I want to make chicken stock today but it's already pretty late. The way Alton's video makes it sound I need to cool this stuff rapidly and freeze it to avoid bacteria.
How true is this? This is my first time making stock. If I only have 4 hours or so do I need to rapidly cool it with ice and stick it in the freezer like this video shows? How dangerous is it really if I just shove the stock into the freezer after 3 or 4 hours on the stove?
unless you have aids it is useless as the growth of bacteria will not affect your health in such a short time frame
Keep it warm for 3 days straight though and it'll go sour on you
I don't understand this either. How is cooling in 2 steps (ice bath then fridge) better than cooling in a single step (straight to fridge)
I think it's some bullshit myth holdover from the old days like "seals in the juices"
>>7888518
>>7888550
If you stick a fairly hot pot of stock in your fridge it's going to warm up EVERYTHING else in your fridge. It will also take a while for your fridge to compensate and get cold again. That's why.
>thinking Alton Brown is partial to bullshit myth holdovers
Who the fuck do you think you are?
>>7888560
This, also you can cool it much faster in an icebath due to how water functions + surface area. Also 3-4 hours for stock is not long enough to ensure you get everything outta dem bones
>>7888560
>Who the fuck do you think you are?
Some dude with a film degree?
>>7888560
A scrub.
My freezer is empty though so I won't have a problem with it warming anything up.
>>7888637
it can overwork your freezer and overall bork your freezer/fridge
so don't do it
>>7888550
Fridges can't handle hot stuff being put inside them, it'll fucking ruin it
>>7888518
If you put the lid on before taking off the heat where exactly are bacteria supposed to come from? The entire inside of the pan is pretty much sterile.
>>7889088
the air and your skin and basically anything that hasn't also been sterilized
it's completely possible that some could be on the utensil you used to stir the stock with and the utensil wasn't in the heat long enough to kill off bacteria
>>7889100
Bacteria die almost instantaneously in a boiling liquid and the lid interior would heat up to boiling pretty quickly.
Googling a bit there are some common heat resistant spores which cause food poisoning though, that slipped my mind.
Alternatively to rapid cooling you could prepare the stock in a pressure cooker, that would kill even the spores so you could leave it to cool off without worrying about it.
>>7889179
PS. I'm aware the spores develop into bacteria, I meant "normal bacteria die almost instantaneously in a boiling liquid".
if you put a pot of hot water in the fridge or the freezer it will take a long time for it to get cold to the point where bacteria wont grow (below 40F)
because of the large mass of warm stock it will sit at "the danger zone" for far too long
using an ice bath will lower the temp quicker so once in the fridge or freezer it cools faster and doesnt sit in the danger zone for as long (between 40F to 140F)
alternatively you can put your stock in shallow pans or smaller pots so once in the fridge or freezer it cools faster
and the thing about reheating and killing bacteria is partially true but what people dont understand is heating will not kill the toxic waste of the bacteria and this is what makes you sick
