What are some techniques to cool down a dish so that we can store it in the refrigerator safely?
My wife just cooked some 'plof' (an Ashkenazi Jewish recipe). A one pot chicken, rice, onion, carrots dish. All those are in their respective layers.
She just finished cooking it. We're going to go to sleep. She has set her timer to wake up in a few hours to put the whole pot into the fridge.
Is this gradual cooling safe? Especially for a meat dish? Does it matter whether it has meat in it or not?
I don't want to put this hot pot into the fridge because it will raise the temperature of my refrigerator.
Best Answer
There are several things in general that you can do to increase the speed at which food cools down, but two of the most effective are:
Increase the surface area. Spread it in a wide, shallow pan, like a sheet pan, rather than a deep pot. This will allow more cooling.
Use an ice water bath. Place the container with the food into an ice water bath, being careful not to spill the water into the food. Using a zip style bag to hold the food before putting it into the bath also can help.
A variation of this, especially for hot stocks or stews, is to freeze water in clean water bottles or zip bags, and place those into the food in addition to the ice bath.
For a pilaf, the first method should work very well.
You can also bring physics to the party:
- Convection is far more powerful at heat transfer than conduction. A fan for air cooling will help, or running water for water for water cooling will also help, but these are not always practical in kitchen.
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How do you cool down food in the fridge?
An ice water bath is simply a pan, or sink, of ice and water that you can sit the container in. Stir the food so that it cools even quicker. Food should be cooled and ready to go into the refrigerator or freezer within two hours from the time that you took it off of the stove or out of the oven.What are the 3 methods for cooling food?
Approved and efficient ways to cool food include:- Ice-water bath and frequently stirring the food. ...
- Ice paddles (plastic container filled with water and frozen) used to stir food in an ice-water bath.
- Adding ice as an ingredient (if water is an ingredient).
- Blast or tumble chiller.
How do you keep food cool for storage?
Cover pans of hot food and move them to a colder area e.g. a storage room, or stand them in cold water. You can also use ice to speed up chilling. This will make the contents of the pans chill more quickly. Stir food regularly while it is chilling down.How do you keep soup cool in the fridge?
An ice water bath is effective for cooling soups....This method helps decrease the food temperature quickly and safely.Can You Refrigerate Cooked Food? | Hot Food In The Fridge?
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Answer 2
In my experience to leave a pilaf out to cool down at room temperature shouldn't be a problem when it is freshly cooked. But by letting it sit out for hours the risk of it going off gets higher (and in pilaf the rice might be more likely to go off before the meat, as rice often already contains heat-resistant bacterial spores, e.g. Bacillus cereus).
But to prevent having to get up in the middle of the night, you could place the dish in a cold water bath (with some ice, if you have it) to cool it quicker.
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