Meat out of the fridge before cooking

[MyCrummyApartment]

Originally Posted by The OutDoor Chef

Nope it doesn't Buckytom.

According to my serve-safe textbook you have a 2 hour window for most types of raw meat.

We utilize this window time in BBQ a lot.

Hell chicken raw can stay out on the counter for 2 hours.

Agreed. I might be a little more concerned if it was in the hot sun, but a normal kitchen environment or a sealed container has never been a problem for me.

[dcSaute]

>>Safe-Serve

if the government had its way, all meat would be cooked to shoe leather.
all vegetables would be cooked until becoming unrecognizable mush.
the health of the public must be protected.

the reason is simple: some government employee has to sign off saying "this is safe" - and they ain't never ever gonna let themselves become responsible/liable for anything. rule #1: never sign/approve anything you could get blamed for.

people leave meats out for hours and hours.
yes, sometimes somebody gets sick.

and then there's cases of unlicensed (and uneducated) people providing food for money to large groups of people and they wind up making half the county sick because they're too dumb to understand homemade raw egg mayo should be kept refrigerated.

[mozart]

Originally Posted by buckytom

the flank steak should be fine.

btw, i thought the two hour rule was only for already cooked food, and maybe a little longer with foods not as susceptible to pathogen growth, such as acidic foods, etc..

hi buckytom,

It is quoted for both I believe but there is some safety factor in there. It used to be 4 hours, but takes into account the fact that the times are accumulative and that most of us can't really know what may have taken place before we bought our food. For example 2 hours in the danger zone at the store and two hours at home.

I agree that prepared food is more dangerous and is associated with far more food outbreaks.