New to batch cooking - feeling paranoid about safe cooling time before putting into freezer...

[IfuckingHateIkea]

Hiya, I have decided to be abit more organised and do some batch cooking to put in the freezer. So far today I have made a coconut chicken and sweet potato curry sauce and a bolognese sauce. I did the curry first, put them into those foil container thing and set aside on my counter to cool. I think they must have sat there for a couple of hours (they were quite hot to touch for a while). Anyway I've now realised that this might cause bacteria to build up etc. I have placed these now in the fridge to cool (together with the bolognese which I put in the fridge almost as soon as I finished cooking).

I'm now paranoid that my efforts have gone to waste and that I might cause food poisoning! What do other people do? Does this sound OK?

[Seeline]

I am always worried about putting hot things in the fridge and causing everything else to go bad so watching with interest

[newnamefor15]

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/homehygiene/Pages/how-to-store-food-safely.aspx

Nice clear guidance on cooling and freezing.

Did you put the lids on the foil containers? Don't forget the whole purpose of foil is to keep things hot. If I want to cool something down quickly to then go in freezer I tip it out on to a clean plastic chopping board and spread it out. Keep away from hot oven areas. Cools very quickly, in about 10 minutes or so. OK, sauces are trickier for that of course, but again the idea is to cool as quickly as possible so lots of surface area in something that isn't holding the heat in. So bung it in a nice cold serving bowl? Stand your foil containers in something that has cold water in it? A couple of hours is a long time for something to take to cool down. I'm not obsessive about these things, I'll happily leave a curry standing in the saucepan (off the hob) for a few hours then remember to bung it in containers and the freezer just before I go to bed, but it helps if you know which rules you are breaking.

[Magmatic80]

Yes, don't put warm food in fridge, it raises temp of everything else. I portion everything into those plastic takeaway containers as soon as cooked and then stand on trivets by open window to cool faster. I do have freezer blocks so sometimes stand the tubs on those. Or float whole pan in sink filled with cold water and ice.

[Lovewearingjeans]

We put in containers and put containers in water in the sink to cool down.

[agoodbook]

I portion my bolognese/ curry sauces into plastic bags when they have cooled and then tie up and leave to go cold , then freeze. If I need to cool quickly, I stand them on freezer blocks :)