How do you quickly cool food?

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dsivi
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How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dsivi »

Today for lunch, I wanted to have a bowl of soup and a cold beer. I had very little time to eat today - about 15 minutes tops.

I had both a can of coup and a bottle of beer (not refrigerated) in my kitchen, but I realized that eating and drinking them would be very difficult. I would first have to boil the soup on the stove or in the microwave. After boiling, it would take too long to cool for me to be able to eat it in the time I had available for lunch. I could put the beer in the fridge, but it also would not get cool enough for me to want to drink it during lunch.

So, I am wondering if anyone has heard of a piece of kitchen equipment that can accomplish very rapid cooling? I am looking for a sort of "reverse" microwave oven. This device would be similar to a microwave oven. You would enter a time on a keypad, but instead of heating your food item, it would cool it very quickly. It would be even better if this device could do both heating and cooling - sort of a "bi-directional" microwave. I can think of other useful purposes for this type of device - like making Jell-O quickly.

I have never seen a device like this on the consumer market, so I am not hopeful. However, I wonder if maybe something like this has been made for the commercial food preparation market?

I realize this device is probably unlikely to exist, but I figure I'd throw this out there in case anyone has heard of it. Also, if you have other methods of food cooling, let me know. Thanks!
surfstar
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by surfstar »

For food - freezer.
For beer - ice bath.
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Dutch
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by Dutch »

The device is called: "your mouth". You blow with it :D
Topic Author
dsivi
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dsivi »

Dutch wrote:The device is called: "your mouth". You blow with it :D
Let me know how long it takes you to chill a bottle of beer by blowing on it. :happy
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dsivi
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dsivi »

surfstar wrote:For food - freezer.
For beer - ice bath.
Oh yeah. Those methods are obvious. What I need is something very fast - something that can cool with a couple minutes. Dealing with an ice bath is a pain in the neck. I'm just wondering if maybe there is something restaurant kitchens use that might very rapidly chill desserts that they make?
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greg24
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by greg24 »

8 seconds on google found me the Frost Boss, instant can chiller:

http://www.amazon.com/Frost-Boss-1C3/dp/B008CQN3IA

Frost Boss will start spinning and automatically turn off after 2 minutes. Remove can from device and enjoy!
dolphinsaremammals
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

dsivi wrote:I would first have to boil the soup on the stove or in the microwave. After boiling, it would take too long to cool for me to be able to eat it in the time I had available for lunch.
Why are you boiling the soup? If it's from a can, I assume all you have to do is warm it up.

As for instant cold, buy some liquid nitrogen :D
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black jack
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by black jack »

There's the "blast chiller" - now available for home kitchens: http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2 ... st-chiller

And one of my favoritely-named pieces of cooking equipment: the "anti-griddle": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-griddle
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wilked
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by wilked »

lol...only on boglesheads!
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dratkinson
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dratkinson »

For quick cooling, how about a shot from a CO2 fire extinguisher?

Believe I've seen something similar (compressed CO2) used to chill glasses enough that some of the later added contents would form an icy layer on the inside. A frosty mug of root beer comes to mind.
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bhsince87
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by bhsince87 »

A salt water and ice bath is the most practical, especially if you keep it in a freezer set near 10 degrees F or so.

And you need to put the beer and soup in a metal container to make it cool the quickest. Glass or ceramic are killers for heat transfer.

But its much more efficient to just heat your soup less and keep the beer in the fridge!
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investingdad
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by investingdad »

Do you have access to liquid Nitrogen?

Or better yet, liquid Helium.
dolphinsaremammals
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

black jack wrote: And one of my favoritely-named pieces of cooking equipment: the "anti-griddle": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-griddle
Apparently $1200 :) I imagine this is even more dangerous than a grill, because you probably stick to it if you accidentally touch it. Also, I don't see anything to protect kids and pets from coming in contact with it.

All this to avoid keeping something in the frig.
Impromptu
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by Impromptu »

I saw on Mythbusters that a fire extinguisher was the only method they found to cooling their beer quickly. It is quite messy, but if you want that cold beer in just a few seconds, blast it with your fire extinguisher.
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dsivi
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dsivi »

black jack wrote:There's the "blast chiller" - now available for home kitchens: http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2 ... st-chiller

And one of my favoritely-named pieces of cooking equipment: the "anti-griddle": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-griddle
Wow. Thank you so much - this so cool :happy . I had no idea either of those two devices existed. Both of those devices would probably do what I need.

The anti-griddle is interesting, but I may have to save up for it - $1200! Wow, the 120 Volt version of the anti-griddle uses 12 AMPS. I'd have to have a dedicated power outlet in my kitchen for that.
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Riceman
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by Riceman »

The main issues here are surface area, conductivity, and temperature. Moving salted ice water is very conductive and cold and will cool down anything very quickly. Here's what I do (this is also the best way to defrost things from the freezer, or to quickly cool items for food safety purposes):

Fill the sink with enough ice and water appropriate to the size of the item you're defrosting. Place whatever you want cooled in a ziploc bag, then remove the air either with your hands or by sucking it out. Place the ziploc bag in the sink and wait. If you're in a hurry, place something heavy on the bag so it is completely submerged. If you are in a real hurry, move water with your hand. Add salt if you want to increase the efficiency even more. If you want to do it for small quantities of beverages, there are gadgets that streamline the process: http://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Cooler-HC0 ... eer+cooler.

If you have another soup emergency, you could just poor it on something that has a large surface area, is not hot, and has a high thermal mass. For example, a large tray. It would cool to a drinkable temperature in minutes. Of course this might create a cleanup emergency for later. You could also use a variety on the whiskey stone--some cold object you place in the soup itself that does not dilute the soup as ice would. Did you not have any large rocks in your freezer?

ETA: I was a bystander to an amazing conversation on this subject held over beers at a picnic at a prestigious university. An MBA student from the business school was pitching the value of this kind of device to a group of phd students from the physics department. Apparently there are insurmountable physics challenges to cooling objects that make an anti-microwave impossible. But that didn't stop the MBA student from trying...
joebh
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by joebh »

dsivi wrote:Today for lunch, I wanted to have a bowl of soup and a cold beer. I had very little time to eat today - about 15 minutes tops.

I had both a can of coup and a bottle of beer (not refrigerated) in my kitchen, but I realized that eating and drinking them would be very difficult. I

...

So, I am wondering if anyone has heard of a piece of kitchen equipment that can accomplish very rapid cooling?
Instead of spending $1200 on a fancy kitchen device, perhaps you could just plan ahead?
- beer goes in the fridge when you bring it home from the market
- heat your can of soup until it's just warm enough to eat

There you go - I just saved you $1200. Pass it on...
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runner9
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by runner9 »

I agree with a few above, why are you boiling it? It should only need heated, as far as I know.
barnaclebob
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by barnaclebob »

Sometimes this forum makes me shake my head...

Add an ice cube to your soup or don't heat it as much. 1 ice cube wont noticeably dilute soup.

Plan ahead for the beer. Otherwise an ice bath and gentle jostling are your best bet.
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House Blend
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by House Blend »

FWIW, if your beer needs to be ice cold to be drinkable, it isn't beer.

The dilemma for me is whether to store it in the fridge or in the basement, where the temp stays in the low 50s most of the year. Fridge storage improves the shelf life, but then you need to let it warm up at room temp for an hour or so before consumption.
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by Logan T »

How to cool a drink in 2 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6ncuv3gewI

And like others said, don't boil your soup. Just warm it up! (assuming its all already cooked)
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

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flyingbison
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by flyingbison »

House Blend wrote:FWIW, if your beer needs to be ice cold to be drinkable, it isn't beer.
This. Keep your beer in the cellar and drink it at the proper temperature. Cold beer is terrible.
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magellan
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by magellan »

When I want to quickly make iced coffee from a pot of hot coffee, here's what I do:

1) find two large round metal cake pans that fit inside each other (thin conductive metal is best).
2) fill one pan with ice cubes and water in the bottom of the sink.
3) Set the second pan inside the first pan so it "floats" in the ice water of the outer pan.
4) pour coffee into the inner pan
5) spin the inner pan and/or swirl the coffee with a spoon for 1-2 minutes (or let sit for 5 minutes)

On summer mornings, I often have my first cup or two of coffee hot, then have the last one as iced coffee. It takes less than a minute using the approach above and I just pour the cold coffee from the cake pan into a tall glass that has milk and ice in it.
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tyrion
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by tyrion »

Here's a beer-specific option:
http://www.amazon.com/Corkcicle-Chillsn ... B00B5EDXMM

I also use chilled whiskey rocks in the bottom of a nice tulip glass.


In general, I keep my beer in the wine fridge at 55-ish degrees. I also keep a few good cans of beer around for non-glass locations and because they chill quickly.
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

House Blend wrote: The dilemma for me is whether to store it in the fridge or in the basement, where the temp stays in the low 50s most of the year. Fridge storage improves the shelf life, but then you need to let it warm up at room temp for an hour or so before consumption.
Buy less at a time. :D
tim1999
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by tim1999 »

Put ice cubes in the soup. Pour the beer into a glass that's been sitting in the freezer for awhile (need to think ahead to do this).
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by HurdyGurdy »

At home we cook a large pot of soup to freeze in small containers, to last us for months.

A plastic bottle is kept in the freezer, filled with frozen water. When the soup is ready, we stir the pot with the ice bottle. It is a bit messy but effective.
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sage1166
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by sage1166 »

Easy! Eat your soup cold, out of the can. I've been known to do this with canned ravioli, bean soup, and a myriad of other varieties.

Other option: Pour your cold beer into the hot soup. :beer
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Rodc
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by Rodc »

As others noted, no need to heat the soup beyond warm.

To make a really cold drink really fast my son uses one of these;

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products ... 5527541703

He uses with soda or juice. Downside is you have to think ahead and have it in the freezer. But this is not hard if you just store it there routinely.

In practice I suspect an ice water bath will work well enough for most uses. Beer does not need to be ice cold, arguably it should not be ice cold. Unless it is cheap beer and you don't really want to taste it. :)
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rgb73
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by rgb73 »

I have this problem with baby food as you have to get it piping hot for safety reasons, namely killing any bacteria. I also can't serve it piping hot for safety reasons too, namely I can't burn my baby's mouth !

So as others have mentioned, I put an ice cube in it to cool it quickly.
dolphinsaremammals
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

rgb73 wrote:I have this problem with baby food as you have to get it piping hot for safety reasons, namely killing any bacteria.
Is this homemade baby food? I would think store bought baby food would not have this problem, unless it's been opened and sitting around.
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neurosphere
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by neurosphere »

magellan wrote:When I want to quickly make iced coffee from a pot of hot coffee, here's what I do:

1) find two large round metal cake pans that fit inside each other (thin conductive metal is best).
2) fill one pan with ice cubes and water in the bottom of the sink.
3) Set the second pan inside the first pan so it "floats" in the ice water of the outer pan.
4) pour coffee into the inner pan
5) spin the inner pan and/or swirl the coffee with a spoon for 1-2 minutes (or let sit for 5 minutes)

On summer mornings, I often have my first cup or two of coffee hot, then have the last one as iced coffee. It takes less than a minute using the approach above and I just pour the cold coffee from the cake pan into a tall glass that has milk and ice in it.
Somewhat off topic (unless the OP also wants to quickly chill coffee!)... I used to do something similar for ice coffee, until I read about the "Japanese" method of simply letting pouring coffee over ice: https://counterculturecoffee.com/learn/iced-coffee [note that this video uses fancy equipment which will not necessarily make better coffee...all you need is a $2 plastic filter holder and your beverage container of choice].

Basically, I take a cheap plastic Melitta type filter meant for one cup, use more coffee than I normally would for hot (i.e. 3 tablespoons ground coffee instead of two) and let the hot coffee drip into a big glass of ice, usually held in a Tervis-type cup or mug. I'll never go back. I would have thought that the ice would dilute the coffee too much, but obviously if you make the "hot" part of the coffee strong enough, the ice dilutes it to the correct strength. It only took me a few tries to get it just right. One trick is to add the sugar to the bottom of the mug in advance and swirl with a touch of hot water prior to filling with ice and cream/milk.

So now I can have iced coffee in exactly the same amount of time it takes to have hot coffee. :D You can scale this technique up to make an entire pot of coffee by simply altering your choice of equipment and amount of ice. :wink:
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rgb73
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by rgb73 »

dolphinsaremammals wrote:
rgb73 wrote:I have this problem with baby food as you have to get it piping hot for safety reasons, namely killing any bacteria.
Is this homemade baby food? I would think store bought baby food would not have this problem, unless it's been opened and sitting around.
Yes, this is more homemade baby food rather than stuff you buy in jars. We make batches of stuff and freeze it.
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White Coat Investor
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Re: How do you quickly cool food?

Post by White Coat Investor »

dsivi wrote: I had very little time to eat today - about 15 minutes tops.
I think I'm doing this eating thing all wrong. 95% of my meals are under 15 minutes. 15 minutes at work is a major luxury. I actually can eat all the food in that time.
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