31–40 of 67 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I highly doubt a perpetual stew would be at boiling temps, the stew would disappear too quickly. I would think it'd be at slow cooker temperatures, 80 - 90C. High enough to kill off the nasties but low enough to not be boiling.
It’s probably simmering, but it also probably boils on occasion. You’re not losing stew anyway, you’re just losing water
One of the adults would have a massive pot setup on a gas burner, and we'd pour in all the random cans of soup to heat up together. Throughout the day you'd grab a styrofoam cup and ladle in some "suicide soup", then try go guess what mystery chunks you were eating.
Not perpetual but definitely "whatever you had" soup :)
>pot into which foodstuffs are placed and cooked, continuously. The pot is never or rarely emptied all the way, and ingredients and liquid are replenished as necessary.[1][3] Such foods can continue cooking for decades or longer if properly maintained. So, basically, the code base I’ve been working on is a perpetual stew, maintained for decades
Occasionally, I will make a soup that lasts about a week, adding things every day. So not perpetual. One problem I encounter is that some ingredients disintegrate badly (like noodles), which is not a problem when making it in a huge restaurant pot, but becomes a problem when you have a typical large home pot. I have resorted to cooking noodles separately and then adding them to my bowl, rather than putting them in th…
The first rule of perpetual stew would be: do not add anything which can be overcooked Most starch and carb-heavy items wouldn't be a good fit.
I was surprised that there's nothing in that article about health concerns. Is it just me here being concerned about the stew getting infected by something?
Anything that's been held at 136°F or higher for an hour or so is essentially sterile from a food safety standpoint.
I was surprised that there's nothing in that article about health concerns. Is it just me here being concerned about the stew getting infected by something?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_zone_(food_safety) Basically anything above 60°C (140°F) has the same safety as below 4°C (40°F).
I always treated the "best before" on bags of frozen veggies as "avoid after" and am very happy to discover now that frozen vegetables apparently remain safe indefinitely. This will save me a bit of money.
And now I'm more open to trying this perpetual stew thing too.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think that's a big concern since everything gets cooked into oblivion. With something like this, nobody is trying to hit some sweet spot and get vegetables or whatever else to be al dente. Everything is boiled for many hours until all bacteria is killed off.
Yeah if something common and harmful is surviving 100 C +, we got some big problems, my friends.
Examples are on-living molecules whether inorganic simple elements or complex thermo resistant proteins leftover from other forms of life like fungi.
That said, there's nothing special in a forever stew that makes it particularly more susceptible to this risk. The toxins don't reproduce (unless there's some fucky crystallization phenomenon, but that's sci fi speculation), and if there is some thermoresistant toxin introduced, then it will probably be dilluted quickly.
As a kid in Boy Scouts in Alaska, during the annual broomball tournament on the outdoor hockey rinks in winter, every kid would bring a can of soup as "admission". One of the adults would have a massive pot setup on a gas burner, and we'd pour in all the random cans of soup to heat up together. Throughout the day you'd grab a styrofoam cup and ladle in some "suicide soup", then try go guess what mystery chunks you we…