Urgent Christmas help

Lima · 24 Dec 2019 at 22:07

Hi all,

this is the sort of thing that’s hard to google so need to ask you fine people.

I have just made a tray with onion, celery, carrot, seasoning etc. And most importantly chicken wings. This is for my gravy. Making it tonight to make things easier tomorrow.

before prepping all of the above I warmed up a baguette for some soup in the oven. Oven was then turned off and I went and ate.

Now - I put the chicken in and forgot to turn the oven on so it’s just been sitting in a coldish/ warm oven where oven is cooling down from my baguette. After an hour I realised and have just whacked the oven on.

I realise when raw meat is stored between say 5 and 40 degrees it makes bacteria grow like crazy. The fact it’s been sitting in my oven at possibly that temperature range for an hour am I going to give everyone food poisoning tomorrow from the tainted gravy???

please help guys I’m super worried and paranoid about it.

Cheers and merry Christmas

PlacidCasual · 24 Dec 2019 at 22:47

No problem 1 hour is quite short and the high heat will kill all the bacteria and there won’t be enough grown in an hour to make toxins. I personally wouldn’t worry at all.

arknor · 24 Dec 2019 at 22:48

wont the bacteria die once the chickens internal temperature is reached anyway? just cook it a bit longer than normal if you don't have a thermometer

Lima · 24 Dec 2019 at 22:58

Thanks guys.

to clarify I actually think the exact time it was in the weird temperature oven (danger zone 5 to 60 degrees odd) was about 45 minutes. Just worked out what I was doing and when to get an accurate timeline.

thanks for the advice so far. Some people on old forum posts I’ve found elsewhere have said it’s fine while others have argued you should defo chuck it. I’m cooking for my entire family so really really want to make sure it’s ok. Eek

Mark M · 25 Dec 2019 at 00:51

It will be fine, nothing to worry about.

WJA96 · 25 Dec 2019 at 08:01

Lima said:
I realise when raw meat is stored between say 5 and 40 degrees it makes bacteria grow like crazy. The fact it’s been sitting in my oven at possibly that temperature range for an hour am I going to give everyone food poisoning tomorrow from the tainted gravy???

please help guys I’m super worried and paranoid about it.

Cheers and merry Christmas

bacteria will indeed ‘grow like crazy’ between 8C and 63C but they have what is called a lag phase before they start the growth phase. That’s the time when they basically get set up to divide and replicate. This lag phase is generally at least an hour. So I’d say you’re probably fine.

arknor said:
wont the bacteria die once the chickens internal temperature is reached anyway? just cook it a bit longer than normal if you don't have a thermometer

Yes, the physical ‘body’ of the bacteria will probably die but some bacteria, produce toxins when the grow or in some cases die, and these are sometimes not destroyed by heat. Staphylococcus aureus (found on the skin of chicken wings) produces one such toxin. The delightfully named Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin is the one to worry about in this case. But again, you need a long growth phase to produce enough to make you sick.

You’re safe!

BUDFORCE · 25 Dec 2019 at 18:37

I ate a burger, that was purchased in the reduced isle in the supermarket frozen, it was put on a barbeque from frozen months later and wasn't eaten that evening, it was left out overnight in the middle of June when it was really warm.

I ate it the next morning, and it was still raw in the middle.

tom_e · 25 Dec 2019 at 18:54

BUDFORCE said:
I ate a burger, that was purchased in the reduced isle in the supermarket frozen, it was put on a barbeque from frozen months later and wasn't eaten that evening, it was left out overnight in the middle of June when it was really warm.

I ate it the next morning, and it was still raw in the middle.

And you're now posting from beyond the grave?

BUDFORCE · 25 Dec 2019 at 20:32

tom_e said:
And you're now posting from beyond the grave?

Wasn't even slightly I'll.

In all honesty I was pushing my luck with that one admittedly, but I eat stuff all the time that goes against the so called food safety rules.

I'll eat bread if it's got small spots of green mold, I'll eat cheese if it's got that like white crystaly stuff on it, I'll eat beef of it's gone like that really dark colour provided it smells ok.

I'll purposely leave raw meat out during the day if I'm going to cook it that day, ignore use by dates, I just use my own senses.

Ive pretty much never had any form of food poisoning I can recall since I was a little kid.

Lartyconshayo · 25 Dec 2019 at 20:53

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-spent-a-month-eating-other-peoples-leftovers

Probably be ok

That said when I was bout 13 I ate cold chicken pies from tesco and got proper food poisoning - nearly 3 decades ago now though

WJA96 · 25 Dec 2019 at 21:01

BUDFORCE said:
Wasn't even slightly I'll.

In all honesty I was pushing my luck with that one admittedly, but I eat stuff all the time that goes against the so called food safety rules.

I'll eat bread if it's got small spots of green mold, I'll eat cheese if it's got that like white crystaly stuff on it, I'll eat beef of it's gone like that really dark colour provided it smells ok.

I'll purposely leave raw meat out during the day if I'm going to cook it that day, ignore use by dates, I just use my own senses.

Ive pretty much never had any form of food poisoning I can recall since I was a little kid.

it’s like any high risk activity - driving without a seatbelt, unprotected sex etc. It’s fine until something goes wrong. At which point it’s all pretty horrid.

Mould on bread isn’t pathogenic. The white crystals on cheese is salt and meat goes dark as it matures. Matures is a polite word for rots, so there are many things that are fine to do, but knowingly eating part cooked meat off a barbecue is just asking for trouble.

DarrenM343 · 25 Dec 2019 at 21:05

BUDFORCE said:
Wasn't even slightly I'll.

In all honesty I was pushing my luck with that one admittedly, but I eat stuff all the time that goes against the so called food safety rules.

I'll eat bread if it's got small spots of green mold, I'll eat cheese if it's got that like white crystaly stuff on it, I'll eat beef of it's gone like that really dark colour provided it smells ok.

I'll purposely leave raw meat out during the day if I'm going to cook it that day, ignore use by dates, I just use my own senses.

Ive pretty much never had any form of food poisoning I can recall since I was a little kid.

Game of death

.

When I left the family home I made the mistake of defrosting iceland frozen chicken breasts (low quality to start with probably) in warm water and later grilled them. Seemed to be cooked well but never been that more ill in all my life. Fairly sure it was those but you cannot be 100% sure, I ate some leftovers in the office Fridge the day before too (cheese and bacon thing if I remember correctly). Think I spent a whole 24 hours or longer sleeping when I eventually stopped being sick. It was coming from both ends too, spinning around on the toilet with no time to pull the flush.. THink I was out for about a week and still looked ill when I returned to the office.

So, don't take too many risks. Food poisoning can have long term effects too. I've had a more sensitive stomach/bowls since then, the symptoms of IBS.