Rigid rules about reheating and refreezing food don't make much sense.
If your food contains living bacteria, then there will be a temperature range (let's call it "warm") where they will multiply quite rapidly. If you reduce that temperature by refrigeration, the rate at which they multiply will greatly slow down. If you freeze the food, the bacteria will stop multiplying completely until they become warm again (it won't usually kill them).
Anything you do to your food should be considered as speeding up, slowing down, or stopping bacteria multiplying. Very high temperatures will kill off the bacteria and reset the count.
So what matters is the complete lifecycle you subject your food to, rather than the number of steps. If you eat food with a very high bacterial load, it will probably make you ill, so don't do it!
What happens though if like me you use your leftovers the following day for lunch at work?
What I mean is theoretically by browning the meat the night before you are cooking it once, then by warming it up in the slow cooker and cooking it there you have cooked it twice.
then by reheating the following day you have cooked it 3 times - and I've always been told you should NEVER cook meat 3 times as it will give you food poisoning at the very best. :eek:
For beef or lamb I just reheat it again...never done me any harm. It doesn't make a difference for chicken as I would put it into the slow cooker raw.
Rigid rules about reheating and refreezing food don't make much sense.
If your food contains living bacteria, then there will be a temperature range (let's call it "warm") where they will multiply quite rapidly. If you reduce that temperature by refrigeration, the rate at which they multiply will greatly slow down. If you freeze the food, the bacteria will stop multiplying completely until they become warm again (it won't usually kill them).
Anything you do to your food should be considered as speeding up, slowing down, or stopping bacteria multiplying. Very high temperatures will kill off the bacteria and reset the count.
So what matters is the complete lifecycle you subject your food to, rather than the number of steps. If you eat food with a very high bacterial load, it will probably make you ill, so don't do it!
But i think you've simplified it the other way too far. By heating high you dont just automatically kill 100% of bacteria off. You do not reset the counter.
But i think you've simplified it the other way too far. By heating high you dont just automatically kill 100% of bacteria off. You do not reset the counter.
I think my "very high temperatures" probably wraps it up for most of them, don't you?
Apart from B Cereus, I can't think of any extremophiles found in food...
...Which brings me to another interesting point about slow cooking - don't ever be tempted to slow cook raw kidney beans. The slow cooking can actually make the toxins more potent!
Does that apply to black-eyed peas/beans too? My friend mentioned something like this and I think I may have had a lucky escape!
rolled boneless shoulder joint (sized to fit slow cooker)
glass of apple juice
½ bottle BBQ sauce
For The Rub
4tbsp soft brown sugar
2tbsp sweet or smoked paprika
1tbsp chilli
1tbsp mustard powder
2tsp cinnamon
1tsp onion salt
1tsp cracked black pepper
1tsp coriander
1tsp cumin
1tsp cayenne pepper
Method
Mix all the spices and sugar together. Put the pork in a large roasting tray and start to rub in the mix, really pushing it into all the little nooks and cranny's. When all the rub is on cover in cling film and leave overnight.
Make a foil ring to keep the pork slightly raised out of any liquid. Add the apple juice, put the lid on with a foil cover and a couple of tea towels to keep all the steam in. Set the slow cooker on high for 2 hours, then turn down to warm for 4 to 5 hours or until the meat is falling apart.
When cooked, carefully remove all the outer layer of fat and then start to shred the meat. At this stage you can leave to go cold to reheat in the slow cooker for when its needed. Or put back in the warm slow cooker and add ½ a bottle of good quality BBQ sauce.
To serve, warm some pitta's and stuff with the pork topped with freshly made coleslaw.
Yup...I've always heard you should get the food from warm to cold as quickly as possible to prevent bacteria. Hence, put it in the fridge straight away. And as you say, you'd need to have a fridge full of hot food to drop the temperature drastically....a bowl of browned meat probably wouldn't make any difference. The same applies the other way, by the way, defrost stuff outside of the fridge as then it will reach the required temperature quicker and spend less time in the "danger zone".
Nonsense...any bacteria that is there will be killed during the final cooking process. And if the meat is straight in the fridge then it'll reduce the production of bacteria anyway. In a professional kitchen everything is prepped in advance and, whilst I've never worked in one, I'm pretty sure meat is included in that.
Exactly!
Your more the correct mate, the only thing we never used to prep in advance were steaks. We used to do a chicken stuffed with Brie wrapped in Panchetta which we pre cook, refrigerated for 2-3 days and used to re heat upon order, we had steak and ale pies, fish pies etc, in the 7 years I worked in a kitchen not one person was poorly!!
In fact I've even seens prawns defrosted under running cold water to get them to defrost faster..did the trick but washed some of the flavour away.
Does that apply to black-eyed peas/beans too? My friend mentioned something like this and I think I may have had a lucky escape!
Raw red kidney beans are famously high in toxins, but lower levels are found in some other types of beans. I couldn't find any evidence that black-eyed peas were among them, but don't regard that as definitive advice! If in doubt, pre-soaking followed by a period of rapid boiling in fresh water before putting them in the slow cooker eliminates any potential danger.
Your more the correct mate, the only thing we never used to prep in advance were steaks. We used to do a chicken stuffed with Brie wrapped in Panchetta which we pre cook, refrigerated for 2-3 days and used to re heat upon order, we had steak and ale pies, fish pies etc, in the 7 years I worked in a kitchen not one person was poorly!!
In fact I've even seens prawns defrosted under running cold water to get them to defrost faster..did the trick but washed some of the flavour away.
Thought as much...that was the story according to a couple of friends I have who are chefs. And steaks are probably excluded because they are so quick to flash fry....I'd bet if they could be prepped in advance they would be.
I'm guilty of cooking things many times in my SC. I'll use the bones of a chicken carcass, plus scraps boiled up with water, onion, and carrot to make stock. Then will use the stock again the next day to make soup. The soup will last 2/3 days (refrigerated then reheated in microwave). All done in my Slow Cooker.
I've never had food poisoning this way. Its how food is prepared, and then preserved that makes an impact ob food safety.
Thought as much...that was the story according to a couple of friends I have who are chefs. And steaks are probably excluded because they are so quick to flash fry....I'd bet if they could be prepped in advance they would be.
Off topic but don't ask for well done steaks in a restuarant. Most of the time you will get the raggiest bottom of the barrell steak as they are going to cook it to buggery anyway.
Off topic but don't ask for well done steaks in a restuarant. Most of the time you will get the raggiest bottom of the barrell steak as they are going to cook it to buggery anyway.
They save the decent steaks for rare/medium rare.
I never would....the thought of a well done steak makes me want to hurl!
I have heard this before, though. It's also mentioned in Anthony Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential" which I urge anyone who eats in restaurants (and generally everyone) to read. He says that in the place he used to work, they would throw the steaks that were supposed to be well done into the back of the fire and just leave them there until they were black.
Completely and well and truly off-topic now, but there's also interesting stories about the lunches he used to serve to the well-to-do New York business men. They thought it was high-class food....it really wasn't, it was essentially whatever scraps there was from dinner prep or the previous evenings dinner.
Comments
If your food contains living bacteria, then there will be a temperature range (let's call it "warm") where they will multiply quite rapidly. If you reduce that temperature by refrigeration, the rate at which they multiply will greatly slow down. If you freeze the food, the bacteria will stop multiplying completely until they become warm again (it won't usually kill them).
Anything you do to your food should be considered as speeding up, slowing down, or stopping bacteria multiplying. Very high temperatures will kill off the bacteria and reset the count.
So what matters is the complete lifecycle you subject your food to, rather than the number of steps. If you eat food with a very high bacterial load, it will probably make you ill, so don't do it!
I put chopped chicken breasts in, an onion and curry sauce from a jar, smells lovely, and I know its cheating using a jar sauce, but heyho!
For beef or lamb I just reheat it again...never done me any harm. It doesn't make a difference for chicken as I would put it into the slow cooker raw.
But i think you've simplified it the other way too far. By heating high you dont just automatically kill 100% of bacteria off. You do not reset the counter.
Hi, sorry - would never knowingly ignore you
That sounds quite tasty - let us know how it turns out?
Hehe I was only joking!
It smells amazing, so hopefully tastes the same, It was Homepride curry sauce, so fingers crossed.
Apart from B Cereus, I can't think of any extremophiles found in food...
Recipe I usually use...
Your more the correct mate, the only thing we never used to prep in advance were steaks. We used to do a chicken stuffed with Brie wrapped in Panchetta which we pre cook, refrigerated for 2-3 days and used to re heat upon order, we had steak and ale pies, fish pies etc, in the 7 years I worked in a kitchen not one person was poorly!!
In fact I've even seens prawns defrosted under running cold water to get them to defrost faster..did the trick but washed some of the flavour away.
Thought as much...that was the story according to a couple of friends I have who are chefs. And steaks are probably excluded because they are so quick to flash fry....I'd bet if they could be prepped in advance they would be.
I've never had food poisoning this way. Its how food is prepared, and then preserved that makes an impact ob food safety.
They save the decent steaks for rare/medium rare.
I never would....the thought of a well done steak makes me want to hurl!
I have heard this before, though. It's also mentioned in Anthony Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential" which I urge anyone who eats in restaurants (and generally everyone) to read. He says that in the place he used to work, they would throw the steaks that were supposed to be well done into the back of the fire and just leave them there until they were black.
Completely and well and truly off-topic now, but there's also interesting stories about the lunches he used to serve to the well-to-do New York business men. They thought it was high-class food....it really wasn't, it was essentially whatever scraps there was from dinner prep or the previous evenings dinner.