Baking the perfect cheesecake is a complex art, but once it’s done, you have to worry about storing it. You should not immediately refrigerate a cheesecake once it is done baking. It’s not good for your cheesecake, and it’s not good for your refrigerator either.
The main reasons you shouldn’t do this have to do with the massive difference in temperature between the freshly baked cheesecake and the refrigerator. This difference leads to many undesirable outcomes, some of which will impact your cheesecake directly and others that will impact the other goods in the fridge.
Don’t worry, we’ll discuss in detail the reasons why you should allow your cheesecake to cool to room temperature before putting it in the refrigerator. That way, you’ll know exactly why you have to wait instead of storing your freshly baked cheesecake right away.
When Hot and Cold Touch
The reason you don’t want to put a hot cheesecake (or hot anything, really) in the fridge has a lot to do with physics, but don’t worry, we’re going to keep things simple instead of taking you back to high school science class. The main thing you’ll need to worry about, as far as your cheesecake is concerned, will be condensation.
This is a phenomenon that occurs when there is a surface that is hotter on one side, and cooler on the other side. Air from the hotter side touches the cool surface, which alters its dew point and causes it to condense into water droplets. You’ve likely experienced this phenomenon many times, perhaps with a car or house window, or with a cool drink on a summer day.
We’re simplifying of course, but what matters to your cheesecake is that water droplets are going to form on the warm side of the container it is kept in, assuming you (as you should be) are keeping your cheesecake in a container in the first place. Whether it’s a clear plastic or tinfoil, this will happen.
This may not sound like such a bad thing, but those water droplets are going to ultimately fall from the roof of the container and land in your cheesecake. Even the ambient moisture will affect it. While this is unlikely to outright ruin the cheesecake, it definitely won’t do it any favors in the flavor, texture, or consistency department.
What About Your Refrigerator?
Putting a hot cheesecake in the fridge is not only bad for the cheesecake, but it’s also bad for your refrigerator too. We have to get into some more simplified science to explain why. Simply put, the heat doesn’t just disappear instantly when you place something hot in your refrigerator. It radiates out from the hot object.
Eventually, because the refrigerator is constantly producing cold air, the heat will dissipate, but until that happens, all of this extra heat will raise the temperature in your refrigerator by a considerable margin. Think of it like opening a bunch of windows on a hot day in your air-conditioned home: by letting warm air in, you raise the temperature inside your house.
Even if you close the windows later and the air conditioner is on, it is going to be warmer in your house for a time, and your AC will have to work harder to cool down the now warmed-up house, which costs money. This is almost exactly the same issue with putting hot food in the refrigerator. Adding heat directly to the fridge is inefficient.
It will warm up the inside of the fridge for a time, which could be bad for the other perishables inside. Moreover, it will take more effort for your refrigerator to get the temperature back down to where it should be, which will raise your electric bill.
When Should You Put the Cheesecake in the Fridge?
People are often enticed to store a perishable food item as soon as they are done with it, but with cheesecake, you want to wait until it has cooled to room temperature before doing so. This is as simple as letting it sit on a counter for an hour or two. Just be sure you don’t leave it out for six hours or more, as it may spoil.
