Food danger zone.

[eveled]

My wife thinks she knows how to cook but doesn’t.

I came home from work at 3:30 a stew has been on the stove since 9am. She tells me its not ready yet. I checked it with a thermometer 126 degrees! So it’s been in the danger zone for 5 hours.

My understanding is you have to get it above 140 as fast as possible then put it on low and make sure it stays above 140 Am I wrong?

 

[PRichardson87]

It's been 5 hours since you posted this, was it good?

 

[arfmel]

I’ve been poisoned by stew “cooked” in a crock pot on low. Our crock pot got thrown away after that.

 

[eveled]

I cranked up the heat, got it to 160* then put it back on low. For a while. It was good.

I just can't believe she thinks you can cook food on low for hours at 120*f

Mind you this is the same woman who throws away an entire carton of strawberries because one has mold.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[RC44Mag]

120*, Let’s just call a very healthy Petri dish culture temp

 

[JohnL]

My wife thinks she knows how to cook but doesn't.

I came home from work at 3:30 a stew has been on the stove since 9am. She tells me its not ready yet. I checked it with a thermometer 126 degrees! So it's been in the danger zone for 5 hours.

My understanding is you have to get it above 140 as fast as possible then put it on low and make sure it stays above 140 Am I wrong?

The Temperature Danger Zone is 40 to 140 degrees (F). Keeping food, especially protein foods, inside the zone is dangerous. Mostly it can be negated by good thorough reheating over 165 degrees but proper hold temperatures are best.

 

[coach]

We’ve always started crock pots on high then put it back to low for the long haul. I never much thought about checking the temperature or food poisoning.

 

[375hh1973]

How warm are the medium rare burgers I've been eating my whole life?

 

[JohnL]

How warm are the medium rare burgers I've been eating my whole life?

I take it you never read about all the Burger related food poisoning cases reported by the media over the least thirty years? My restaurant had burger recalls twice from our suppliers over a period of about five years. Ground beef, unlike whole muscle meat, is especially dangerous if undercooked. The contamination can be mixed in and if not cooked to 160 degrees, it can cause food borne illness. If you like burgers with myoglobin present, the red juice, go with places that grind their own beef. Better odds on food safety. That you never experienced illness does not mean it cannot happen.

BTW, I owned a Remington .375 H&H for some years. One of my favorite rifles.

 

[woodsy]

In most modern cookbooks there is a section (usually near the back) where all the common foods are located and their safe temps are listed. Using that, plus a cheap digital thermo makes one good to go. Plus, when I slow-cook, I blast the container in my microwave to get it at least near the safe zone before I let the cooker take over. Of course, that's with a removable insert for the cooker.
I do ALL the cooking here, and some of it is pretty fancy.