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Hot or cold in fridge

915 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  nettsy 
#1 ·
OK what is better, put food right into the fridge after cooking or let it cool for a little while first. I thought I heard while watching one of the food shows, that it is bad to have certain hot food in the fridge because of bacteria.
I hope someone can clarify. Thanks
 
#2 · (Edited)
Well it depends. 

I usually wait a bit till its warm or room temperature (depending on what it is). 

Aside from that , ice bath for cooling quickly.  

The heat coming off certain objects can cause a fluctuation in the fridges temperature. 

Of course it really depends on how hot said object is, and size. Obviously a cup of warm milk will hardly alter something over lets say <_< 3 gallons of sugo....
 
#3 ·
Food needs to be cooled as quickly as possible to prevent the growth of bacteria. It is naturally going to happen quicker in the fridge. The danger with doing it in the fridge is the potential for raising the temperature of the fridge, especially when dealing with a smaller unit such as a home unit. Best bet is to put the food in shallow pans and ice bath it to initially lower the temperature, then when a more manageable temperature move it to the fridge. Make sure it stays uncovered until completely cooled. Not partially covered, not with holes poked in plastic wrap, totally uncovered. You can cover it when cooled. The timeline and temperature guide for cooling is: get it to 70 degrees F within 2 hours; and then 41 degrees F or below, within 4 hours.
 
#5 ·
O.K., this is gonna sound a bit confusing...

1) Hot food should be cooled down as quickly as possible

2) Hot food should never be put directly in the fridge

I usually keep a couple of marble tiles or 2 l pop bottles full of water in the freezer. When I need to cool something down in a hurry, I pop a few tiles out of the freezer, set them on the counter, and lay the item on it. If it's a liquid, I stick in a frozen pop bottle and let it cool down in a hurry. Once the item is around body warm, it's safe to put it in the fridge, but it is very important to cool it down as quickly as possible--bacteria grows best in this zone.

When you put hot food in the fridge, you get clouds of steam. steam=water, the steam collects and sticks on the evaporator coil--the part in your fridge that is very cold. Water mist (steam)+ cold = ice, so the coil plugs up with ice, the fridge can't cool down properly, and then the fridge shuts down--and the temps go up and up.

The big difference between household refrigeration and commercial refrigeration is that with commercial, the fridge/freezer shuts down every 8 hrs and goes on a 20 min defrost cycle. If the coil does get plugged up with ice, the defrost cycle usually takes care of it, but if I catch anyone putting buckets of hot soup or trays of hot food in the walk-in, the get the royal treatment from me very quickly. .
 
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