By paying attention to kitchen temperatures, you can ensure food safety, achieve desired cooking results, and maintain the quality of ingredients and dishes you prepare.
Kitchen temperatures are important for several reasons:
- Food Safety: Maintaining proper temperatures is crucial for food safety. Certain temperatures help prevent the growth of harmful bacteria that can cause foodborne illnesses. For example, refrigerators should be set at temperatures below 5°C (41°F) to slow down bacterial growth in perishable foods.
- Cooking Accuracy: Different recipes require specific temperatures to achieve desired results. Baking, roasting, and cooking times can be greatly affected by the temperature used. Precise temperatures ensure that foods are cooked evenly and thoroughly, resulting in better taste and texture.
- Food Preservation: Proper temperature control helps prolong the shelf life of food items. Cold temperatures in the refrigerator and freezer slow down the spoilage process and help maintain food quality for longer periods. Freezing at appropriate temperatures also prevents ‘freezer burn’.
- Flavour Development: Temperature can impact the flavour development of certain ingredients and dishes. For example, simmering a sauce or stew over low heat allows flavors to meld together and intensify, while high heat can create a Maillard reaction, resulting in browning and the development of rich flavors.
- Safety Precautions: Kitchen appliances like ovens and hobs can reach high temperatures. Knowing and understanding these temperatures is essential to avoid burns, fires, or other accidents. It also helps prevent overcooking or burning food due to excessive heat.
Some key kitchen temperatures to know if you are storing and preparing food are:
- Freezer temperature: -18°C to -20°C (-0.4°F to -4°F) This is the standard temperature range for storing frozen foods in a freezer.
- Refrigerator temperature: 1°C to 4°C (34°F to 39°F) This is the recommended temperature range for keeping perishable foods fresh in a refrigerator.
- Storage temperature: 10 to 21°C (50 to 69.8°F) This is a good temperature range for storing cans, dired goods, fruit and some vegetables.
- Room temperature: 20°C to 25°C (68°F to 77°F) Room temperature is the ambient temperature of the kitchen or the surrounding environment.
- Cooking temperature (hob):
- Low heat: 63°C (145.4°F) – Beef, lamb, and veal (steaks, roasts, etc.) rare – Fish
- Moderate heat: 71°C (159.8°F) – Minced meat (beef, pork, lamb etc), Beef, lamb, and veal (steaks, roasts, etc.) medium – Eggs
- Moderate to high heat: 75°C (167°F) – Poultry (chicken, turkey, duck etc), Leftovers
- High heat: 77°C (170.°F) – Beef, lamb, and veal (steaks, roasts, etc.) well done
- Cooking temperatures (oven):
- Low heat: 120°C to 150°C (250°F to 300°F)
- Moderate heat: 160°C to 180°C (325°F to 350°F)
- Moderate to high heat: 190°C to 220°C (375°F to 425°F)
- High heat: 230°C to 260°C (450°F to 500°F) or higher
- Boiling point of water: 100°C (212°F) Water reaches its boiling point at 100 degrees Celsius, which is commonly used for cooking pasta, boiling vegetables, and other boiling-related tasks.
A lot to remember isn’t there?
Help is at hand! To help you and your colleagues remember, Learn Q have created a FREE Key Kitchen Temperatures Poster. Simply click here to download, print it out and put it on your kitchen wall. You could even have it laminated so that it lasts longer!
Keep your customers safe and your business prospering!
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