Some waffles, timing & the danger zone…

It’s taken me a long time to get the timing right when cooking. You know the scenario, rushing around trying to get all the dishes done simultaneously, and in the meantime, something always gets cold, burned, or forgotten about. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to serve those delicious little Pillsbury crescent rolls I used to make before we had to go gluten-free. I also burned them a bunch of times! 😖

When my sister Jennifer was here, we talked about the stress of everything being done at the same time for dinner. I told her my secret…my oven. If I use the oven for baking a dish, when it’s done I will pull the dish out and turn my oven down to 140-180 degrees. Once the oven cools down, I put the dish back into the oven and any other component that is done already.

When using your oven as a warmer, you are practicing good food safety. When food isn’t kept at the proper temperature, bacteria can grow and cause foodborne illness. Now, this won’t happen in a short amount of time but can occur if you prepare a lot of dishes for a dinner party or holiday dinner.

Hot food must be kept hot and cold food must be kept cold. Food temperatures between 41-135 degrees represent the danger zone. The longer the food sits in the danger zone, the greater the risk of bacteria growing on food.

Think about how long potluck dinner dishes, both hot and cold, hang around on the table at a 4-5 hour event. The danger zone begins when a dish is taken out of the oven or from the refrigerator. Then the dish is transported to the potluck and sits at room temperature for hours.

Getting food to the proper temperatures to start off with is an essential part of cooking. If you aren’t using a thermometer to check the temperatures of your food, you are putting undue stress on yourself, worrying if the food is done. Checking food temps take the guesswork out, therefore, taking away the stress and worry.

Barbeques and cook-outs always make me nervous when I see the person barbequing chicken and not checking the temps. I would not and have not eaten chicken at a bbq for this very reason.

Below find proper cooking temperatures for the following foods:

Poultry, stuffing, or pasta dishes made with poultry, meat, seafood, or fish must be cooked to 165 degrees.

Ground beef, pork and other meats, flavor injected meats, ground, chopped, or minced seafood should be cooked to 155 degrees.

Seafood, steaks & chops (beef, pork, veal, lamb), roasts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb should be cooked to 145 degrees.

For grilled steak temperatures and doneness click on this link.

When preparing cold dishes, you must get the food into the refrigerator as soon as possible. Cold food should be kept at 40 degrees and below. This also includes making food ahead for the next day, such as a pot of spaghetti sauce, stew, or soups. The quickest way of cooling the dish down before it sits too long in the danger zone is to put it into a shallow container and get it into the fridge as soon as possible. (Within 2 hours.)

Don’t put steaming hot food directly into the refrigerator on the flip side. This can lower the temperature of the entire refrigerator placing everything in the danger zone until the temperature goes back down again.

When using the oven to keep food warm, be sure to have the oven temperature at 140 degrees or above. Cover food with oven-proof lids or aluminum foil to prevent food from drying out.

Reheating leftovers can be done in a saucepan, microwave, or oven. Temperatures should be taken when reheating leftovers as well. Leftovers should be reheated to at least 165 degrees. Be sure to cover the food being reheated in the oven to prevent them from drying out.

Yesterday morning, I made Marty and me Sunday breakfast. I made Belgian waffles with sausage links. The greatest thing about my new equipment pantry is getting to my small appliances easily and quickly! I have not made waffles in the past because I didn’t want to take everything out of the cabinet to get to it.

I started the sausage on the stove and made the waffle batter while the sausage was cooking. After the sausage was done, I popped it into the 160-degree oven to stay warm.

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Next, I heated up the waffle iron and started making waffles. I have the type of waffle maker that flips back and forth. When I remove the waffle from the maker, I put a big spatula on one side, flip the waffle on the spatula, and put it into the warm oven.

I put a cooling rack on the oven rack when keeping waffles warm. The cooling rack holds the waffles keeping them crispy and not soggy like a sheet pan does.

We didn’t have eggs with our waffles yesterday, but if we did, keeping the waffles and sausage warm in the oven while the eggs were cooking is the way to go. I used to put the waffle and sausage on the plate while cooking the eggs, but they got cold quickly. One of my biggest food pet peeves is food that isn’t hot.

Nothing is more off-putting to me when I eat out is lukewarm food. I want my food hot and my cold food cold. I hate when I put a meal on the table at home, and it isn’t hot enough. I have reheated it in a fit of swears and fury in the past. I can control myself in my older years to not just take the whole plate and throw it in the trash like I would have when I was much younger. Imagine that? 😬

Look for a blog post soon following up on food thermometers. I use four different types for various things, but having one good one is all you need.