Yesterday, I made a big pot of red beans and sausage with pickled pork butt. In it, is 1 lb. of pickled pork, 1 lb. of smoked andouille sausage, 1 lb. of red kidney beans, and vegetables. It cooked for about 2 1/2 hours total until about 6:30 PM. I allowed it to cool until about 7:15 PM. I then placed the entire amount in a container, snapped a lid on it, and tossed it in the refridgerator.
At around midnight, I got the munchies and was just going to have a cold spoonful. I opened it up and stuck the spoon in. I then stirred it around and scooped up a piece of that sausage with a couple of beans. When I took the bite, I could tell that it still was not very cold. I usually put it into small containers of individually sized portions and then freeze it. I was just too lazy yesterday and thought I’ll just do it today.
By my estimate, this pot of food did not make it to refridgerator temperatures until after 12:00 AM. It effectively stayed above cold for at least 6 hours. I am well aware of “When in doubt, throw it out.” But I would apply that mainly to food that has been in there for a while. This is all fresh and thoroughly cooked. The sausage was previously smoked and cooked, then sliced and browned off. The pickled pork was, well, pickled, then cut into chucks and browned off. The meat was then poached in the liquid for 2 1/2 hours.
I am just a little worried that 6 hours to cool is just too long.
Assuming there’s no signs of mold or bad smell, I’d eat it. But if you’re truly worried, heat it up on the stove again until it’s pretty darn hot and let it cook for 10 min or so. That’ll kill just about anything.
Or put it in individual containers and remember to do the same when you pull them out of the freezer.
Is it perfectly safe? Probably not. But no food is perfectly safe with no risk of food-born illness. Eating always involves some risk.
I’d eat it, no problem. Plenty of stuff takes a while to get cold in the fridge if you’re not quick-chilling it like some people do with bags of ice and whatnot.
If it’s not safe to eat then every single pot of chili I’ve made in my life would not be safe to eat. I always just stick the whole ~4 gallons in the fridge to cool overnight.
If you’d been stirring it with your fingers (or been tasting it multiple times with the same spoon when it was tepid, then left it at room temperature, you could have been in trouble, but in your case, it’s probably safe because it was essentially canned whilst cooling - sealed with a lid from when it was piping hot so there shouldn’t have been a lot of active bacteria in there to start contaminating it during the danger period.
Just wondering, but if you suspect that chili you moved directly from the stove to the refrigerator may not be safe to eat, how do you suppose anyone in history has ever safely eaten leftover chili? What do they do, use vat of liquid nitrogen to chill it in seconds? Rig up some sort of heat exchanger (like a wort chiller) to get it through the “danger zone” in minutes?
My guess is that you’re about 21-23 years old, and entering the “learning to cook” stage of early 20’s bachelordom?
Was there a bunch of tomatoes in it? Tomatoes will reduce your pH and make it unlikely that anything will grow in such a short time.
I’m not advocating this, but I have left pots of food made for dinner on the stove overnight by accident in the past, and eaten it the next day with no problems. I wouldn’t worry too much.
I’ve done a fair bit of reading about food safety, and the simple rule is not to let food stay in the “danger zone” of about 40 degrees F - 140 degrees F for more than 4 hours.
Putting a hot pot in the fridge might not get it out of that zone fast enough, but it’s going to be faster than leaving it out in room-temperature. Sitting at room temperature overnight guarantees it’s going to be in that zone for as long as “overnight” is.
The safest thing to do is to put the chili in small containers and bring down the internal temp as fast as possible. The easiest way to do that in a home kitchen is with an ice water bath.
But as others have pointed out - who does this? Nobody. And people very rarely get sick from eating big pots of chili put in the fridge to cool down.
Same here. In fact when I make chili, it’s not uncommon for me leave it sitting out overnight, sometimes two nights if I don’t have room in the fridge for a whole pot’s worth. Granted, I wouldn’t leave it out any longer than that, but I’ve never suffered any ill effects from it, nor has the chili.
I agree with everything you’ve said (especially the “who does this?” part), but what I’ve heard, possibly from Alton Brown, is that the danger of putting a large container with hot contents in the fridge is that it raises the temperature of the entire fridge for an extended period, leading to the possibility of spoilage, or reduced fridge life, of other items. Not that that stops me either.
putting a large amount of hot stuff in the fridge will warm nearby food and run the fridge unnecessary. let hot stuff come to room temperature before putting in the fridge. dividing the hot stuff into smaller containers to sit in the room will allow it to cool faster.
Interesting that you think that. If only people who looked directly at me would think the same.
I am almost 42 years old and have been cooking for a little while.
The dish in question here is the red beans and meat part of red beans and rice. I did not mention the rice part because some people do not know that RB&R is spooned over rice and my rice storage is not the question here.
Every single time I have made this or any other big pot of food, I allowed it to cool for 45 minutes to an hour and then filled small individually portioned containers. I then put the containers in the freezer. What I would then be left with to eat for leftovers the next day is usually a small amount. It would cool quickly in the fridge and I had no question as to its safety. In fact, when I store anything in the refridgerator, I normally put it in shallow containers that cool quickly.
This one time in hundreds, I got lazy mainly because I started playing Portal 2 with a friend and was drinking a little bit. So I figured I’d just throw it all in one big container and deal with it the next day.
I thought it would take about an hour or so to get it to 37 degrees. I was just a little concerned when at midnight, it was not there.
I have since eaten leftovers from this pot with no ill effects. Thank you all for your answers.
If any of you would like the recipe for this, I would be happy to post it.
I don’t know the science. All I know is, I clearly remember Gorden Ramsey going ape shit on this guy because he put a warm bag of shrimp? maybe? in the fridge. Ok, so I can’t remember what the exact food was. All I do remember is Ramsey get’n all pissy about it.
