Right now there are a lot of people without power across the United States. Are you one of them? I am.
On Hurricanes, Refrigerators, and Wedding Ice Cream
No, I am not in Texas, but apparently Ike took a hike all the way up through the Midwest, causing huge windstorms along the way. Power lines are down, street signs are snapped, and stoplights dark all across my city. And of course, there are plenty of fridge casualties.
This isn't new to me; I lived through three hurricanes in one summer in Orlando, but I didn't expect them to follow me to the heart of the Midwest!
So I'm brushing up on my safety lessons. What do you do when your fridge goes out all night, and stays out? (We probably won't have power back until Wednesday.)
Here are the Red Cross guidelines, quoted from their website.
• If your freezer is fairly full and you know it was not longer than 24 hours, the food should be OK. There will be loss of quality with refreezing, but the food will be safe.• If the refrigerator was out for more than 2-4 hours, you are best to discard the perishables.
• Temperature specifics: If the food in the freezer has ice crystals and is not above 40 degrees you can refreeze.
• Perishable foods in the refrigerator should not be above 40 degrees F. for more than two hours. Use this chart to see what has to be discarded and what can be kept.
• Direct link to the Red Cross guidelines: Safety Chart and Food Safety Guidelines
Regular readers know that I'm baking my wedding cakes and churning homemade ice cream for my wedding coming up this Sunday. This obviously throws a wrench in things - but you know what they say! Terrible weather around a wedding means a start to a great marriage! So we're soldiering on - thankfully there was no ice cream made yet, except a test batch, and just one chocolate cake - which will keep. We'll need to pitch out all the good organic milk we bought for ice cream, but we're taking our chances on the 11 dozen eggs; they are usually OK without refrigeration and they'll be cooked anyway.
Are you reading from the office and without power at home? How is your refrigerator, and any tips for folks eating, staying cool, and living without power in their kitchens right now?
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From the Kitchen..., Health, refrigerator, refrigeration guidelinesRelated Links
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I am reading from the office in Columbus right now, and hearing you say that power won't come back on at my house until Wednesday makes me very very sad. Even sadder than when I arrived at work this morning and found out that they did have power there. Come on, can't I at least get the day off?
view libbyhunt's profile
If you have room, keeping a large amount of water either in the freezer or the fridge can come in handy when the power's out. If it's in the freezer, transfer it into the fridge to help keep things cold. Otherwise, just leave it and let it do it's thing in the fridge.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
We got power back this morning, and all the trees and power lines are still being cleaned up.
All the food was fine thank goodness. I did not enjoy having all the prep finished for Broccoli Cheese Soup and the power going out right as I was about to start cooking!
I learned the tip Tiamat shared from Alton Brown on a "Good Eats" Freezer show, he said freezers work best when full so he fills up space with water bottles, then when the power goes out, frozen water bottles keep stuff in the fridge cool for a period of time. Definitely a great tip.
view bobcatsteph3's profile
I am in good old Dayton and we are totally without power so this post is very helpful because my husband and I were just discussing what is to be done with the food in our fridge.
Tiamat and bobcat that is a great tip and very useful for future power outages.
view Signe's profile
I think that 24 hour thing is based on not opening the fridge, since there is a light on in the fridge it was obviously before the power went out but it totally freaked me out. If you live in a house you could always get a gas generator to run the thing. Alternately there is always ice and lots of it.
view sally599's profile
Oh yes - I should have mentioned - the top photo is faked out - it's at my parents' house. They have power but, oddly!!! just after I took this photo we discovered that the fridge is not cooling properly. A repairman is coming in the morning.
So right now we are thinking about omelets for dinner...
view faith's profile
good luck sweetie!!!!! you had enough on your plate without this but i know everything will work out :)
view Joan in SB's profile