Cooling rice pudding safely!

[HildaAlida]

I am super super paranoid about cooling rice quickly, and I've just made my first ever rice pudding (a "cherry bakewell" slimming world version)!

DH loves it cold, so once cooked I stirred in frozen fruit, decanted it to two reasonably shallow tupperware dishes with lids, and popped them outside for 30 mins (it's about 10 degrees out there).

They still felt warm at the base but I then put them in the freezer - there's only fruit and veg in there so I'm not concerned about the freezer temp, anyway the pots are a bit warm not roasting hot.

That's okay isn't it? I won't poison him? The rice pudding tasted lovely but sadly my fear will probably prevent me from eating it myself later.

It will be fine, I mean think about how many people have you actually heard of being poisoned by rice?

I expect it will be fine.
Sometimes I put dishes of food into the sink and slowly fill up with cold water until the dish is about to float to cool them quickly.

It will be fine.
However, if I want to cool anything quickly I transfer the food into a new container and place ice packs on top.
Once at room temperature it can go into the freezer.

I’ve never heard that there was a problem with rice cooling, let alone cooling quickly.

You must know this is a completely irrational fear so nothing I (or anybody else) say will make any difference.

If your fears and anxieties manifest themselves in other ways I would think about counselling.

I've known at least one person, it was not pleasant - but that was failing to heat it up fully.

I don't know all the terminology to explain correctly, but Google will tell you that rice in particular can develop a nasty toxin if sat around for too long at a warm temperature. It needs to be cooled quickly, kept cold, and reheated very thoroughly.

I'd heard vaguely that you had to be careful with rice, but since my friend was so ill a few years ago I've been a lot more anxious about it. Naturally there will be hundreds/thousands of people who have left it out overnight at room temperature and had no problems eating it, but even so. There will be just as many people who have been ill from a meal where rice was possibly the culprit, but the meat has been blamed or it was put down to "noro".

Thanks twitterqueen, but after 40 years of emetophobia, 2 psychotherapists, 2 hypnotherapists, 2 counsellors and 15 years of anti-anxiety meds, I'm quite familiar with the irrationality of it.

I do get reassurance from strangers on the internet sharing greater experience than I, otherwise I wouldn't ask.

I thought that the rice paranoia was over boiled rice left standing at room temperature. Not rice pudding!

Oh dear. I’ve been dicing with death for decades. When I get a Chinese takeaway because I’m on my own the rice lasts me that evening and the next day and the next. I don’t refrigerate it and don’t heat it up, it just stays in the container until I put on a plate and I eat it cold on the two subsequent days. I’ve never been ill from this in possibly thirty years or more and have a takeaway once a week.

I didn’t know that about rice so I’m now worried if I do it again I will be jinxed now and become ill.

You might be right there Fivelittlepigs...

Haha oh Palominoo don't pay any attention to me, if you've been fine all this time it's not going to change now!

I've had a lifetime of excessive paranoia about food, so your lifetime of rice consumption is reassuring to me. It suggests that the risk is small.

Basic food hygiene - great
(though I too have been eating left-over rice for breakfast/lunch, left out of the fridge, for decades)

But you must know you are taking this to extremes...

Yes, I do indeed. And that in itself is actually helpful, because I can put it into perspective when I see myself through others eyes.

It's why I love MN really, the objective opinions of other human beings without this condition are generally more helpful than Google.

I NC for every rice thread.

I agree plain, boiled rice can be dodgy (those of you eating days-old left over takeaway that has been left on the side have been lucky!).
I don't think the same issues apply to rice pudding though. As always, put it in the fridge once cool, but I wouldn't panic about cooling it in a nanosecond 😁

We all have our ‘things’ that we are anxious about and some of us worry more than others.

I’m ok with food but I have anxiety over many other things.

Haha Seeline I have been laughing at myself for wondering if I'm going to vomit up my internal organs if I take longer than a millisecond to cool down the rice...

Yep food and hygiene is my thing, I'm not bothered about bacteria as such, only the potential for ingesting vomit/shit tsunami causing varieties.

I don't have anxiety over anything else particularly.

For many years I was lax in cooling/storing/reheating rice with no issues.

Then I got ill from it and never again, I was ill for three weeks. It was awful. Never again!

Tbh, I really think the risks are minimal. As PP have said, they may never get ill from it in their lifetime. Now I have experienced it I will never do it again.

What you've done is fine. The main issue in putting not throughly cool food in the fridge is that it raises the fridge temp, putting other foods at risk. In your case I think you've done the right thing in putting it in the fridge semi warm. I would be happy to eat it out of the fridge once fully cooled.

Ooh dear Peach, yes I gather that it is a rotten experience! It is good to know, however, that you'd be happy eating it from the fridge even after your run in with it. My friend wasn't ill for quite that long, but she couldn't look at rice again and she was marrying into a culture where they literally presented her with rice at every meal!

Well it had chilled down very well in the freezer from semi-warm, so I've moved it back to the fridge. And I've had a taste, it's lovely but a bit stodgy - I'm an idiot, I cooked it to the right consistency forgetting that it would thicken when cold.

So DH might break a tooth on the first batch, never mind, the next one will be better.

Sorry OP I would have been sympathetic if I'd seen your other post.
I'm sorry that despite your counselling you still have anxiety issues

As an aside - has anyone else noticed that not all posts are published in the correct timelines? So I got your 9.30am post, but not your 9.33 post for ages.... it's the 3rd time this has happened.

That's quite alright, I can take it.

Anyway, the rice pudding is nice. Kind of...robust.