5 ms·

I don't think it can go back to refrigerator once it's cooked as it's too hard to recool that volume of warm water.

mattmaroon 13y ago
You also have to do it very quickly due to anaerobic pathogens like Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes. I don't think it's possible for something that fits comfortably in a kitchen and runs on a 120v line.
- zemvpferreira 13y ago
  Too true! The most we can do is auto-retrograde starches and cool baths that are cooking at 60C upwards down to 54C to a sort of "holding temperature". Very fun to play with.
  - mattmaroon 13y ago
    That's kind of neat that you can drop it down to a lower holding temp. I hadn't thought of that. I'd be curious to hear how different foods hold up in that case.
- anologwintermut 13y ago
  What if you flushed the container with cold water? Seems easy enough to rig it to a cold water line and have a hose going into the sink to dump the hot water.
  - mattmaroon 13y ago
    I don't think cold water out of a tap is cold enough. I don't know the exact times, but it's generally recommended to use enough ice in ice water that it won't totally melt before the food gets below 40F. But you could do some sort of chilled reservoir. Then you're doubling the size though.
    - anologwintermut 13y ago
      I figured it wasn't cold enough. The idea would be to dump the latent heat in the water. So at least you start from room temperature water and chill it from there. I'm guessing this still wouldn't get cold fast enough, but I don't know how fast "fast enough" is.
      - mattmaroon 13y ago
        Yeah, I wouldn't risk it. It's hard to get much cooling power within home kitchen constraints. Really kinda sucks. Douglas Baldwin has a little on it at http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html You could probably find it from one of his sources if you cared enough. It made my brain hurt.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    This is really easy to experiment with. Hard boil a few eggs (using convetional boiling water in a pan) and then see how quickly you can cool that egg. They hold onto heat for a surprisingly long time.
- mapt 12y ago
  That may be the case for some theoretical level of foodborne pathogen... but in reality we're all leaving our chinese food / pizza out until it gets cold on the counter, then putting it into the fridge and eating it a few days later for lunch. We're dumping hot soups into containers and putting them in the fridge. We're eating anything that doesn't have mold on it regardless of the sell-by-date. Cooking, I think I've managed to genuinely give myself food poisoning only once, trying to refrigerate a gallon and a half of chicken noodle soup. This happens far more often with takeout, an accepted cultural institution. If the water can be rapidly adjusted in temperature (through a cold water hookup or otherwise), this represents a major safety improvement in the production of the 'leftovers' genre of our cuisine over the status quo, as well as the few dishes we have that are cooked and eaten cold.

You also have to do it very quickly due to anaerobic pathogens like Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes. I don't think it's possible for something that fits comfortably in a kitchen and runs on a 120v line.

zemvpferreira 13y ago
Too true! The most we can do is auto-retrograde starches and cool baths that are cooking at 60C upwards down to 54C to a sort of "holding temperature". Very fun to play with.
- mattmaroon 13y ago
  That's kind of neat that you can drop it down to a lower holding temp. I hadn't thought of that. I'd be curious to hear how different foods hold up in that case.
anologwintermut 13y ago
What if you flushed the container with cold water? Seems easy enough to rig it to a cold water line and have a hose going into the sink to dump the hot water.
- mattmaroon 13y ago
  I don't think cold water out of a tap is cold enough. I don't know the exact times, but it's generally recommended to use enough ice in ice water that it won't totally melt before the food gets below 40F. But you could do some sort of chilled reservoir. Then you're doubling the size though.
  - anologwintermut 13y ago
    I figured it wasn't cold enough. The idea would be to dump the latent heat in the water. So at least you start from room temperature water and chill it from there. I'm guessing this still wouldn't get cold fast enough, but I don't know how fast "fast enough" is.
    - mattmaroon 13y ago
      Yeah, I wouldn't risk it. It's hard to get much cooling power within home kitchen constraints. Really kinda sucks. Douglas Baldwin has a little on it at http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html You could probably find it from one of his sources if you cared enough. It made my brain hurt.
- DanBC 13y ago
  This is really easy to experiment with. Hard boil a few eggs (using convetional boiling water in a pan) and then see how quickly you can cool that egg. They hold onto heat for a surprisingly long time.
mapt 12y ago
That may be the case for some theoretical level of foodborne pathogen... but in reality we're all leaving our chinese food / pizza out until it gets cold on the counter, then putting it into the fridge and eating it a few days later for lunch. We're dumping hot soups into containers and putting them in the fridge. We're eating anything that doesn't have mold on it regardless of the sell-by-date. Cooking, I think I've managed to genuinely give myself food poisoning only once, trying to refrigerate a gallon and a half of chicken noodle soup. This happens far more often with takeout, an accepted cultural institution. If the water can be rapidly adjusted in temperature (through a cold water hookup or otherwise), this represents a major safety improvement in the production of the 'leftovers' genre of our cuisine over the status quo, as well as the few dishes we have that are cooked and eaten cold.