RatLabGuy
You look like a monkey and smell like one too
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
- Location
- Churchville, MD
*[disclaimer: I'm just a dumb neuroscientist that occaisonally plays biomedical engineer, thermodynamics not my thing]
We get the "honor" of hosting T-day. Oh boy. Big family, wife comes home all proud of the deal she got on a 22 lb bird. Frozen of course.
Our fridge isn't big, already packed, no room to thaw it there like I've always done.
So I bust out the new-to-me Lifetime 55 qt Wally World cooler, drop in Thomas the Turkey, add about the same amount of water, drop in a remote thermometer in the water and move on.
From what I understand you want the water to be ~40-45, about the same as a fridge. Enough to unfreeze it but minimize decay/growth. Now being the nerd I am, I measure the water temp (from the spigot, from well) to be ~63 deg F. Simple math to me says when mixed with equal amount of ice (lets just say 31 deg) the mean temp should come out to around 47. Close enough.
Afte a couple hours I check the water temp. Holy cow, 35 degrees. WTF? This thing will never thaw at that rate. Ice still icey etc. So I add a lot more water, almost filling the cooler. Thomas be floatin'.
Now its still sitting at 38. Hopefully enough.
This got me thinking about the thermodynamics of what is going on. You (I) have a 22 lb mass that starts out at something like, I dunno, 28 deg from a deep freezer. Added to water that is, say 47 degrees. Assuming a sealed system, that means the giant two-legged iceball is cooling down the water to the point of being just barely over freezing (maybe 37-38). So measuring from the water, you'll only see the temp go down as it all reaches equilibrium.
But its more complicated bc water and turkey have different specific heats. Some injuneer here who isn't as lazy as me could probably tell us how the balance out and what the math is. There is also the slow loss from the cooler ineeficiency, but that is pretty minimal bc (1) its a fairly decent cooler and (2) the temp outside is only 45 so there's no real driving force there.
I don't think there is any real point to this post now that I think of it, other than to say... is this normal? lol. When people do this in the sink they are always adding more ice, but thats bc its in open air and it is heated by the room. I think this is the opposite..? I need to occasionally add less-cold water?Otherwise it will take an eternity to thaw in the middle.
And if this isn't enough wasted time reading, expect posts later on brining fiascos.
We get the "honor" of hosting T-day. Oh boy. Big family, wife comes home all proud of the deal she got on a 22 lb bird. Frozen of course.
Our fridge isn't big, already packed, no room to thaw it there like I've always done.
So I bust out the new-to-me Lifetime 55 qt Wally World cooler, drop in Thomas the Turkey, add about the same amount of water, drop in a remote thermometer in the water and move on.
From what I understand you want the water to be ~40-45, about the same as a fridge. Enough to unfreeze it but minimize decay/growth. Now being the nerd I am, I measure the water temp (from the spigot, from well) to be ~63 deg F. Simple math to me says when mixed with equal amount of ice (lets just say 31 deg) the mean temp should come out to around 47. Close enough.
Afte a couple hours I check the water temp. Holy cow, 35 degrees. WTF? This thing will never thaw at that rate. Ice still icey etc. So I add a lot more water, almost filling the cooler. Thomas be floatin'.
Now its still sitting at 38. Hopefully enough.
This got me thinking about the thermodynamics of what is going on. You (I) have a 22 lb mass that starts out at something like, I dunno, 28 deg from a deep freezer. Added to water that is, say 47 degrees. Assuming a sealed system, that means the giant two-legged iceball is cooling down the water to the point of being just barely over freezing (maybe 37-38). So measuring from the water, you'll only see the temp go down as it all reaches equilibrium.
But its more complicated bc water and turkey have different specific heats. Some injuneer here who isn't as lazy as me could probably tell us how the balance out and what the math is. There is also the slow loss from the cooler ineeficiency, but that is pretty minimal bc (1) its a fairly decent cooler and (2) the temp outside is only 45 so there's no real driving force there.
I don't think there is any real point to this post now that I think of it, other than to say... is this normal? lol. When people do this in the sink they are always adding more ice, but thats bc its in open air and it is heated by the room. I think this is the opposite..? I need to occasionally add less-cold water?Otherwise it will take an eternity to thaw in the middle.
And if this isn't enough wasted time reading, expect posts later on brining fiascos.
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