eli5: Why you can safely cook meat in a slow cooker (approx 8 hours on low), if after 2 hours on the counter it needs to be tossed?

Question

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?

In: 0

Answer 1

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.