https://nitter.net/paynushurts/status/1682152920635293699

  • NPa [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    yes but lid on+fridge is slower than lid off+on counter, since theres a lot more contact with air to circulate the heat away (of course this might different for americans what with your nuclear-powered seven ton fridges, but normal fridges are also not very good at handling heat internally)

    theres also some stuff regarding the temperature differential being more important for losing heat than absolute temperature, meaning +5 degrees and +15 degrees cooling a boiling liquid at basically the same rate until it gets closer to equilibrium, but im not a science man, im just a cook man

    • Chapo0114 [comrade/them, he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Rule of thumb I picked up from a few places: if it is steaming, it is losing heat faster on your counter than in the fridge. Once it stops, put it in a sealed container and chill.

    • StewartCopelandsDad [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It's probably a good idea to put hot things in the fridge with the lid off or loosely sealed, so hot air can rise out.

      It also varies based on the size of the thing you're putting in there. Air is bad at transferring heat and solid objects are good at it. But warm air can be replaced with cold, so the air in your fridge effectively has an infinite thermal capacity. If you put a small container on a cold shelf, it's gonna cool down fast in exchange for a warmer spot on the shelf. If you put a big thing on there you exhaust the capacity of the shelf, and you need to wait for slow transfer through the always-cold circulating air. So I think that a small sealed container doesn't matter, and a big hot container should be unsealed (but ideally broken up into multiple containers).