Cooling Log Clock: FDA Two-Stage Cooling Deadlines, Shallow Pans and Cooking Energy

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Opens on the book's Freezer Month. Change any number to your own and press Calculate.

Start from fills the boxes below

A. The cooling clock (times from your log)

Off the heat at an example time: put yours

Reached 70 °F (21 °C) at optional, from the thermometer

Reached 41 °F (5 °C) at optional

Kitchen above 90 °F (32 °C)?

Rice in the batch?

B. Shallow pans to cool it in (about 2 in, 5 cm, deep)

The batch g

Density g per mL

Pan length in

Pan width in

Food depth in

C. Energy to cook the batch (optional)

Pot weight g, cooked

Heated by °C: 20 → 100 °C

Cooktop

Simmer kWh: the book's planning figure, measure yours

Pressure cooker kWh, for the beans

A pot of rice kWh

Electricity price per kWh

Enter the time the cooking finished, then press Calculate.

The formula

FDA Food Code 3-501.14 (food businesses): 135 °F → 70 °F (57 → 21 °C) within 2 hours, and to 41 °F (5 °C) or below within 6 hours in all
USDA FSIS (home): leftovers into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking, 1 hour if the room is above 90 °F. UK FSA (home): rice chilled, ideally within 1 hour
Pans = batch volume ÷ (length × width × depth × 16.39 mL per in³), rounded up
Energy = pot weight × 4.186 J per g per °C × the rise ÷ 3,600,000 ÷ the cooktop's efficiency, + simmer + pressure cooker + rice; cost = kWh × price

The book's worked example, Chapter 10. The chili's 4,054 g needs 2 pans of 9 × 13 in at 2 in deep (3.83 L each). Heating it from 20 to 100 °C on a coil cooktop, simmering and pressure-cooking the beans: about 2.1 kWh, 0.38. All five recipes: 1.65 for the month. The Box Run writes every cooling time down: that log is what a Food Code kitchen keeps.

Check it. A probe thermometer in the thickest part, logged at the deadlines: the clock says when to look, the thermometer says what happened.

Honest limits. This page keeps the clock; it never says food is safe. The times are the authorities': the FDA Food Code for businesses (cooling 3-501.14; reheat for hot holding to 165 °F, 74 °C, 3-403.11), USDA FSIS and the UK Food Standards Agency for home cooks; check them at the source, and in a business follow your inspector. FSIS: reheat leftovers to 165 °F; the FSA: until steaming hot, and rice only once. The simmer, pressure-cooker and rice figures are the book's planning numbers: a plug-in meter gives yours. Prices are illustrative US prices from November 2026, shown without a currency sign; put in your own. Everything stays in your browser: no sign-up, nothing stored.

These calculators go with Vegan Meal Prep Math (Craft & Studio, Book 4), where every number on this page is worked by hand.