h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Made a big chicken stew for the week - been doing this weekly stew thing recently since Nog's work schedule is now quite different from mine, so it's good to have something healthy and tasty prepared that both of us can dip into whenever we're hungry.

Except ... last night we forgot to put the stew in the fridge after I made it, so it sat out overnight.

Is it still okay to eat? And if so, would it have the same 'shelf life' as if we'd refridgerated it immediately? The stews usually keep okay from Monday to Friday.

Oh, and while I'm here ... if I use defrosted meat for stuff like stews and sauces (say they'd been frozen for 2-4 weeks) does this mean they would need to be eaten immediately after defrosting, or could they also be used for the 'weekly stew'?



az

What's room temperature like down your end at this time of year?

Aside from that, I don't see why it wouldn't be safe to eat after only 1 day like that. To be sure, just boil it for a good 10 minutes and it should be OK.
I was fed on soup that had been repeatedly reheated and kept at room temperature for my whole childhood that I can remember. It was veggie mind. My mother did make sure she did the 10 minute boil thing each time.

I also don't see why defrosted meat (provided it was frozen immediately upon getting it home) would not be good in your weekly stew.


A good broth like that is a good feed for bacteria though so I would always make sure you boil it for a while before eating it every time, whether it's kept in the fridge or not.

That soup was reused all week by the way.


All the advice I can find on the internet screams "only reheat any meat dish ONCE!!!!!!'
Seems a little over precautionary to my experience but make of that what you will.

I'm no expert but I'd be wary if it's been sitting at room temperature for any serious length of time. Cooking kills any germs in the food but they return quickly and they breed fastest at room temperature which is most bacteria-friendly (hence putting things in a fridge - the cooler temperature massively slows bacterial breeding). You could try cooking it again but to be sure it'd need to be longer than ten minutes for a casserole and that brings with it the danger of ruining the food by overcooking.

The other problem is homemade foods are free from all the preservatives that supermarkets use to make their "fresh" stuff last longer.

As a guess I'd say it *should* be okay if the overnight temperature of the house is very cold (around 4-5 degrees centigrade, say) and if you reheat but I wouldn't be certain.

The smart thing to do with any cooked meat is to not forget to put it in the fridge, of course.

Az, to be on the safe side, I'd say it wouldn't last AS long, though I'd go ahead and eat it the day after... But my kitchen's bloody freezing so...

Can one overcook a stew?

Only if your dumplings start dissolving

I'm hoping I'll get to at least 70 before that happens

It's basically a chicken, potato and carrot stew, with onions and tons of garlic ... made late yesterday morning.

The temp in the kitchen overnight was probably about 15ºC and when we eat it during the week it mostly get reheated in the microwave (though if we're eating together I'll heat it up properly in a pan - about ten minutes sounds right).

Hmmm... maybe we should be sure to eat it all by tomorrow? It's just that there's a helluva lot of it.

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Agreed - talk to Nog about that one. I know I said *we* forgot to put it away in post 1, but I was just being nice.


az

Damn, this isn't a Marathon Man thread.

That did cross my mind, Roymondo.

Sorry!

az

can you not put some of it (say in portions for two?) in the freezer and then defrost by gently heating then boiling in a pan when you want to eat it? This will makes sure it lasts all week!

Yeah, I was wondering if it was too late to freeze it now. I always thought things should be frozen immediately after cooking.


az

meh, I dont know. IMO if it's good to eat, it's good to freeze, just dont keep it in the freezer for long, a couple of weeks max?

I must admit the idea of a large pot of chicken (stew) being reheated and reheated for a week worries me somewhat! Of course what you do in the privacy of your home is your concern as only yourself to harm, however in most food safety courses they advise the 90min rule which is cooked, cooled and in fridge within 90mins.
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Chicken and pork particulary seem to be a breeding ground for bacteria so I would go with cooking stew and either divide into smaller portions and refrigerate or freeze. Either way the smaller portions will cool quicker and allow less time for nasty bacteria to multiply. Of course the more times you reheat and cool the stew the more bacteria will breed. Sorry, I have to be honest here as that is what will happen.
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Salmonela is the most likely bacterial food poisoning you are at risk from eating chicken and just 'cause you have been luck so far doesn't mean you will always be so a few plastic storage containers might be good value in long run to divide the stew into!

Once its cooked you shouldn't really* be reheating it all, then lettting cool again, and reheating it all, then letting it cool and ethn... etc., etc., etc., It'd be better once you'd cooked it up the first time, to eat waht you would that night then with teh rest, after remembering* to keep it in the fridge, reheat it by taking out of the big pan only that which you need to reheat for the next meal....

As to the question of would leaving it at ambient temp in the kitchen overnight cause any problems, I really wouldn't have thought so; I've only a small fridge, wo when I make enough of a dish for two nights, I'll put the saucepan, with the lid on, out of the way on a shelve in the oven where it will fit, and just leave it in there and reheat the next day with no problems

And shouldn't the marathon man now be called the snickers man?

I was assuming that only portions are taken out for re-heating, not the whole stew?

I've occasionally forgotten to put cooked stuff away overnight, but provided the room was fairly chill & the container sealed, I've not worried about keeping it. Even so, I'm not sure that I'd keep cooked meat a whole week in the fridge - 2 or 3 days at most.

Erm, sorry I have to strongly advise against leaving a stew in a cooker overnight. It might be warm from cooking and be the worst place you could leave it as will speed up bacteria growth even more. Fridges are recomended to be around 5-8c to be safe, I would always go for 5c to be safe.
I have to agree that a week seems too long to keep a stew in a fridge so freezing would be better.

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Yep, that's what we do Teasswill. After the stew is cooked and cooled I put it in a big tupperware thingy and put that in the fridge. Then we spoon out portions to heat up as we want it during the week. So it isn't a case of the entire stew being reheated several times.

I've always heard 4-5 days is okay for keeping stews and sauces in the fridge, but it's the sitting out all last night that got me worried.


az

Personally I would have chucked whole stew away if left out if kitchen wasn't very cold as even if didn't have bacteria breeding in it a lot I might have worried myself sick over it anyway!
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I wouldn't say go too OTT and buy differant coloured chopping boards,etc but just common sense stuff. I have seen someone use cooked meat on the red chopping board for raw meat so they aren't infallable with idiots who don't think, unlike the h2g2 people I hasten to add!