Cooked A Casserole In A Slow Cooker Yesterday. Will It Still Be Ok Today>?
We bought a slow cooker and we made a big beef casserole yesterday evening. It wasn’t ready until very late so we only had a it and went to bed and left most of it in the slow cooker.We did switch off the slow cooker.We couldnt put it in the fridge cos it was still hot so we had to leave it in the cooker.
Will I be ok to reheat it back up today and have it for lunch? I know Bacteria can grow on food and I guess if everyone was worried about that then nothing would be eaten.
Should we be ok to reheat it today? It was only made yesterday eve?
I would not eat it. You should have kept it a constant heat (140 degrees) or below 40 degrees by putting it in the fridge. It’s an old wive’s tale that you have to cool to room temp before putting it in the fridge. Food left out over two hours at room temp should be tossed.
Okay MTNGIGI was wrong about the old wives tale about not putting hot food in your fridge. But I will get to that in a minute.
The thing is Yes it should probably be dumped out. But look at this. How late is late? When did you get up? Did you start reheating it as soon as you got up? How warm was your house last night?
The thing also is, even though my parents have been married for almost 30 years my Dad still has a lot of bachelor ways and forgets to put stuff in the fridge all the time. We are not a family of waste and so we ate it. None of us were ever sick, but it well reheated.
Now as an adult in my house in the winter my heatimg system sucks so I know it’s about like afirdge in the kitchen over night. So yes there have been times when I left left overs out, then ate them the next morning, or put them in containers and stuck them in the fridge.
So it’s really just up to you.
Once it has cooled qute a bit ( say room temp or a little above) then it is okay to put in the fridge. Let me get all straitened out for you.
A fridge should be kept around 40 degrees. You put something that is 200 degrees in the fridge and it will rasie the internal temp. This will bring all your other foods out of the good temp for the fridge.
Your fridge is desigend to keep a constant temp, not to be “cooling things down”. So this will make your fridge work harder, so not only are you putting other foods inthe danger zone you are making it more expensive to run your fridge.
You can help cool stuff, if you have a bowl that is a bit larger than the container you are keeping everything in put some ice and a splash of water in the larger bowl then insert the hot one. **But becareful about doing this with your ceramic crock. You can also use ice wands. You can buy expensive ones or you can use left over soda and water bottles filled with water then freeze. Stick 1 or 2 of these in the middle of your food to help drop the temp then stick it in the fridge.
Remeber no lid will let the heat escape so it is always better to cool without a lid on.
It is fine to eat – these people really have issues!! lol
Eat it – you will be fine, we do it all the time (may I add I am never ill and have only had 4 sick days in 7 years and they were colds!!)
It would of been worse to put a hot meal in the fridge!!
Enjoy your lovely meal
You left MEAT out over night, do you really think it’s safe? I wouldn’t eat it, but if you want to… go ahead. You might not get sick this time around, but you never know when you’ll end up with a mighty rage of food poisoning. It’s not worth the risk.
I agree w/ the first gal. If you’re dumb enough to leave out hot meat, you’re dumb enough to eat it. Just warn others to spare them hours in the bathroom.
I suspect you’re going to eat it no matter what we say so please at least warn any guests you may have that this casserole is dangerous.
A good trick to cooling something down quickly is to set the container into a sink full of ice water.
As to eating this casserole, well, of course all common sense says you shouldn’t. But I would, and have, eaten things I’ve forgotten to put away.
When I think about all the improper food practices my mother used on us when we were little. We never got sick from that chicken she left out to thaw. We never got sick from those pots of soups and stews that just sat on the stove. The chances of it happening are slim. People today are just so brainwashed about being afraid of every little thing. Eat a bowl – see what happens. The worse case scenario still isn’t going to kill you.
Presumably it stayed up to temp for at least 3, maybe four hours even after you turned it off – so really it didn’t have all night to spoil.