Safe for ham to sit out for 1.5 hours?

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crankin

Senior Cook
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
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I have a recipe that tells me to let a ham (9 lb.) sit out at room temperature for one and a half hours before putting it into the oven. Is this safe? Or should I cut the time back a little bit? What do you think?
 
Don't know how safe it is, but the ham I cooked yesterday sat out that long if not more. It was still cool to the touch when it went into the oven.
 
If it is still in it's air tight packaging while sitting out it should be okay. Yes, the salt and the curing do help ham and other such meats fight off bacteria. Also, the cooking will get rid of anything left.
 
Your ham is perfectly safe at room temp for a couple of hours.

It's not at all unusual to bring roasts or hams to room temperature (or close to it) before roasting to allow for more even cooking of the meat. This take at least a couple of hours. It's a good idea for all meats but steaks and such don't need as long to warm up.
 
If it is still in it's air tight packaging while sitting out it should be okay. Yes, the salt and the curing do help ham and other such meats fight off bacteria. Also, the cooking will get rid of anything left.
This is mostly incorrect. The fact that it is in an airtight package does not mean that you can not get food poisoning from it. If that were the case then you would never need to refrigerate meats that have been vacuum sealed.

The amount of salt in the ham will not keep you from getting sick either. Again, if it did then you would not need to refrigerate it.

The good news is that 1.5 hours is still within a safe amount of time to leave meat out. The general rule of thumb is that you don't want to leave things in the danger zone (40-140 degrees F) for more than 2 hours.
 
Salt is a preservative, but only if used in certain quantities (enough to remove moisture). The reason for the salt in the ham is for flavor. It is possible (I do not know for sure) that the salt in the ham might extend the shelf life a little, but not a ton. You still need to refrigerate it regardless of the fact that it is salted, unlike something like salt cod that has had enough salt to make refrigeration unnecessary.
 
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This is mostly incorrect. The fact that it is in an airtight package does not mean that you can not get food poisoning from it. If that were the case then you would never need to refrigerate meats that have been vacuum sealed.

The amount of salt in the ham will not keep you from getting sick either. Again, if it did then you would not need to refrigerate it.

The good news is that 1.5 hours is still within a safe amount of time to leave meat out. The general rule of thumb is that you don't want to leave things in the danger zone (40-140 degrees F) for more than 2 hours.

My mistake and thanks for correcting me GB. I was going by what I know about cured meats (such as beef jerky and dry pepperoni). There are some types of ham that are also cured enough to not need refrigerating. I was only meaning that it would help protect in the short, not long term.
 
Hmm. That's interesting, GB. I would have assumed, too, that a salted ham would have quite a longer shelf life. I never really gave much thought to the fact that prosciutto, etc., have had all the moisture removed by the salt, and so gain their long shelf life.

I suppose smoked salmon is a good example of this. It's salted, but still moist, and MUST MUST MUST be refrigerated.

I guess I won't leave my ham out overnight. :)
 

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