the turkey and the other for all else.)
THE PRIMARY QUESTION:
Can you make mashed potatoes for 25 from absolute start to absolute finish successfully in the Westinghouse inset pan?
We feel if we can delegate one roaster to mashed potatoes, it may be a good thing...
SECOND QUESTION;
I see you cooking experts lurking out there.... How do YOU prepare mashed potatoes for 25 without freaking out Thanksgiving day. Advice about what can be done in advance is welcome. We have three refrigerators and a freezer.
Every bit of advice is eagerly welcome!

 

[panthera]

We use two Westinghouse Roasters on big Occasions

Here's how we cope with the mashed potato problem.

1) I peel them a day in advance and put them in the refrigerator in cold water. (sadly, but nearly everyone in Wyoming thinks peels in the potatoes are icky).&#92

2) The next day, I quarter them and throw them in a 12 quart Presto pressure cooker. At our altitude, it takes about 35 minutes from start to finish, including at least one clueless person present who turns the whole thing off when I'm out of the kitchen because 'it was about to explode'. Which, of course, it wasn't. 

3) I mash the potatoes right in the pressure pan, add milk and butter, salt and pepper (nothing else, see (1) above, sigh) and transfer to three Westinghouse glass roaster loaves. They're already in the roaster which just made the turkey, so already nice and hot. Put the lids back on. The other roaster is busy with ham.

 

That's how I do it and it works great. We have made baked potatoes in the roasters before but, boy, 12 pounds of potatoes at our altitude would tie one up for two hours plus, no kidding. Which is ok if you've got the capacity. We don't. At sea level probably doable in much less time.

 

I find the thermostats in these roasters vary much more at low temperatures than at high. I don't know if that's do to their age or just the way they were, but I do keep an eye on the water level when steaming. And, boy, nothing is as good for slow steaming as one of these.

 

Hope that helps. Everyone likes them so much we never have leftovers. I also make a smaller dish for the German guests with garlic and parsley and twice as much butter, more like the mashed turnips. 

 

 

 

[paulg]

Thank you Panthera

Great advice. I see your system clearly and can see how it works.
I do have the glass roaster loaf pans that I have never used. Parsing out the potatoes into those pans makes a bunch of sense.
Much obliged for the quick reply!

 

[panthera]

Glass pans

They're wonderful and they crack, sadly, if they experience temperature changes. Easily. This is why I make sure they're prewarmed before putting the hot mashed potatoes in.

Let us know how you resolve it - I'm only doing six people this year. Yay!

 

[panthera]

Oh, forgot something useful

I spray the glass pans inside with PAM. It makes a big difference in clean-up.

 

[michaelman2]

Addendum to Panthera's wise advice

When you remove the glass / Pyrex dish from the oven make sure not to place it on a cold surface. Have a silicone mat, pot holder or towel to place the hot dish upon. Cold granite, stainless steel, on refs and trivets will make the piece crack and can make is shatter. His last suggestion about the spraying of the dish with Pam, is a great one.

 

[artcurus]

Use the Westy for the turkey, you won't go back to the regular oven

 

[panthera]

Westy cords,

And the wiring to the automatic timer are well past their age limits. I've replaced them and still don't leave then unsupervised. And, yes, nothing roasts as well.

 

[neptunebob]

One issue with roasters

Is where to plug all of them in. A Westinghouse roaster can monopolize an entire 20A circuit so do you have 1 roaster in the dining room, one in the kitchen, one in the living room, etc.?

 

[panthera]

I had the luxury

of having the cellar under our kitchen flooded about eight years ago.

Had to pull down all the (ick) insulation. Exposed all the wires, pipes, etc.

Used the opportunity to put in six separate 20Amp circuits (including the proper 20amp outlets for our commercial appliances).

And that, was that.

Those roasters are as wonderful as they are because they draw such heavy current. If they're the absolutely only thing running on a properly wired 15 amp outlet, they'll work, but it's pushing it from my perspective - and it you're also going to use the broiler, the that's two 20 amp circuits tied up, right there.

Which I allowed for. About the only good thing to come from the dratted flood.

 

Again - these delightful appliances are ancient. I've checked the internal wiring (was always OK) and replaced the plug and cord as well as the wiring to the automatic timer (never OK, my gods, who wired those, homicidal maniacs? - I'd strongly urge anyone with one of the timer units not to use it until it's been properly updated and a ground added.)

 

Speaking of which, yes, I am using 20Amp GFCI (no, not the pass through, the real 20 Amp GFCI) outlets for these. 

 

[rp2813]

Thanksgiving plans here are still up in the air, but I'm tempted to try a turkey in my GE roaster if I end up cooking.  Its original power cord with woven sheathing is in fine shape, but I bought a new rubber sheathed cord for it just to be safe and not scare the guests.  It has no base/cabinet or timer.  I don't know if GE ever offered those accessories or features.

 

How large of a bird can a full size roaster accommodate? 

 

[panthera]

We do twenty-six pound

Turkey's but I've always felt it was a bit much. Still, comes out great. Sometimes I have to make a gasket to raise and seal the lid a bit. Use aluminium foil, rolled into a tube.

 

[rp2813]

Thanks Keven,

 

I'd probably be doing a bird half that size, so the GE should be able to handle it.

 

[tomturbomatic]

So, Keven, I am curious about your putting the glass pans in the roaster you used for the turkey. Are you saying that you put the glass pans down in the drippings? Don't you use the drippings to make the gravy?

As soon as we lifted the bird out on the Load and Lift rack, we would take out the excess fat and add the flour to make the roux for the gravy. When it was cooked, we would slowly whisk in the water. Once the flour and water were combined, we added the water from cooking the vegetables and then put the Load and Lift rack back in and replaced the cover to let everything simmer. The steam softened any spatters on the sides so they slid down into the gravy and the gravy cooked off all of the fond stuck to the rack for super excellent flavor.

Even thought we would wash the big inset pan in the lower rack of the KDC15, there was not anything that needed heavy cleaning by the time the gravy was made.

 

[panthera]

Extra roaster insert pan, Tom

So, out with the old, in with the new. It comes up to heat at once and there we are.

Cooking for the holidays is a bit of a challenge. I don't eat meat, but will cook it. Loved ones with tremendously strong opinions on every single other thing. And I do mean strong opinions. 

So - lot's of extra inserts and beaters and mixer bowls and more KitchenAid mixers and Sunbeams (none of the junk after Model 12, of course) and several roasters and stoves. We may have a new '61 Flair up and running by Christmas!

And my pressure cooker collection. My extensive pressure cooker collection.

I've cracked two of these increasingly scarce Westinghouse glass insert pans through inattention to cold surfaces. It taught me a lesson.

 

 

 

 

[tomturbomatic]

I should have known, but you did not mention it.

 

[neptunebob]

It begs the question...

Why did Westinghouse make the roasters use so much electricity? It seems most houses in the 30s through 50s would not have a large enough service to not use most of the circuits in the house. If many people used them on Thanksgiving wouldn't it cause brownouts back then? I think the Hamilton Beach roasters made today (that are like Westinghouse) use less wattage than the Westinghouse. Even if Westinghouse was trying to get people to use more electricity, it would not help if people could not use it in their houses. After all, WH was making roasters in 1937, a long time before their first nuclear power plant (1957).

My sisters and I go to 7 Springs, a ski resort in the Laurel Highlands. The food there is as high priced as Disney and doesn't taste as good. Many families will bring along crock pots and roasters (once I even saw a Showtime) and plug them into any outlet they can find. Usually on a weekend, every outlet is taken with a cooking appliance. Management doesn't like it and unplugs them but then they get plugged back in. This summer, I notice they were doing some work on the sub station, I wonder if all those roasters had anything to do with it.

 

[panthera]

Tom,

No hu-hu.

The main thing is - these Westinghouse roasters are delightfully good at what they do.

 

[norgeway]

Back then...

Most people did what I do now, they plugged them in on their range outlet, all old electric ranges have a separately fused receptacle which works great for high wattage items, the wiring in this house is the next thing to get updated, one 15 amp circuit for ALL the kitchen, hall and one bedroom doesent do much!!!