Food Safety and Freezer Cooking

Before we continue with posts about using the macro I want to talk about the very important subject of food safety.  After all, the convenience of freezer meals doesn't mean anything if the food makes your family sick.  Freezer cooking presents some challenges to safely preparing food that I plan to address.

Safely Cooling Food

The Danger Zone in food safety is 40° to 140° this is the range where the bacteria that cause illness grow the most quickly.  It is recommended that food left in this range for two hours be discarded as it may cause food poisoning.  This presents a challenge when creating large batches of food which must then be cooled and frozen.  A large batch can take very long time to cool, leaving the food in the danger zone for an unacceptable amount of time.  As tempting as it may be,  never put hot food in the freezer to cool.  Putting hot food in the freezer can raise the temperature of the foods around it, causing them to enter the danger zone, ruining the safety and quality of the food.  Cool all food to at least room temperature before freezing  Some safe ways to cool food are:

1. Divide the food into small containers.  Smaller amounts of food cool faster.  A wide, shallow container cools the fastest due to the increased surface area.
2. Use an ice bath.  You can fill a container with ice and place containers of the hot food in the ice to help it cool faster. When I have a lot of freezer cooking to do, I buy a bag of ice and put it in a cooler.  When I have less, I use a large bowl with ice from the freezer.
3. Use a container of ice in soups and stews.  In culinary school we used  large, frozen paddles to cool our large amounts of soup and stock, like this one.  

            I have used Nalgene bottles filled with water and frozen to create my own ice paddles, but I have become concerned about the paint on the outside of the bottles.  I recently ordered the paddle above. It is effective and easy.  If you're not ready for that, you can create your own paddles by freezing water in a container that you feel comfortable placing in your soup and can withstand the stress of being placed in hot food while frozen.  Don't use glass!  You will need to make sure to cook your soup in a large enough pan that it won't overflow when you add the paddle.

Whichever method you use stir the food regularly as it cools so it cools evenly.

When you're ready to freeze, do not place all of the food in the same spot in the freezer.  Place the containers away from each other, so they freeze faster.

Safe Handling of Raw Meat

I will often say to leave your pasta, potatoes or vegetables somewhat undercooked.  This is because freezing has a tendency to make things mushy.  Plus, when you reheat the food it will cook it more.  Undercooking pasta, potatoes and vegetables compensates for this and prevents you from having a big pan of mush.  However, never undercook or partially cook meat.  Meat should always be frozen raw or fully cooked to the temperatures below:

• Beef, lamb, pork - 160°
• Chicken, turkey - 165°

I highly recommend every cook have a digital meat thermometer.

Safe Thawing and Reheating

To keep food out of the danger zone, thaw all food in the refrigerator, not on the counter.  Reheat pre-cooked food to 140°.  Cook raw meat to the temperatures listed above.