GB
Chief Eating Officer
Never never never use warm water. The water you use really should be 39 degrees F of colder otherwise the surface of the food will be in the danger zone and it is the perfect environment to grow nasties.
This is OK to do as long as it is not longer than 2 hours.pacanis said:I regularly thaw my steaks on one of those aluminum plates, turning it over and moving it to another spot on the plate.
No this is just as bad as if the food was raw. When meat is in the danger zone (40-140 degrees F) for more than two hours then the nasties love it and multiply like you would not believe. It does not matter if it is cooked or not.pacanis said:Is it OK to eat cooked meat that has sat out all night?
And millions of other people would agree with them as well. I will go back to the seatbelt analogy though. You can live a lifetime without ever wearing your seatbelt. You can drive 200 miles a day and never have a problem. That does not mean that it is a safe thing to do though. The chances of getting sick from food left out may not be huge, but if you do get sick you will be wishing you could go back in time and take those simple precautions that would limit the possibility of you getting seriously sick.Jovin said:I guess by reading the info on some of these posts, alot of us should have either died or been sick along time ago. I truly would not be willing to bet that my Mom or Aunt would agree with the two hour thing of leaving meat out. I know they always, ALWAYS left turkeys out overnight to thaw out and such. My Mom thawed meat on the counter for all the years that I can remember. I don't remember anyone in the family ever having gotten sick on it either.
If you read that package though you will see that it says to refrigerate after opening.pacanis said:Come to think of it, the local store sells homemade pepperoni bread that you eat "as is" or warmed up a little. It comes in plastic bags with a label stating the day it was made.
I respectfully disagree. Safety should be practiced to the maximum, especially when you are talking about life and death. These microbes can and do kill people.pacanis said:but sometimes I think we can be too safe
BreezyCooking said:Instead of cleaning up the industry, we're being told to "cook our food longer"
pacanis said:I'll have to remember the cold water thing. I'd only ever used that for thawing sea food.
I regularly thaw my steaks on one of those aluminum plates, turning it over and moving it to another spot on the plate. Never tried it with burger or pork and I never use the microwave to thaw anything because it always looks partially cooked no matter what the settings are on.
My question is, and this is off the actual topic, but falls under the subject line;
Is it OK to eat cooked meat that has sat out all night?
Whenever I cook pork chops (in particular) I like to make a plate for lunch the next day with the leftovers. More than once I've set a chop or two on a plate to cool down before covering with plastic wrap and refridgerating and forgotten them for several hours or even until the next morning. I usually eat around 9 at night, so we're talking 8-9 hours cooling off to room temp if forgotten until morning. Seems like I remember picnics when I was a kid where the chicken, meats and other foods were always air temp. We would take short day trips and eat when we got there. I don't remember any coolers with ice.
Look at the pig roasts where people are still munching on the pork sitting on the table into the wee hours.... not that I would know anything about that
Is there a definite difference or does it fall under, "When in doubt...."?
Thanks
Jovin said:I guess by reading the info on some of these posts, alot of us should have either died or been sick along time ago. I truly would not be willing to bet that my Mom or Aunt would agree with the two hour thing of leaving meat out. I know they always, ALWAYS left turkeys out overnight to thaw out and such. My Mom thawed meat on the counter for all the years that I can remember. I don't remember anyone in the family ever having gotten sick on it either.
BreezyCooking said:I agree Marg.
I think what's MOST shamefull is the way our food is processed these days. Here we are supposed to have all sorts of modern technology, yet our food processing plants are hotbeds of disease & improper handling.
Current descriptions of poultry handling are absolutely no different than what my grandfathers used to describe "way back when". How EXTREMELY sad is that. Both of my grandfathers worked for ConEd (the NY electric utility) & were frequently called in to work at meat & poultry processing plants. What they saw was beyond disgusting. And like I said - nothing apparently has changed. Instead of cleaning up the industry, we're being told to "cook oour food longer". I find this completely unacceptable & unbelievable at the same time.
Have puzzled over that one myself. To put this in context, I'm pretty conservative on these issues (though maybe not quite as conservative as GB and VeraBlue). But that mostly means I almost never leave stuff on the counter, etc., not that I do and have long conversations with myself about whether it's worth the risk. Pizza is the exception. I've decided it's okay because (i) it's been thoroughly cooked, (ii) most of the pizza (i.e., the crust and topping) is low moisture, (iii) the part that ain't (the sauce) is acidic and (iv) I've never heard of it as a significant hazard (and it happens all the time). That said, we're outside approved guidelines.YT2095: I`ve often left pizza in the box over night and eaten it next day (even cold).
VeraBlue said:Never leave food on the counter to cool to room temperature before placing into the refrigerator. Room temperature is 70 degrees and extremely unsafe...it's a haven for rapid multiplication of bacteria. When you have finished dinner, simply put your chops onto a plate you are comfortable putting into the fridge. Put them in the fridge, uncovered. They'll cool to 40 quickly enough to still be safe for future consumption.
So many people think it's unwise to put hot food into the refrigerator. Nothing could be further from the truth. Room temperature is nothing but a breeding ground for foodborne illness and intoxication.
bethzaring said:[/b]This is soooo true. And should be heeded. The mass of leftovers is so small, as compared to a 3 gallon soup, that it should be immediately plated and put in the fridge, once it is determined that they are leftovers.