I put a beef stew recipe in to my crock pot this morning at 7 am and set it for 8 hours on low. At 1 pm, the power went out for a few minutes. When power was restored, the slow cooker did not come back on.
Also, at 4 pm my wife noticed the crock pot was off and turned it on for an hour. It is now 6:40 pm. The middle of the stew is 155 degrees F, but close to the outside is 140.
Is it ruined? Unsafe? Can I just cook it for the remaining 2 hours?
The important temperature would be what temperature it was at when the power was turned back on.
The official recommendations are to keep high risk foods out of the 'danger zone' of 40°F to 140°F for longer than 2hrs (cumulative). If portions of the pot were at 140°F after being heated for an hour, and there was the time for it to cool down. (and the time for it to have heated up initially), from a health department perspective, it may not be safe.
Personally, if it were me, I'd have turned it up to high to try to get it back up to ~200°F (about where most crock pot's 'low' setting is), and then depending on how close it was to done, either switched it back to low, or left it on high so it might be ready in time for dinner. (however, I've also been known to eat raw beef and things that have been in the fridge for longer than the health folks recommend)
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Isn't there still a movement afoot, longneck, which promotes the preparation of foods (including meats) at surprisingly low temperatures over longer periods of time instead of higher temperatures lickety-split? I think so. And I think it's got a pretty solid footing.
Room temperature seems to be the proverbial culprit, generally speaking. But the kind of circumstance you share is probably just fine. After all, beef is not uncommonly consumed rare. Pork and poultry are the ones we have to be so careful with, always cooking them all the way through.
Anyway, just for reference purposes, it doesn't sound like your stew ever made it back down to room temperature before your wife resuscitated the appliance. It's hard to be precise without knowing what the initial temperature was (the temperature the appliance was set for in the morning), but if in the past one and two-thirds hours the core has fallen to not below 155°F after only one hour's stewing, certainly after six hours' stewing a mere two hour lull couldn't be expected to yield results much different from the ones you were able to measure.
Gas rather than electric is normally the preferred mode for generating heat when it comes to preparing food. This is especially true on the stovetop where not only subtle but immediate (and visible) changes in temperature can be achieved. So too in the case of your crockpot I'd have to say that, yes, use of a gas appliance would have made it alternately possible for you to just yank that crock out of its base and shove it into the oven for the day. But I'm probably speaking out of line, as it's also preferable to have maid service and a hot towel with your shave.
I speak out of want more so than wont.
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