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

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