Hot and Cold

You know how you're not supposed to put hot things straight into the fridge? Well, you're not. Anyway, I always figured that it was beacuse your hot food would change (raise) the inside temperature too much, thereby affecting the refridgeration of all the other food inside.

But the Taiwanese have a different concept on why not to do this: apparently, immediately cooling hot foods is generally not good for the food itself. They say that this spoils that food more quickly.

So seeing as I'm not a refridgeration expert, I'm really not sure. Feedback?

5 comments:

miscmusings said...

that's right. my bro took a foods class in college and came back w/ that tidbit --- something about lukewarm and dark environment causing bacteria.

Anonymous said...

There was recently a piece on 20/20 on this exact topic - according to them, it was a MYTH that one should not put food that is warm inside a fridge. According to them, it was better not to leave food outside too long because of the bacteria issue that was previously posted. I assume that once someone cooks something, they would eat it and then put the remaining (relatively warm portions) into the fridge. In your case, I don't see what the problem would be with fast cooling of a hot item in the fridge (other than raising the temperature inside the fridge), as it would theoretically be better to have food sitting less at the optimal lukewarm temperature for bacteria to thrive - YUM!
JON

Anonymous said...

Leaving food out to cool off tends encourage bacteria problems.

I remember once we forgot to put away a meaty sauce, the next day, a moldy surface.

I've been raised to put warm foods in the fridge/freezer.

I'm so lazy today, still in my pjs and it's 10 am. I need to get ready for work~! ^_~

-a

Ben said...

So it seems the tradeoff is a gradual cooling against a quick cooling plus darkness.

I dunno, I think I'm better off just throwing the rest of the food in the fridge after eating, to avoid my absent mind forgetting about it completely and having furry food the next morning.

I mean, I'm not going to throw piping hot food in the fridge, but rather when it gets to a decent lukewarm temperature (as it is when I'm done eating).

Kevin said...

I've been raised to tolerate eating foods that have been sitting out for lengthy periods of time without refridgeration.

(just kidding, mom and dad).