Surely it’s in the “danger zone” for a long time before being fully cooked, right? Could you leave out meat for 4 hours THEN toss it in a slow cooker?
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A slow cooker on low in typically 190F/87C – If your kitchen is that temperature then both you and the meat are going to get cooked.
No and no
The meat heats up to “kill germs” level on the outside pretty quickly. The long slow cook is to melt the collagen which makes it juicy and adds body.
If you leave it sitting out in the danger zone a long time you can a massive growth of the nasties that are more likely to survive in the deeper parts of the meat
The key points are that even the coolest of cooking temperatures are high enough to kill microorganisms. So a slow cooked food still gets sanitized and is safe to eat.
The problem with “Danger Zone” foods is partially a living infection by microorganism but also the poisons and toxins they produce. So even if you cook a food that has sat out for a while and manage to kill off the colonizing organisms you are still left the toxins they produced while alive, those aren’t destroyed by cooking.
This is the reason why you need dispose of canned food you suspect was exposed to botulism. You can just cook the food and kill off the microbes but the toxin lingers and that’s actually the thing that can hurt you severely.
Slow cookers are not food holders. A food holder will keep food around 150-160F to stop bacteria growth. That’s what all the heat lamps due at fast food places.
A slow cooker *can*/*will* reach 212F. Even on low, my slow cooker slightly bubbles where the liquid touches the ceramic once it has come to temp.
When food goes bad, the *food* is not what makes you sick, its the poisons the bacteria create through their metabolic processes which make you sick. Cooking can’t remove those poisons.
I have left things out overnight by mistake, but it has never worried me since the food hits the container when its still well above 140F and once sealed, nothing else is getting in to set up shop. The chance of any growth is minimal. I’ve done that with bone stocks. Boiled 12 hours, turn it off, leave it still covered cause it bed time. At that point, the broth is sterile from 12 hours at 212F and being covered, nothing is really getting in to set up a colony and if something does, it is super minor and then next morning I bring it back to a boil again and keep going killing anything that did get in.
This is very different than leaving out a rack of ribs for 4 hours on your counter top.
Meat in the danger zone allows bacteria to proliferate. Once it is raised above the danger zone (for the recommended time) enough bacteria have been killed to make it not infectious. IF you leave a roast for 4 hours at room temp and then eat it, it has an infectious load. If you have it in the danger zone for 4 hours and then it goes into the safe zone above the danger zone then it is eliminating the pathogens.
This is why sous vide is safe; bc different heats for different times kill pathogens. 2 min at 165f might do the trick while 2 hrs at 130f will also do it.
Slow cooking is different from leaving it on the counter because leaving it on the counter won’t cook the meat.
At room temperature, bacteria grows much faster, and leaving it on the counter will increase the chances of spoiling your meat or give you food poisoning at the worst, hence why you either thaw in the fridge or run it under cold water in a sealed plastic bag (since water conducts heat better than air) before cooking the meat immediately.
Cooking temperature, however, doesn’t let bacteria grow as it is killed by heat, which is why as long as the temperature is hot enough, meat in the slow cooker can be left there for 8 hours.
First, you should never cook frozen meat in a crock pot style slow cooker. It takes too long for frozen meat in a slow cooker to reach bacteria-killing temperature, and there’s a sweet spot (between 40°-140°F) where harmful bacteria have an explosion of growth. Since a crock pot takes a bit to reach it’s cooking temperature (170°-300°F), there is a risk that frozen meat will become contaminated. 165°F is the cooking temp that kills bacteria, so even cooking low and slow at 170°F, does the job.
You can use frozen meat for some pressure-style cookers, depending on the settings. This is because pressure-style cookers heat up faster and cook frozen meat faster, keeping it out of the danger zone for a harmful bacteria population explosion.
Always thaw frozen meat in the refrigerator, or use your microwave defroster, *if you will be cooking the frozen meat immediately after defrosting*.
For thawed meat, many recipes call for bringing the meat to room temp before cooking, to cut down on cooking time, which theoretically helps prevent overcooking. I may get blasted for this, but it’s dangerous to do so (and just because you haven’t bacome ill from it, doesn’t mean it’s safe). It can take a 4.5lb pork shoulder 10 hours to come to room temp. It takes a bit more than an hour for a 3/4 inch steak to come to room temp. **But in just 20 minutes, the outer layer of meat is warm enough to start a growth explosion of harmful bacteria. Sure, searing it will kill the surface bacteria, but muscle is full of nooks and crannies, where harmful bacteria can create pockets *inside the meat*, which can’t be “seared/grilled away”.**
The *safest* ways to cook a piece of meat so they remain tender are either sous vide (and reverse searing), or low and slow in a crock pot, smoker, roaster, or oven. Moisture is also key. Injecting the meat’s own juices, butter, apple juice, brine, or your choice of liquid into the meat, prior to cooking, will keep it tender. Frequent basting or spraying with your choice of liquid/fat also helps. For crock pots/pressure cookers, you also need to add moisture. This can be done with butter, bullion, stock, or whatever your choice of liquid/fat is.
**Edited to add that it does not take too long for a crock pot to reach the temperature necessary to start killing bacteria on *thawed meat*. In addition, you’re supposed to sear meat prior to cooking in a crock pot, which seals in moisture, and helps “lock” the surface of the meat, helping to prevent bacterial growth while the crock pot is coming to temperature.**
If the meat is frozen, there would be no problem letting it defrost before cooking it. If the meat is warm, I’d go the sniff and sight test. If it smells ok and hasn’t really changed colour, cook it up. If you are wrong, you will know in a few hours.
The best practice is when the cooker is turned off, leave the lid off and once it’s room temperature, then put it in a refrigerator. If you have a large deep dish, you may need to separate into smaller, shallower containers. Surface area is key.
It’s a balance game between leaving things out long enough so it cools down and doesn’t raise your cooler temperature, contaminating other food, but not too long that it goes bad.
45 minutes to an hour an a half is an acceptable time-frame as long as you know the food hasn’t been in the danger zone yet. It still takes time to cool food down to around a stable 41F in your fridge.
You don’t “need” to throw meat away after two hours. I routinely eat leftover meat that I let sit in the pan over night or longer. Most of the time I don’t even reheat it in the morning. Our stomachs are far more capable than most people think.
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