Can I slow cook in short intervals?
I'm making tonkotsu ramen broth, cooked over twelve hours (some people cook it even longer). I'd rather not leave my gas stove on overnight, so I'm wondering whether the same effect - breaking down collagen in meat and bones - can be achieved by cooking the broth in intervals of four hours over a few days. The broth would be refrigerated in between. It's not ideal, but I would think that the same collagen-gelatin conversion would take place... right? Is there a downside to trying to slow cook in short intervals? If this were braising meat, the meat would dry more, of course. But since we're mostly talking liquid, bones and fat, the change in temperature (and congealing then liquifying of fats and collagen) shouldn't make a big difference right?
Best Answer
The obvious downside is safety: each time you go through a heating and cooling cycle, your food will spend time in the danger zone. It's hard to guess exactly how long, but if it's a large volume and it takes an hour to cool to 40F and 15 minutes to heat back up to 140F, and you use the conservative end of the safe time range (2 hours) you might have a problem. You could partially alleviate this by using an ice bath to chill faster.
If you can avoid the safety issue, in terms of the resulting broth, it sounds fine though.
That said, slow cookers are awesome, they're not too expensive, and that'd solve your problem with much less effort.
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Can you stop and start slow cooking?
Can you stop slow cooking and start again? It is not recommended to stop slow cooking and start again, otherwise you risk falling into what the USDA calls the \u201cdanger zone\u201d for food, which is 40-140 degrees Fahrenheit. \u201cThis is the temperature range at which bacteria (like Salmonella and E.Can you slow cook in 2 hours?
How long should I cook a slow cooker recipe? If a dish usually takes: 15-30 mins, cook it for 1-2 hours on High or 4-6 hours on Low.Is 2 hours on high the same as 4 on low?
The difference between the two settings isn't a higher temperature, it's the time it takes for the slow cooker to reach the simmer point. On high, that's around three to four hours, and on low, it's seven to eight, according to Crock-Pot. So imagine if your dinner is cooking away on high all day while you're at work.Can you slow cook for 3 hours?
If a recipe calls for cooking on the HIGH setting for three hours, you can cook it for seven hours on the LOW setting instead. Or if a recipe calls for eight hours on HIGH, it can be cooked for up to 12 hours on LOW.Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Guide To Slow Cooking | Ultimate Cookery Course
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Answer 2
Jefromi's stated the important food safety issue.
I do think there could also be differences in the way the food cooks and breaks down. One thing I'm thinking of here is the way gelatin dissolves and breaks down differently when reheated compared to when it cooks originally. Stews taste differently on the second day partly because of the way the gelatin, well, gels at low temperature and then may not redissolve completely upon (relatively quick) reheating.
Obviously if you cook the food long enough over a few days, it will break everything down. But I would wonder whether there might be any alterations in texture or flavor due to the temperature cycling.
I also imagine these cycles of heating and cooling will also affect how various aromatics, spices, herbs, or other ingredients affect the final dish. The extra time and processes that go into heating and cooling (especially the thickening and melting/redissolving) may affect the relative strength of various flavors, some being lost or "overcooked" and others enhanced. This probably wouldn't be a major issue, but it could make a small difference.
Answer 3
Is slow cooking in an oven safe with long cooking times might be relevant or even, for this task, a viable method. An oven offers some thermal buffering even if the heating element cycles, and can be monitored with an oven thermometer. Bringing the contents to the same temperature the oven is set to before putting them in might help.
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