Can You Put A Crock Pot In The Fridge?
A crock pot, also known as a slow cooker, is an electric home appliance used to cook various dishes like beef, chicken, and lamb. The cooking process in this appliance is very specific and unsuitable for every dish.
When starting to use the slow cooker, people often ask if they can put a crockpot in the fridge. We will be answering those questions and some helpful guides along the way. So, let’s get into it.
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Contents
How Does a Crockpot or Slow Cooker Work?
Before we can begin the topic of if we can store crockpots in the fridge, we need to discuss how they work and what some of their key components are. We will be giving you a short description of it right now.
As its name suggests, a slow cooker or a crock pot (you can not go wrong with this 6-quart model) cooks the food inside of it in a particular manner. The dishes prepared generally have some kind of liquid like water, stock, and other things. The slow cooker keeps the contents inside it at a specific temperature.
The lid of it is also designed to enclose the pot in such a way that no residual heat or water vapor cannot escape. What this does to the ingredients inside the pot is the heat gets concentrated, and the liquid gets the flavor of the contents like beef, lamb, carrot, or anything else, making them tender and soft.
This is how the crockpot gets its signature process of curing the food and making the flavor of the food complex delicious.
In a crock pot, different components to it make it a functional appliance. And some parts of it should not be going into the fridge. The components of a crock pot are:
- The main exterior body
- Electrical wiring
- The ceramic or metallic inner pot
Related reading: Can You Put A Crock Pot In The Oven?
Can You Put a Crock Pot in the fridge?
When getting into the question of whether you can keep a crock pot in the fridge, there are mixed responses from people who have particular points on it too.
It depends if you are talking about the whole slow cooker or only the inner pot.
Can you put a whole crockpot in the fridge?
No, the whole main body or the exterior body of the crock pot should not be inside your fridge. This is because it can cause the electrical components of the pot to get wet. After all, there are often elevated humidity levels in the refrigerator.
This will cause the board, wirings, and connector to get wet from the inside, and the next time you turn on the crockpot, it can damage or completely destroy the appliance.
Related reading: Can You Put A Crock Pot In The Microwave?
Can you put a crockpot inner pot in the fridge?
Yes, you can put the inner pot of your slow cooker in the fridge if you let it cool down to room temperature. The ceramic dish inside where the food sits is safe to put into the refrigerator, with some exceptions. If you can follow some guidelines for storing the food inside of a crock pot, then you should be all good to keep them in the fridge.
Can you put a hot crock pot in the fridge?
No, you should never can you put a hot crock pot in the fridge. Always cool down the pot to room temperature, as described below.
How long to let crock pot cool before refrigerating?
You should let the crock pot cool down to room temperature before refrigerating it. It may take 2-3 hours. You can also use a water bath to cool it faster. If you leave to pot with food out for too long, you will increase the risk of spoiling your food.
Related reading: How To Peel Hard Boiled Eggs Without Destroying Them
How to Safely Store Crockpot inside Fridge?
As we previously discussed, only the crockpot inner pot can be stored in the fridge. But we should be cautious about when and how we should store them.
An important step is never to put a slow cooker dish in the fridge while it’s hot or warm. The rapid cooling of the ceramic pot may lead to cracks and cause it to break. Your fridge will also not be too happy to welcome a sizeable hot pot – it will increase the temperature inside the refrigerator and make it work hard to cool everything.
That is why you should let the dish of the slow cooker with the food come down to room temperature before you pop it into the fridge. This will ensure that the dish is cooling down at a steady and slow pace which will help with its longevity.
If you are in a hurry, you can cool the slow cooker pot in a water bath. Put the pot in the sink and pour in the cold water. That will cool the pot faster than leaving it on the kitchen counter, but you have to be careful not to crack it, dropping it in the ice-cold water.
Can You Put a Ceramic Crockpot into the Freezer?
No, we should not put a ceramic slow cooker pot in the freezer. This is because over-freezing the ceramic can harm the material. The dish will accumulate water crystals inside the container’s little pores, which will cause long-term damage.
And if you do that, after some time, you will see that your crockpot won’t be working as efficiently as it should because of the damage that has been caused because of keeping it in the freezer. So, if you want to keep your crockpot or slow cooker for some time and care about its longevity, you should not do this.
Related reading: How To Reheat Queso?
Conclusion
Although there is no direct reason not to keep the crock inner pot in the fridge, it is best to say that if you have to keep it there and don’t plan on keeping it for a while, it is safe to keep crockpots in the fridge.
We hope this article helped you better understand how we can keep our food in the slow cooker in the fridge. It will help you avoid mistakes that would otherwise be bad for your crockpot.