Slate

Slate trays for serving food

Choosing the type of tray that is practical for serving food and brings a level of sophistication to any home is not easy. But slate trays do cover these requirements and include a lot of other benefits to make serving food for yourself and your dinner guests a pleasure and a talking point.

With an emphasis on elegance the natural slate with the earthy black colours that are only found naturally, brings a stylish look and enhances whichever decorative style you have in your home. Slate trays fit in perfectly to a wooden, rustic country style of décor through to rooms with a modern layout or with a trendy industrial style.

The sense of luxury that slate brings to the table has been identified by Selbrae House (formerly the Just Slate Company) and they have enhanced the experience of using natural slate even further by including a very elegant black presentation box with each slate tray. This makes slate trays a great gift choice for special occasions and allows you to keep the tray in a box for easy storage when not being used.

Carrying slate trays with sturdy handles

As slate is a dense and therefore a relatively heavy material, it is important that the slate trays have the appropriate type of handle. The antler shaped handles on many of the Selbrae House slate tray range is ideal to getting a comfortable grip. The space between the sturdy handle and the surface of the tray is sufficient to allow someone with large hands get a good grip on the tray.

This is important to consider as, for example the large slate serving tray when empty would weigh around two kilos, which is about twice the weight of a typical melamine tray of a similar size. Whereas the melamine tray has moulded handles which can be gripped, but not quite as completely as the type of sturdy handles on a large slate tray. This allows you to confidently load up the slate tray with multiple dishes, drinks and food and still carry the tray safely.

Naturally food safe slate trays

The slate used when in contact with food is sealed to prevent food or liquid being absorbed into the slate over time and it is highly recommended to wipe your food safe slate tray with a mineral oil or a food safe version of cutting board oil. Do not be tempted to use vegetable or olive oil as over time this tends to go off and even though initially it makes the black surface nice and shiny.

It is best to wipe the tray down after use with a cloth and buff the slate from time to time with a micro-fibre type of cloth as this will enhance the natural properties and give a nice polished appearance to your tray.

Food can be served directly from the tray to your dinner guests and this is a particularly attractive idea for serving a wide variety of foods such as cold sushi or cheeses, through to hot tapas. Slate has the ability to retain a desired temperature for much longer than other materials, so cold foods can stay colder for longer and your hot foods will remain warm for longer on a slate tray than they would if they were being served on a melamine tray.

In addition to being a non-porous material and so not absorbing tastes or flavours, slate will also not react to acidic types of food such as lemon or vinegar or get stained by these types of food which could happen with metal or wooden types of trays over time. This makes slate trays a great choice where food hygiene in the home or in the catering industry is highly important.