Hey there I'm Yankel and today I'm going to talk a little bit about . Now sometimes you see things in cooking videos or on TV and they edit out the part of it. So I'm just gonna go over real quick all the things that are gonna keep you in your own kitchen.

So basically the FDA has already done most of my work for me and they break it into four : there's clean, separate, cook, and chill. What do each of those things mean?
Alright well when it comes to cleaning, first and foremost, it comes down to the that you're working on. So I've got a plastic that I use for proteins and then a nice cutting board that I use for everything else. If you don't have two separate cutting boards, basically what you want to do is your cutting board in between every use, and even more what I like to do is save my raw proteins to be the last thing that I cut on the board when I'm prepping a meal. Then I have no worries at all, and I'll still wash and sanitize in between every .

Now cleaning also means the surfaces around the area that you're working, so that means the , it means drawer , it even means the itself and I'll show you exactly what I do at the sink. For the sink itself, what I like to do is, once I'm done washing up or in between using raw protein and anything else, I'm going to sanitize every surface that I touched and I'm using a basic and I'm gonna wipe down the spigot, I'm gonna wipe down the , the , even the inside of the sink, give that all a good wipe, make sure everything is nice and clean and I'm gonna take it one step further and I'm gonna make sure I get the handle to my , right underneath in there because Lord knows grimy fingers are getting in there, no matter what you do. So as far as cleaning goes, every handle you touch, even the refrigerator door handles, I'll give them a wipe down with a sanitary wipe in between my processes.

Separate means starting with the refrigerator, keeping all of my separate while they , so I've got chicken on a pan with a little bit of a lip, now of course if you don't have room for pans, individual work really well and basically, I want to make sure they're all separate and then even further, I make sure they're separate from other items in the refrigerator, so I put them on the lowest possible to defrost and everything else will be and separate. Now separate can also mean using different cutting boards or washing your cutting board in between cutting different proteins, so if I were to do chicken and then beef and then pork, I would wash my cutting board in between each process. But you may be wondering what about if I'm making a Bolognese or meatloaf, and I'm having a couple of different kinds of proteins going into one dish. Well the answer to that comes when we cook.

When it comes to cooking, our goal is to stay . So the FDA defines the danger zone as being between 41 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Above 140, is dead, below 41 it's . Our goal is to get through the danger zone as quickly as possible when we're cooking, and out of the danger zone as quickly as possible when we're chilling. Now when it comes to actually cooking food, remember with a steak, it's the of the meat where bacteria can and so a good hard sear takes care of that, that means you can comfortably cook a steak to or . When it comes to other proteins, you definitely want to cook it to 140 or above and let it rest there for three minutes.

Now when it comes to chilling food, same idea, we want to get out of the danger zone , FDA recommends a maximum of two hours going from 140 to 70 degrees and a maximum of four hours from 70 to 41. What that means for you is, your food has cooled down a little bit, pop it in the fridge and that will take care of the rest.

So that's really what it comes down to. Now if you're wondering about , that sort of thing, where you're cooking at a lower temperature, well the answer is there is time. Bacteria will actually die but it . So make sure that you do a little bit of research before you start cooking steaks in an immersion circulator at 130 degrees or below.
Well I hope that clears some things up for you, I'm Yankel, go be safe out there.