Food Left Out, Spoilage concern

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creative

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Please advise! I forgot to put the freshly made pot of stew in the fridge last night. I woke up and found it still sitting in the cool kitchen (I was waiting for it to cool down). Of course I immediately placed it in the fridge. (I have a fridge thermometer and so my fridge is always kept at the right temp). It is just some cooked stewing steak (beef) with lots of cooked veg in a thick gravy.

I have lost my sense of smell so am a bit nervous about detecting whether it will be safe to heat up today. I think it should be OK as the meat has been cooked.

Do members think it will be safe to heat up and eat this evening?


 
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Was the pot covered? If it was, then it's unlikely that any bacteria got into it after it was cooked. I would eat it, but I would bring it to a boil and simmer it for at least 10 minutes first.

My uncle sailed around the world on a sailboat without refrigeration. My aunt made large pots of soup regularly and treated them this way with no ill effects for each of them. They also used mayo with no refrigeration. :ohmy: Well, that's what preservatives are for, right? ;)

Btw, in the future, I would suggest posting questions in the appropriate forum, like Food Safety, rather than a general off-topic forum like this one. You're more likely to get answers sooner if people see the question in a thread title.
 
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Was the pot covered? If it was, then it's unlikely that any bacteria got into it after it was cooked. I would eat it, but I would bring it to a boil and simmer it for at least 10 minutes first.

My uncle sailed around the world on a sailboat without refrigeration. My aunt made large pots of soup regularly and treated them this way with no ill effects for each of them. They also used mayo with no refrigeration. :ohmy: Well, that's what preservatives are for, right? ;)

Btw, in the future, I would suggest posting questions in the appropriate forum, like Food Safety, rather than a general off-topic forum like this one. You're more likely to get answers sooner if people see the question in a thread title.
Thanks for your reply. Yes the pot was covered so I guess it is OK to eat then.

I posted it here since it came under what I did. I wondered about posting it elsewhere but it seems that this thread is more active.
 
Thanks for your reply. Yes the pot was covered so I guess it is OK to eat then.

I posted it here since it came under what I did. I wondered about posting it elsewhere but it seems that this thread is more active.

I suppose you could look at it that way :) I''m not sure how others use the forum - I thought we had a thread on that, but I can't find it - but I always check the New Posts link first to see what has been posted since my last visit. So a new thread titled "Is my soup safe to eat?" in the Food Safety forum would catch my attention before new posts in the "What are you doing?" forum, which I think of as benign and don't read first. Diff'rent strokes and all that ;)
 
Thanks but it would seem that I have had the situation solved, i.e. with GG's reply. Unless others' opinions may differ I suppose?
 
I was so sick with food poisoning once, that I was hospitalized with IV's for three days. There's no way in the world I'd eat that soup, nor would I give it to my dog. What you do is your choice.

The next time you leave something out to cool, set your timer.
 
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Creative, such is life. It probably won't make you sick, but the key word is "probably".

All I needed was one hard lesson to make me much safer than sorry.

My mantra is always......"when in doubt, throw it out".
 
Creative, people have different tolerances. I would likely eat this stew and suffer no effects. Others might become ill. You need to decide what's best for you. If you get 10 more responses and 1/2 say eat it and half say don't. I doubt it's going to make your decision any easier ;)


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Thanks but it would seem that I have had the situation solved, i.e. with GG's reply.
Oh no. You do realize that isn't how it works on DC, right? ;)

First, someone will answer your question. Then several others will come along and say more or less the same thing. Then there will be the dissenting opinion, followed by at least a page and a half of bickering. After some time, Addie will chime in with an off topic anecdotal story involving Pooh and a pirate (or some such), and how EVERYONE in New England leaves their chowder out overnight.

Things may or may not ever swing back to the original topic at this point. But never fear, because some eight or nine years in the future, it will all be dredged up again by a DC newcomer who didn't see the date on the thread and assumes you are still waiting for an answer.

That's how we roll here at DC, so please play along! :LOL:
 
If it has been covered and has previously been boiling I would eat it, it was basically almost sterile at that point. Now if people had been digging into it with who knows what utensil and taking the cover on and off, I'd chuck it. And as got garlic said, I'd bring it to a good boil for a while.

Sent from my XT1080 using Discuss Cooking mobile app
 
Oh no. You do realize that isn't how it works on DC, right? ;)

First, someone will answer your question. Then several others will come along and say more or less the same thing. Then there will be the dissenting opinion, followed by at least a page and a half of bickering. After some time, Addie will chime in with an off topic anecdotal story involving Pooh and a pirate (or some such), and how EVERYONE in New England leaves their chowder out overnight.

Things may or may not ever swing back to the original topic at this point. But never fear, because some eight or nine years in the future, it will all be dredged up again by a DC newcomer who didn't see the date on the thread and assumes you are still waiting for an answer.

That's how we roll here at DC, so please play along! :LOL:

:LOL::ROFLMAO::LOL::ROFLMAO:
 
Actually I don't think we can answer the question with the information available. How big is the pot of stew? How much time passed before you "woke up"? 2 hours? Sure we would eat it. 12 hours, ignored, not stirred to speed cooling? Maybe not. If I'm cooling a pot of something to later refrigerate, stew, beans, soup, I stir it once in awhile to speed the cooling process. The center of that blob of food cools slower and needs to be stirred out to the edges to cool faster.
 
I've adapted a cooling method I learned here. I keep a bottle of water in the freezer, and add it to the pot when I want to cool something quickly. It works like a charm. You could do the same thing with a zip lock bag filled with ice cubes.
 
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Thanks for your replies. I did try to give all relevant info but I see even more details might be required.

It is a large pot, no I didn't stir it. I made it around 7.30 p.m. and it was still cooling after 9 p.m, i.e. still not cool enough to go into fridge. (Sometimes I put the pan in a sink of water...didn't feel it was necessary). I woke up next day around 9 a.m. to find it still in the kitchen; so I chilled it immediately in the fridge. As mentioned, the stew is predominantly veg eked out with some stewing steak, i.e. the meat is not the dominant factor in it.

Yes, I should realise this is not a scientific analysis and that there will be many different replies. I am going to go with my instinct on this one (based on some of the replies here) and dare to eat it! Don't like the idea of boiling it though since it toughens the meat. Will bring it to a boil and then simmer for a while.

If you don't hear from me again, nice knowing you!
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Ha! I should be OK since I have a fairly robust constitution, i.e. am rarely ill (famous last words!) :ermm:
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