Is it bad?
So, I'm at my parents house doing all the prep. work for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I made turkey stock out of smoked wings and necks and once it cooled slightly, I poured it into mason jars to cool the rest of the way on the counter top. I fell asleep and woke up around, 11 a.m. to find that the stock was STILL sitting on the kitchen counter. Apparently, it didn't occur to anyone to refrigerate it.
My question is this:
Did it go bad? Can you leave freshly made stock sitting on the counter overnight without refrigeration? I put the two jars into the refrigerator as soon as I discovered them out, but I'm wondering if I should make a new batch. After all, there would be nothing worse than making your entire family sick on Thanksgiving.
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18 Comments:
I'd make a new batch. It was definitely in "the danger zone" for more than enough time for lots and lots of bacteria to grow.
producestories at 4:28PM on 11/26/08
Definitely throw it out and make a new batch.
dhorst at 4:49PM on 11/26/08
I would not allow anyone to eat it. It is just a gamble. Start over.
JerzeeTomato at 5:14PM on 11/26/08
I dunno. If it were me, I'd put the stock back in a big pot on the stove and heat to a full rolling boil again. May not be best for the beauty of the stock, but it should make it safe.
nightowl at 5:17PM on 11/26/08
I agree with nightowl. It's not like you left it outside. Unless you really had the heat cranked up in the house it's fine. Bring it to a boil for a couple of minutes and then refrigerate it or use it. I've done it more than once.
And I don't like to make people sick either.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 5:37PM on 11/26/08
I'd go more like 20 minutes of a boil; that 2 minutes isn't really enough to kill off severa of those possible critters.
lemons at 6:19PM on 11/26/08
I believe that anything can be killed with either heat or alcohol, thus I side with "boil it".
CanadianFoodieGirl at 6:46PM on 11/26/08
@Pumpkin ~ Boil it and buy some No-Doze
izatryt at 6:51PM on 11/26/08
I'd go with the boiling too.
cmtigger at 7:06PM on 11/26/08
Been there, done that. Boil it
smallblondemom at 7:53PM on 11/26/08
Let's cover all bases here CanadianFoodieGirl, let's boil it and drink.
It IS a holiday.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 8:30PM on 11/26/08
I'd boil it.... but it also begs the question.... How many bathrooms are in the house?
Pavlov at 12:32PM on 11/27/08
Boil it for at least 10 minutes, and unless we're talking anthrax contamination, you're good.
Seriously. I'm incredibly neurotic about this sort of thing, and once looked into how long you should boil tinned goods to be certain that any botulism contamination is destroyed; it's 10 minutes.
mongoose at 1:56PM on 11/27/08
I've actually done this exact thing and I re-boiled my stock for about 20 minutes with no ill effects to my household. Go for it. Give it a good sniff - you can tell if it has gone off. I highly doubt it has. Happy Thanksgiving from the Canadian side of Serious Eats!
And I'll side with the group who are boiling the stock and drinking whatever is handy!
Maureen at 1:57PM on 11/27/08
Note of caution: smelling food is not a reliable indicator of food safety. Food that is spoiled will smell bad but may not be really dangerous. The really bad bugs - like e coli and salmonella - won't necessarily smell. See the this USDA website.
Cooking to the correct temperature will kill most types of bad bugs. So boiling the stock should make it safe to use. If however you are serving someone with a compromised immune system you might want to be more cautious.
kjgibson at 2:14PM on 11/27/08
Just dump it and make new- food poisoning is not what you want to remember from Thanksgiving 2008. Better safe than sorry.
sbelle at 5:13PM on 11/27/08
Hi PumpkinBear, what did you decide to do? I hope you just gave it a thorough boiling... after all, if you hadn't gone to all that trouble, but had simply opened a tin of broth you'd need to do the exact same thing if you wanted to ensure against exposure to botulism. Salmonellosis isn't too likely, since it was well cooked before it was standing.
By the way, just for future reference:
http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/botulism_gi.html#8
http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/salmonellosis_gi.html#7
(You want to use the CDC--Center for disease Control--site, NOT wikipedia to get your pathogen info!)
mongoose at 3:51AM on 11/28/08
Not as bad as your user name, I would hope.
Keight at 3:31PM on 11/28/08