Meat sauce: do I cool it down slowly on the hob or put in the fridge still hot?

[AlbertaWildRose]

Ok, wise MNers: I'm trying to be organised and make part of dinner early, since DS has a doctor's appointment this afternoon and we won't be back until supper time. So I've made the meat sauce for the pasta, but what do I do with it now, knowing I'm going out soon and won't need it for another 4 hours? I don't really want to give my entire family salmonella, so do I let it cool down slowly on the hob, or put it away in the fridge?

Let it cool down completely - you can get nasties from putting warm food in the fridge.

DP always leave the pasta sauce with a lid on overnight on the hob, and then puts it in the fridge the next morning.

Noone dead yet!

And if it's not chicken, very little risk of salmonella.

Great, thanks. Yes, it's a beef ragu, so I'll just leave it out for a while. I'm pregnant so I'm overly paranoid about these things at the moment.

Cover the pan and sit it in a bowl of cold water, will cool quicker.

Never put hot stuff straight into a fridge or freezer.

You're going to heat it up again aren't you? Apart from rice, making sure you reheat food properly will kill the germs.

You need to let it cool down first as the fridge has to work much harder if you put food in it hot.

AFAIK you don't get nasties from putting warm food in the fridge, the problem is it cuases the fridge to work too hard to maintain the temperature becasue there is something warm in there, so can damage /overheat the motor.

putting warm food in the fridge damages the food that is already there as it may raise the tempreature of the fridge over 6% but it does not affect the food that you put in.

I'd leave it out with the lid on, twill be fine

OK, I'll definitely just leave it out on the hob then. Thanks for all the responses!

What you need to do is to cool as quickly as you can without (before) putting in fridge.

You can aid this by:

Spreading in a thinner layer in a shallower dish (but create more washing up).
Putting hte container in a big bowl of (iced) cold water
Stir regularly.

Or a mixture of the above.