Do you put hot stuff in the fridge or do you let it cool down first?

K

kathleen

Well-known member
I always put stuff in containers and in the fridge as soon as I am done with whatever it is. However, I read on another board (not food) that you should never put hot stuff in the fridge. Rather, you should let it cool to room temperature and then refridgerate. Which is the correct way?

Thanks.

Kathleen

 
First thing is put it in a shallow pan or bowl and stir often on the counter, do not cover.

keep checking temp! it needs to be below 135F as soon as possible and below 70F within two hours.

You can put it in the frige uncovered if there is room and you keep stiring. but you would be surprised how long things in a deep container will stay in that danger zone.

There are plunge type coolers or you could use a Tupperware type bottle. Fill with ice and place in center.

Also, if you had a tub or sink available you can fill that with ice and water and place container with warm foods in it.

Once the food has reached 70F, you have three hours to get it down to 41F.

Nan

 
For home use, that sounds like lots of work. What I do is set the pan on my counter top

let it cool until I can touch the pan comfortably, then refrigerate it. In over 50 years of cooking, I have not hurt anyone, thank goodness.

 
as long as it is down to 70F within two hours and to 40 in four more it doesn't matter how you

get it there.

As long as it goes in the fridge uncovered it might get down there if the pan isn't too deep.

I have been cooking the same time and as you say thank goodness not made anyone sick.

I would suggest everyone have a little pocket, dial type, instant read thermometer. You can use them to make sure salads, etc. are cold enough, monitering foods being chilled and checking internal temps on hot food. about $6 and handy!

I have known people who aren't careful at all and survive, but some feel that many cases of "stomach flu" are small bouts of food poisening.

Nan

 
Hot food can raise the temperature inside the refrigerator and compromise other foods,

depending on how powerful your refrigerator is and how crowded. I second Nans ideas about using shallow, uncovered containers. I've also floated a zip-loc bag full of ice in a large pot of stock or soup, to cool it down to 70* quickly, then put it in the refrigerator uncovered to finish cooling.

 
We had a large pot of cooked & seasoned ground beef for meat pies at our church

that one of the gals took home and refrigerated without cooling. Not the next day but the day after that, she brought it back so we could finish the pies. The inside was still slightly warm and the meat had soured. I usually put the pot in the sink (or laundry tub if its too big) with cold water and stir occasionally. When the water gets warm, I drain it and refill with cold water. Doesn't take too long.

 
Elenor, it's great you caught it in time and averted disaster. I have lots of jelly roll pans

that come in handy for chilling a big batch of something--spread it out on them and refrigerate for a few hours, then re-combine it in one container once it's all cold.

 
I had a lesson on how long it takes something to cool down this weekend when I made brine for corned

beef. It's brought to a boil, cooled to room temp and put in the fridge until it reaches 45 degrees before adding the meat. It was about 70 degrees when I refrigerated it in the stainless steel pot I'd boiled it in. 3-4 hours later, it was still in the 50's. It wasn't perishable, but I was really surprised it took so long to bring it down to refrigerator temperature.

 
Curious, I never heat up all the water/liquid. Just enough to melt the sugar/salt

then I add the rest of the water at room temp and toss in a couple ice cubes to quicken the cool-down process.

I'm always worried about warm brine allowing too much salt to absorb.

 
I did this when I cooked a large batch of ground beef for our scout dinner -

spread it essentially in a single layer across many sheet pans, set it in the garage to cool rapidly to "room temp" - about 15 minutes. Then put in several containers for refrigeration.

 
I don't heat it when brining for a short period of time. Does boiling the water kill bacteria that

might spoil the meat? The beef brines for 12 days. I was afraid not to boil it, although it was tempting.

 
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