Can someone settle an argument between my wife and me? She says she has read that food bacteria can begin so quickly that one should not allow a large pot of, say, soup, to cool down in a refrigerator. Supposedly, the soup stays warm long enough tht bacteria can begin to grow before it cools down. I say no way because when you start with freshly boiled soup it is basically sterile and the time it takes to cool down will not allow for any kind of nasty growth. Any food science people out there?
Previously on SDMB.
So by that reasoning, there is no safe way at all to store homemade soup. Letting it sit on the stove would surely allow even more bacteria to grow, right? What does your loverly wife suggest instead of putting the soup in the fridge?
And how much soup do you make that it could possibly sit long enough to become tainted? I say put food into the fridge as soon as it cools to room temperature, or thereabouts. Even with home cooking, where little preservatives are used, food stays edible for several days if kept refrigerated.
This is more of a problem with meats that are highly susceptible to becoming breeding grounds, such as whole birds that have an internal cavity which stays warm for a long time, even when refrigerated. It is recommended that turkeys be completely sliced up so that the meat can cool down more quickly. For something like soup, where bacteria would only be growing on the surface, I don’t think it is a problem, since the surface of the soup will be directly cooled by the refrigerated air.
I just answered the question in the version of this thread in ATMB, but let me add a few things.
The key is to heat quickly and cool quickly, leaving as little time as possible in the optimal growth temperature - roughly room temp. You can have bacteria in soup, even after it’s boiled, especially C. botulinum, which causes botulism. Most botulism cases occur in home cooking, so this is a question worth addressing. It’s commonly found in meats and vegetables - prime soup ingredients. There was an outbreak a while back from baked potatoes.
As I said in the other thread, maximize the surface area of the container and get it in the fridge as soon as possible. I don’t mean to overstate the danger, but it’s there and it’s easily preventable.
Also, bacteria in the soup doesn not grow only on the surface. Again, C. botulinum is anaerobic and is not killed by boiling.
Next time please don’t repost in another forum unless asked to by a mod or admin. Usually we like to move the threads, but if the board is slow, we may ask you to repost. But e-mail one of us first.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
When I worked in a restaurant, they would bitch at me for covering hot stuff once it went into the refridgerator. They told me that THAT is how bacteria grows, when you have hot food -> tight lid -> fridge.
We left lids loosely on top of our products and at the end of the day, after they’d had a chance to cool, we’d put the lids on securely. I am supposing that if you put the lid on tightly right away, the heat can’t escape and you have odd things going on in there.
So now, I always make my mom wait until food is pretty much cooled down before putting it in the fridge. Why? I dunno. I worked at a 5-star restaurant and that’s what they told me…
Actually, the problem with putting the lids on hot food is that you get a lot of condensation built up on the inside of the lid, which then drips down and forms a puddle on the food. It’s mostly a quality issue, though the puddle would also provide a good environment for bacterial growth.
As to what my wife suggests, it is this: Put the soup into several smaller containers, then into the fridge, so that they cool more quickly.
And that’s what I’d suggest too.