Part of the Prep and Production Cook track. Lesson 9 of 10.
Where in the shift: the end, when everyone is tired.
Prerequisites: Modules 2, 45.
The sequence
Shallow pans.
Probe the center.
Label: contents, date.
Rotate.
And save what should be saved — drippings, trim, usable by-product, per Modules 17 and 52.
The decisions
Container depth. The governing variable in cooling and it is a decision made when tired, per Module 2. Food conducts poorly and a deep container has an interior that stays warm for hours regardless of the walk-in.
Whether to probe. Yes, at the geometric center. The surface reading answers a different question.
And what to save. Pit drippings are the richest stock-equivalent in the building and they go down a drain at close because no container was designated, per Module 17.
What you are reading
The center probe. Not the top.
And the label. A container with no date is a container of unknown age and it permits only two actions, both guesses.
What goes wrong here
Cooled in depth. No visible sign whatsoever — the most serious failure in this lesson and the one with no sensory warning.
Undated.
And the drippings discarded while the kitchen buys a salted base tomorrow.
Verification
Probe both surface and center for one week and record both. The gap is the finding and it usually finds a cooling failure nobody knew about.
The boundary
Every cooling window, temperature, and method is governed by the local health authority and its requirements override anything here.