"Doug Kanter" > wrote:
> I don't agree with leaving it on the counter for longer than it takes for
> the hot pot to be safely placed on the next surface, but the fact is,
> Sheldon's still alive, and who knows how long he's been doing this? Not
> important, though. You encounter more potential pathogens in other places
> each day than you'll EVER find in a pot of broth that's been off the stove
> for a few hours.

There is a flaw in the logic that since Sheldon is still alive, that it must
be okay.

Many things end up being dangerous only part of the time. In those cases,
people tend to get a false sense of security that it then must be safe to
do. Take these two activities. If you take a gun, place it in your mouth,
and fire, there is a virtually 100% chance that you will be killed. On the
other hand, if you go speeding 90 mph through traffic, chances are you are
still going to survive. Because there is no immediate cause and effect
relationship, it may not appear to be risky. But statistically, if one
continues to drive 90 mph, one has a high probability of killing oneself.

I think a lot, if not most people have a hard time understanding statistical
chances of harm. They can't evaluate how risky something is, and whether the
risk is worth taking. Though many things might be a 1 in a 1,000 chance of
doing harm, we do thousands of things in our lives. Even at a 1 in a 1,000
chance of harm in any one activity, if you do enough of them, you are pretty
much guaranteed to get hurt.

I'm more willing to put my faith in someone well versed in the issues of
food safety than to be trusting some random idiot posting on the internet. I
know I am not a food safety expert, but the method I described to cool stock
is in line with what food safety experts advocate. Sheldon's method flies in
the face of such advice.

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