SC - Safe temperatures

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Bonne wrote:

> That food guy, the one that scientifically tests all the things we "know"
> about cooking, tested this. Well sort of.  A lot of recipes say to pull a
> roast or chicken out of the oven at X point and let it "rest" under a cover
> before serving. So, he kept a temperature probe in the chicken and recorded
> that the temperature actually rose somewhat before levelling and then
> dropping, this was over the course of 20 minutes or so under a foil tent or
> some other lightweight covering.  He used a regular roast chicken and a
> chicken with stuffing under the skin of the breast.  In the second, the
> temperature rose higher and took longer to fall--the stuffing acted as
> insulator. Soooo- it seems if the chicken were brought to a safe temperature
> and then popped into a sealed and insulated cooler along with it's hot pan and
> cover to complete cooking, all should be well.  The cooler would probably
> allow the temperature to stay hotter longer than the foil in his test.  The
> trouble would come if the chicken were left in there so long that it cooled to
> the danger zone and then stayed in there long enough for the available bad
> guys to get started.
>
> I with I could remember the guys name--begins with an H.  I read this in
> Smithsonian magazine 2 or 3 years ago.  He has a big thick book out that is
> becoming a standard reference in many professional kitchens and cooking
> schools.

And well it should be. You're almost certainly thinking of Harold McGee, author
of "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen", and "The Curious
Cook". The first is your basic bible of food science and history, the second is
several in-depth studies of various bits of kitchen wizardry, so, f'rinstance,
there's an entire chapter on emulsification in mayonnaise, hollandaise, etc. Both
are great and I very highly recommend them, but I think the former is more useful
than the latter if you can only buy one. The latter is pretty intense.

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com


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