How to safely store chili that is being cooked....

[babygrant]

I'm making chili for my son's birthday party tommorow. It's a huge pot. Probably......3 or 4 gallons. Anyways, I'm cooking it today in a huge pot, it has to simmer for 12 hours. I am going to be way too busy tommorow to make it and I need the stove for the most part of the day. So I'm cooking it now, and will re-heat it tommorow late afternoon for dinner. Dusting off the part of my memory that stored safe food storage, I remember something about having to put large quantities of food into smaller containers. Can I just put this big pot in a cooker packed full of ice? I can't fit it in my fridge, and I'd hate to have to dig all my tupperware out to put it all in smaller containers.

Any ideas?

[elanorh]

If you want to store it in the large container, you need to cool the contents down quite a bit before putting it in the fridge. I would recommend freezing a couple 2 liter bottles filled with water (clean, wrappers removed). Then stir the chili with those frozen ice bottles which will cool the temperature of the chili rapidly (or, more rapidly). Once it is near refrigerator temp, then you'd be safe putting it in a cooler filled with ice, or the fridge.

Otherwise, you need to move to multiple small containers, if you want it to cool fast enough that food safety isn't a concern.

HTH!

ETA: If you submerge the exterior of your chili pot in ice, at the same time, that will speed the cooling too. So in your filled cooler of ice, ice up the sides of the pot, while you're stirring the pot - then you've got ice on both the interior and exterior cooling it rapidly for you.

[noobmom]

Originally Posted by babygrant

I'm making chili for my son's birthday party tommorow. It's a huge pot. Probably......3 or 4 gallons. Anyways, I'm cooking it today in a huge pot, it has to simmer for 12 hours. I am going to be way too busy tommorow to make it and I need the stove for the most part of the day. So I'm cooking it now, and will re-heat it tommorow late afternoon for dinner. Dusting off the part of my memory that stored safe food storage, I remember something about having to put large quantities of food into smaller containers. Can I just put this big pot in a cooker packed full of ice? I can't fit it in my fridge, and I'd hate to have to dig all my tupperware out to put it all in smaller containers.

Any ideas?

I think you can safely store it in the pot, the issue is getting it to cool down. When it's done cooking I would put the pot into a clean sinkful of ice and water. Don't splash any of the water in. Stir the chili and replenish the ice until the all the contents have cooled down enough to put in the fridge. Personally, I would not store any meat products in a cooler with ice unless it was frozen to begin with. I just don't think it'll keep the food cold enough. You'd have to get the food down below 40 degrees to mimic fridge temps and that will be hard, if not impossible, with just the ice water bath in the sink. You need the fridge actively cooling the food to take it the rest of the way down.

I wouldn't necessarily be this anal for a family meal, but when I'm serving food to guests, I'm extra careful.

[Magelet]

be sure to add a little water to your ice bath you cool the pot in. This transfers the heat out of the pot better.