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Is there something wrong with putting the hot soup or braise in the fridge too soon? I have tempered glass shelves in my fridge but I usually just but down a thick kitchen towel under the pot to keep it from heating the glass too hot.

Good question, Caw - it can be dangerous to put really hot foods in the fridge because it raises the overall fridge temperature and the cooling mechanism in the fridge can't keep up. This can potentially cause other foods to spoil and/or make you sick!

this is a great idea, we ALWAYS are in this situation.

don't want to refrigerate too early because the heat of the pot will warm up the fridge, spoiling milk, etc.

sometimes we just stick the pot outside on the balcony...

One problem is that the soup could warm other things in the fridge. Also, if the soup isn't cooled quickly enough, all sorts of nasty bacteria has opportunity to grow in it. We had a big chili supper at our church last winter, and all the hot leftovers were put into the refrigerators to use for chili dogs a couple days later. When it was taken out, every crock of chili was spoiled because it wasn't cooled quickly enough.

Since I don't usually keep water bottles in the freezer, I fill a ziploc bag with ice cubes and put that in the hot soup (the bag will keep the soup from getting watered down as the ice melts). Stir gently until the soup is cool and remove the bag before refrigerating.

You can also use ice packs that you would normally have in the freezer for lunch boxes.

I run into this problem a lot, and i usually just wind up leaving the pot of soup on the counter overnight and then throw it in the fridge. I've never gotten spoiled soup or even gotten a hint of being sick.

The way i figure, if you've been cooking this thing for a while, presumably boiling it most of the time, whatever bacteria was in there is good and dead. If you leave it covered overnight, there's no new bacteria getting introduced to the pot, and therefore nothing to go bad.

Secondly, its soup. If you're like me, you reheat it to a pretty high temperature, again killing any potential bacteria floating around in there.

I know it wouldn't pass in a food safety class, but like i've said, i've never ever gotten sick.

Caw - I had the same question, and according to my mother, you are supposed to cool things first because otherwise they raise the entire temperature of the refrigerator and aside from the spoilage issue raised above, it also makes your refrigerator work harder to cool everything else, so it's not good for your carbon footprint or the life of the machine.

You're really better off dividing the soup or stew into smaller bowls and putting them in the fridge, rather than waiting for it to cool down. Meat, poultry and seafood shouldn't sit around.

Also, don't cover meat until it cools down.

I just ran into this issue last night! I've never thought of doing this, brilliant, thanks.

I saw Alton Brown do this awhile back for, I think, a big bucket of stock he'd made! It really is such a great idea.