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Holding

The Science Behind Holding

October 10, 2022 By Corey Meyers

It’s harder than it looks, but we make it easy.

Reliable holding equipment preserves quality, keeps food ready to serve, and allows employees to prepare for peak hours while offering additional benefits (click here to read Henny Penny’s blog about how kitchens can “buy” extra operations time with heated holding solutions). Getting the most out of your holding equipment is easier said than done, which is why it is important to understand the science behind it.

One of the first things every aspiring chef learns is that cooking is a function of time, temperature and moisture. This is also true of holding with a few important differences. When food is cooked it undergoes rapid and continuous change as it is subjected to extreme conditions. The finished or “done” state is simply a point to be reached along the path of change. To maintain this state for any length of time requires conditions that are much more subtle in relation to those of the food itself. Ideal holding conditions are those that cause very little in the way of further dynamic changes in the food and prevent changes from taking place naturally.

Most simple heated cabinets can do this for short periods. However, different foods react differently to periods of extended holding. Most fried and baked products, for instance, tend to dry out. Other foods become soggy as excess humidity builds up from covered dishes or “wetter” foods and forces the re-absorption of oils, juices or sauces that were released during cooking. The structure and flavor of casseroles, hot sandwiches or other multi-textured foods will begin to breakdown as drying and absorption affect ingredients differently.


Size and cut makes a big difference in how long meats, poultry and fish can be held. Large whole or half joints, which are typically cooked in a slower process, usually hold well. The combination of crust and high ratio of volume to surface area make it easier to preserve flavor and texture in a heated holding environment.

For this reason, thick fish steaks can be held longer than thin fillets, which do not hold well at all. With proper humidity control, longer holding times improve the flavor and consistency of certain meats, such as ribs. What is essentially a low-temperature, slow-cooking environment continues to breakdown proteins in a gentle way, making the meat more tender. The absorption of seasonings and sauces into the product in this case, enhances the desired flavor and texture.

With the number of variables in play, the goal of holding—to suspend the results of cooking at their peak indefinitely—remains elusive. But the benefits of being able to hold a wide range of foods for hours rather than minutes would be significant.


The below chart shows popular menu items grouped by common holding temperature ranges.* Items in the same temperature range can generally be held together. Holding times will vary depending on the durability of the item and humidity in the cabinet. The Humidity column shows ideal relative humidity. With a controlled humidity holding cabinet, much longer holding times can be achieved.

*Based on Henny Penny HHC 900 and SmartHold holding cabinets. Results will vary for other manufacturers.

Originally posted on www.HennyPenny.com

Filed Under: Henny Penny, Holding, Labor

Why Your Commercial Kitchen Needs A Pressure Fryer And Heated Holding Cabinet

October 5, 2022 By Corey Meyers

If you’re serving a chicken-heavy menu featuring items like bone-in wings or juicy tenders, you’ll love having a pressure fryer and a heated holding cabinet in your kitchen. (And if you’re not serving chicken, we’ve got four reasons you should be!)

Combining a fryer and a full-size holding cabinet allows operators to implement batch cooking. This means the product is fried in large batches before the rush and served fresh out of a holding cabinet.

Together, pressure fryers and heated holding cabinets create an ideal ‘system’ for commercial kitchens, specifically fried chicken concepts. Here’s why:


#1: Fried Chicken Holds Well

Pressure fryers are arguably the best commercial fryers for fried chicken. Why? Pressure frying maintains the chicken’s moisture and flavor while sealing out excess cooking oil. Retaining that moisture helps maintain quality when the chicken is transferred to a holding cabinet.

Holding cabinets allow food life to be increased without sacrificing food quality. Fans that circulate hot moist air evenly throughout the cabinet help maintain safe temperatures and a quality product.

Premium holding cabinets with precise humidity control can keep chicken fresh and ready-to-serve for anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours.


#2: Less Staff in the Kitchen

With batch cooking, there are significantly less staff members needed in the kitchen. Today’s labor shortages make this is a huge win for operators.

Our own Corporate Executive Chef, Gregg Brickman, says that holding cabinets offer extensive relief for restaurants. “Henny Penny holding cabinets allow restaurants to serve consistent, quality items while also easing pressure on the kitchen. And, when you don’t have as many staff members in the kitchen due to staffing levels or pandemic restrictions, the cabinets can actually relieve as much pressure as adding another employee or sous chef.”

Read more about how kitchens can handle peak order volume without adding staff: click here.


#3: Increase Throughput Significantly

Batch cooking allows for increased throughput by prepping orders in advance, meaning no stress during peak order volumes.

Dedicate the hour before rush time to filling the holding cabinet. After that, simply manage the cabinet instead of the fryer. Establish a point that the cabinet should be refilled once a certain amount of product has been depleted. You’ll never run out of chicken this way, and your ticket times will be quicker than ever!

Increased throughput capabilities mean that kitchens can balance dine-in, carryout, and delivery orders with ease. With the increase in off-premise demand, many restaurants have struggled to keep up – some have had to restrict delivery hours on 3rd party apps or decline carryout orders altogether. Batch cooking can eliminate this issue!

When implementing batch cooking, it’s also important to consider your fryer’s total load capacity. Our Velocity Series is perfect for this application because it can cook an entire 8-head of chicken in just one load.


#4: Decrease Food Waste

A lot less food gets thrown away when you’re cooking in large batches and have a holding cabinet on hand. For high volume kitchens, batch cooking is a proven way to decrease food waste.

The concept of batch cooking isn’t new – in 2016, Foodservice Director Magazine published an article about how Franklin College was able to significantly reduce food waste in it’s dining halls. After implementing batch cooking, their food waste costs plummeted from over $250 a month to around $30.

Frying under pressure at lower temperatures also reduces wasted frying oil and helps extend its useful life. This added benefit of pressure frying is especially important given today’s inflated oil prices.


#5: Built to Work Together

As mentioned earlier, fried foods like chicken retain more moisture when cooked under pressure. A humidified holding cabinet is the perfect companion for a pressure fryer because it can keep the product moist and juicy for an extended period.

At Henny Penny, our pressure fryers and holding cabinets are built to work together as a system. When transferring product from our 8-head fryers to our holding cabinets, there is no re-racking required. Crew members simply slip a sheet pan under a lip on the fryer that allows for a seamless transition into the holding cabinet.

No re-racking means more consistent food quality, increased food safety, and a less time-consuming process for the back-of-house crew.

Our global network of exclusive distributors can work with you to develop set points for everything from your fryer’s cook cycle to your holding cabinet’s ideal temperature, humidity level, and maximum hold time. Click here to request more information from your local distributor.

The popularity, versatility, and profitability of chicken make it a no-brainer for any menu. Download this free ebook from our experts and start serving chicken like the pros.

Keep Reading

Check out our Fried Chicken Restaurant Equipment Guide to read more about the equipment you’ll need to start dishing out golden-fried goodness.

Originally posted on HennyPenny.com

Filed Under: Blog, Food, Frying, Henny Penny, Holding, Uncategorized Tagged With: frying, Henny Penny, holding

Why Holding Equipment is Vital to the “New Normal” in Foodservice

October 5, 2022 By Corey Meyers

While we’ve seen a decrease in traditional dining out, the demand for takeout and delivery has increased significantly these past few years.

The increased demand for takeout and delivery options isn’t projected to die down soon. The timeline for how long COVID-19 will continue to be a concern is still uncertain. Additionally, customers have become accustomed to this new way of eating, preferring the convenience of takeout and delivery options. But if there’s one thing the foodservice industry does well, it’s roll with the punches. Holding equipment is one tool that can help restaurants adjust to this “new normal.”


Food Safety

Food safety is a concern that’s becoming increasingly important to both restaurant operators and consumers, and not just during this climate. In fact, 50% of consumers say sanitation will be their primary consideration when selecting a restaurant to visit after the time of coronavirus, according to Datassential. Holding cabinets can play a significant role in helping maintain food safety levels.

Holding cabinets enclose food in controlled environments with tightly sealed doors, keeping cooked food safe from airborne pathogens. Because food can be removed from ovens or fryer baskets and placed directly into holding cabinets, these units can also play a key role in reducing product handling.


Demand Uncertainty

In this ever-changing environment, it can be tough to predict volume or demand. You’re not alone. Datassential reports 55% of restaurant operators don’t know how many orders will come in and when, making it tough to prep for the day. And 54% say it’s hard to figure out how much staff they need to keep up with demand. Holding cabinets can help mitigate this uncertainty, allowing food to be cooked before anticipated peak periods. This advantage is particularly useful if you’re working with a limited staff.

Utilizing holding cabinets can make the entire cooking sequence more economical. Holding a variety of foods for different lengths of time can help kitchen staff plan their cooking sequence for efficiency rather than necessity. Many holding cabinet models offer countdown timers, which display how much time food can continue to be held while maintaining food quality, helping make monitoring simple. Using holding cabinets can help streamline complicated kitchen processes during this time of demand uncertainty.


Operating Costs

Holding cabinets can also help restaurants save on operating costs by keeping food at safe temperatures for longer and reducing food waste. Fans that circulate hot moist air evenly throughout the cabinet help maintain both safe temperatures and food quality, ensuring your restaurant retains its reputation for consistency.

Holding cabinets are better for preserving cooked food safely for long periods than other options, such as heated display cases or even warming lights. With extended food life, your restaurant can sell more and throw away less over the course of the day, helping save money on food and operating costs.


Henny Penny’s holding cabinets offer precise humidity control to provide longer hold times and are designed to help your restaurant thrive. Take a look at our holding solutions for your company.

Originally published on www.HennyPenny.com

Filed Under: Henny Penny, Holding Tagged With: Henny Penny, holding

The Ghost Kitchen Series: SmartHold Holding Cabinet

January 4, 2021 By Corey Meyers

In this series, we will highlight our top 4 best solutions for ghost kitchens.

In 2019, ghost kitchens (also referred to as dark kitchens and virtual kitchens) were simply an emerging trend to watch out for. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of these delivery-only kitchens in a big way. Just 15% of restaurant operators were using ghost kitchens before the pandemic, by May that number had risen to 51% (Technomic, 2020). The demand for off-premise dining options skyrocketed, creating an opportunity for operators to invest in ghost kitchens and even virtual brands.

The average ghost kitchen is only a few hundred square feet, meaning available space must be optimized and designed to operate with minimum labor. Luckily, the SmartHold Holding Cabinet can help with each of these factors while also making life easier for both operators and their staff.

Our SmartHold Holding Cabinet is just over two feet wide and can be configured half-sized to fit under a countertop or stacked to manage cooking in large batches. Precise humidity control sets SmartHold apart by creating the ideal holding environment for any food and keeping it fresh for hours instead of minutes. This holding cabinet also has proofing capabilities, saving operators the expense and floorspace of a separate proofing cabinet.

With SmartHold, ghost kitchens can also keep labor down by cooking and holding products before peak periods of high demand. We’ve got a couple of blog suggestions for anyone wanting more on SmartHold – learn more about optimal SmartHold settings for common menu items or discover more on how SmartHold brings value to any kitchen.

Filed Under: Blog, Henny Penny, Holding Tagged With: ghost kitchen, Henny Penny, smarthold

Henny Penny Holding Cabinets Can Save Your Bacon (In More Ways Than One)

July 16, 2020 By Corey Meyers

With the rising demand for delivery and take-out, our holding solutions can help you improve the efficiency of your kitchen and give you the flexibility to serve your customers quickly and effectively.

Restaurants, deli’s, and other retail foodservice operations put a great deal of effort into making great food. Yet without some means to preserve fresh product for a reasonable amount of time, the effort—along with a significant portion of food—is wasted. This is more important than ever with the rising demand for delivery and take-out.

UP TO 2X LONGER HOLD TIMES

Heated holding cabinets are traditionally used to keep extra quantities of food hot and tasty. But what holding cabinets REALLY do is produce extra time in the operation of your kitchen. This extra time—a function of how long foods can be held at acceptable quality— can be used in many ways. You can increase equipment utilization and improve your overall efficiency. Depending on the type of food and the quality of your holding equipment, the productivity potential can be significant.

WHAT CAN MORE TIME DO?

“Buying” extra operations time with heated holding cabinets allows you to cook well before the mealtime rush, cook in higher volume, reduce product handling and waste, and efficient menu production. These are just a few examples of how heated holding can extend beyond simply keeping something warm until you need it. In every case, the benefits grow with the length of time that food can be acceptably held – that’s why Henny Penny developed their line of SmartHold cabinets to keep food fresh for up to 2x longer than the average cabinet.


THE SCIENCE BEHIND HOLDING

—It’s harder than it looks, but we make it easy.

Reliable holding equipment preserves quality, keeps food ready to serve, and allows employees to prepare for peak hours while offering additional benefits (click here to read our blog about how kitchens can “buy” extra operations time with heated holding solutions). Getting the most out of your holding equipment is easier said than done, which is why it is important to understand the science behind it.

SMARTHOLD PROOFING & HOLDING

The following chart shows optimal SmartHold cabinet settings for common menu items. In general, settings for a particular item can be applied to similar menu items not shown here. Keep in mind that some foods are more durable than others. When holding a variety of items at the same time, choose temperature and humidity settings closer to those suggested for the more sensitive foods or midway between foods with similar durability.

Food temperatures must remain above the minimum required safe holding temperatures. The USA minimum is 140°F (60°C). If the cabinet door(s) is opened frequently, temperature should be set slightly above the minimum required safe holding temperature.

Based on Henny Penny HHC 900 and SmartHold holding cabinets. Results will vary for other manufacturers.

HOLDING CABINETS, AT A GLANCE

CLICK TO EXPAND

Want to learn more about our SmartHold solutions? Click here.

Filed Under: Blog, Henny Penny, Holding

Win At Takeout With a Henny Penny EPC

July 10, 2020 By Corey Meyers

Grocery shopping and grabbing meals on-the-go aren’t as simple in a world changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever, people are looking for ways to make their lives easier. As a result, takeout has become increasingly popular and fast-food or dine-in restaurants aren’t the only places that can capitalize on this rise in demand. Imagine the relief of a grocery shopper who needs to pick up dinner on the way home when they come across a display containing rows of fresh chicken and sides while approaching checkout.

Henny Penny Express Profit Center

With a Henny Penny Express Profit Center (EPC), various business concepts with diverse menus can maximize takeout sales. Conventional self-serve heated merchandisers can’t avoid letting hot air out and cool air in. With Henny Penny, the FreshLock™ air curtain creates a thin wall of moving air that separates cool air in your store from hot food items in the unit.

The Right Fit

We never take a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to our customers. Different sizes, different widths, different shelf configurations… all the options that help you take advantage of impulse purchases throughout the store. Place EPC units as aisle end caps, along walls, or freestanding near checkout lanes.

Sustainable solid-state LED lighting offers brilliant product presentation with bright warm-white light, no flicker or buzz. Highly energy efficient, durable, safe to dispose but almost never need replacing. Other features include:

  • Heated shelves and deck with independent temperature controls
  • Black matte finish and stainless steel, with clear side panels for visibility
  • Easy mobility with available casters, 120 V compact plug-and-play unit

EPC’s are a perfect example of how various operations can win at takeout – it’s all about convenience and delicious food. Join the thousands of satisfied restaurant owners who trust Henny Penny quality and 24/7 global customer support.

Filed Under: Blog, Henny Penny, Holding Tagged With: COVID-19, epc, Henny Penny, holding, retail

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