SC - Safe temperatures (was: Cooking meat in coolers)

[Groulx, Michelle]

Groulx, Michelle wrote:

> Just a question.(as this seems like a good idea)
> Would not having the high heat make any nasties (salmonella) appear that you
> would rather not feed your guests?
>
> Micaylah

That depends on how you do it. If you can manage to keep the temperature of the
meat above 140 degrees F. the whole time (and I gather that's pretty much the
whole point of this project), there will be minimal (effectively zero)
bacterial growth. If the cooler is clean and the meat fresh out of the oven or
stewpot, there would be minimal bacterial culture to grow, regardless of
conditions.

Another consideration is time. Foodborne bacteria tend to remain pretty dormant
for up to two hours after re-entering growth conditions (temperatures between
40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit). Another example is yeast, which take a while to
respire before multiplying, which is why when you make a starter, it doesn't
take off right away. But back to my point: where I live, the Board of Health
says you can have food out of refrigeration or off the heat for one hour for
prep. This allows you to do stuff like cutting up chickens without standing in
a walk-in refrigerator. The one-hour limit is a conservative shortening of the
two-hour period for comparative safety. This doesn't necesarily mean you can
leave food lying around for two hours every time, especially since the effect
is sort of geometrically cumulative.

But, in an insulated container like a cooler, which is really just a great big
Thermos, as long as the food is hot enough this shouldn't be an issue. It's a
good idea to keep one of those little instant-read thermometers on hand to
check on stuff like this.

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com


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