Cooling Food

Many of my recipes suggest practical ways of safely cooling food: it is important that food be cooled as quickly as possible to avoid contamination from harmful bacteria and microbes. The ‘danger zone’, as it is known, is between 10 and 65°C. Always try to cool food quickly so that it is not held in this temperature range for long periods of time, during which bacteria can thrive. The greatest danger is when a large volume of food is left at room temperature in hot humid weather.

The obvious solution would seem to be to pop it in the fridge - but that is really asking for trouble! This causes the food on the outside of the container to cool while the centre remains locked in the danger zone, and additionally, other food in the fridge is affected by the introduction of the hot or warm food. The results won’t always be obvious or disastrous; crucially, strongly flavoured food may not even display ‘off’ tastes.