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Frozen Meat in Crock Pot 'Warnings' rant

Loren

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Ok. Lots of stuff on my mind, but just read something, in multiple places, which irritates me. False information in the face of provable science, gets my dander up.

No one argues that it is unsafe to take a roast directly from fridge to crock pot at lets say 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, from that point onward you do as you will adding ingredients and liquids, etc, and turn it on. Eventually it is cooked to your satisfaction, and hopefully you use a meat thermometer or instant read type if you prefer, and check it at the center. And there is a REASON you check it at the center.

One way of explaining the reason would be to walk through a rigorous proof by deriving the heat equation from first principles and the cover the Maximum Value Principle. I leave that as an exercise for the reader (inside math nerd joke there, a-la Baby Rudin text). Point is, for temperature increase (with little if any difficulty you could reverse arguments and call something the Minimum Value ...) once the center of the object (in this case a roast) reaches an arbitrary temperature when being heated from its exterior by convection, it is physically impossible that any other part of the meat has not reached that temperature first.

Extended to the idea of cooking a roast in a pot on your stove, or the oven, or in this case a crock pot, the only effect cooking from frozen has, is an increase in time required to be done, since you would be starting from a lower temperature. Also any components of the meat undergoing a phase transition (water for instance) will slow down the process, and the only temperature it will stay at any longer than a normal cooking curve, is in fact the temperature of phase change.

TLDR: Once each molecule/layer/whatever of the meat is defrosted, it will heat at exactly the same rate as it would have if you started cooking it after it was defrosted.

Since the 'Danger Zone' for the naughty bacteria starts at 40 F, and it is fine to toss a roast in right from the fridge (which you had better be keeping at least slightly below 40), = It is absolutely ok to toss one in which is starting from a lower temperature. It will take more total time to cook, and texture will be off, maybe taste, but the time to go from 32.0000001 F to lets say 183 F (where I like to stop pulled pork), is NO DIFFERENT, so there is no problem as long as you check for temp when it is done.

Also this :Ingredient Hints & Tips FAQ at Crock-Pot.com.

You can not sue the government, but you absolutely could sue Crock Pot, and you can be damn sure they know it is safe, for them to put that in writing.

Foodies, Cooking school grads with counter-arguments, bring it on.

Also, Hi Stratics

/rant
 

old gypsy

Grand Poobah
Professional
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Patron
Ok. Lots of stuff on my mind, but just read something, in multiple places, which irritates me. False information in the face of provable science, gets my dander up.

No one argues that it is unsafe to take a roast directly from fridge to crock pot at lets say 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, from that point onward you do as you will adding ingredients and liquids, etc, and turn it on. Eventually it is cooked to your satisfaction, and hopefully you use a meat thermometer or instant read type if you prefer, and check it at the center. And there is a REASON you check it at the center.

One way of explaining the reason would be to walk through a rigorous proof by deriving the heat equation from first principles and the cover the Maximum Value Principle. I leave that as an exercise for the reader (inside math nerd joke there, a-la Baby Rudin text). Point is, for temperature increase (with little if any difficulty you could reverse arguments and call something the Minimum Value ...) once the center of the object (in this case a roast) reaches an arbitrary temperature when being heated from its exterior by convection, it is physically impossible that any other part of the meat has not reached that temperature first.

Extended to the idea of cooking a roast in a pot on your stove, or the oven, or in this case a crock pot, the only effect cooking from frozen has, is an increase in time required to be done, since you would be starting from a lower temperature. Also any components of the meat undergoing a phase transition (water for instance) will slow down the process, and the only temperature it will stay at any longer than a normal cooking curve, is in fact the temperature of phase change.

TLDR: Once each molecule/layer/whatever of the meat is defrosted, it will heat at exactly the same rate as it would have if you started cooking it after it was defrosted.

Since the 'Danger Zone' for the naughty bacteria starts at 40 F, and it is fine to toss a roast in right from the fridge (which you had better be keeping at least slightly below 40), = It is absolutely ok to toss one in which is starting from a lower temperature. It will take more total time to cook, and texture will be off, maybe taste, but the time to go from 32.0000001 F to lets say 183 F (where I like to stop pulled pork), is NO DIFFERENT, so there is no problem as long as you check for temp when it is done.

Also this :Ingredient Hints & Tips FAQ at Crock-Pot.com.

You can not sue the government, but you absolutely could sue Crock Pot, and you can be damn sure they know it is safe, for them to put that in writing.

Foodies, Cooking school grads with counter-arguments, bring it on.

Also, Hi Stratics

/rant
No argument here; but I haven't had to worry about this for some time, since I'm vegan. I still occasionally use a crockpot, though.
 
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