View Full Version : I mistreated some meat and now I am wondering if it is safe to eat
I did some grocery shopping after work last night and used a box to pack up some of the things that do not have to go into the refrigerator.
Four hours later, I finally got myself up and going and put those things away. At the bottom of the box I found two steaks. A real and infrequent splurge for me and I felt just plain sick seeing them there.
They were still cool, probably from the box being on the table and the other items insulating them. What a loss and I am feeling really stupid about wasting all that money. I put them into the refrigerator, to think and wonder if they were any good and am still wondering if they are safe to cook and eat.
I am ordinarily a 'when it doubt, throw it out' kind of babe, and this is not any different, but, oh, the money I spent on them...aaarrrrrggggggggg!
I know that I am going to throw them away, I guess. I just had to ask, you know?
I am not a risk-taker of any sort and also not a huge fan of food poisoning, so I plan to take the safe route and toss them and have a good cry with a glass of the wine I also bought at Aldi?
And, yes, I remembered that the rrrrs will produce the ambulance. Just like the irony.
Four hours?? I wouldn't throw it out. You're going to cook it, aren't you? I leave stuff out all the time, and I've never knowingly had food poisoning.
I would eat them. I think we are overly-concerned in this country about things going bad. You might just cook them a little more than you would have, if you were going to go med-rare.
Another thing you could do is either leave them whole or cut them into slices and marinate them for awhile. Have you thrown them out already? I really think you're okay, if you don't eat them rare.
awakenedsoul
5-24-14, 3:05pm
Me, too. Four hours isn't that long. If you think about the days before electricity, people probably ate meat that had been out at least four hours. I would marinate them and bbq them. I think they'll be delicious! If you'd left them in a hot car in the heat of the summer, that would be different. (You said they were still cool.)
They are still sitting in the fridge. They are from Aldi, so are in those air-sucked-out packages.
They are still sitting in the fridge. They are from Aldi, so are in those air-sucked-out packages.
I would crack them open and do the smell test - if they appear ok but you're still worried, I'd go for at least medium well as opposed to rare.
I'd worry less about steaks than ground meat. If it were ground I'd throw it out. In your situation I'd cook them soon and as others have said at least medium.
If they smell bad after four unrefrigerated hours in vacuum-sealed packages, they were bad when you bought them. Eat up.
I would not worry about it. If you saw unrefrigerated meat sitting outside in Egypt or India that is sold for human consumption (and we probably ate), you would worry less. In America, we are overly concerned about germs and "freshness". I use the smell test for fish and meat.
Okey-dokey. I am going to slice them up and make stir fry. I like my steak barely warmed up, but not this time.
Stay cool if you do not hear from me for a while. :~)
Good for you Jilly-I hope they are great! I echo others' about the idea that 4 hrs is fine. They *age* beef on purpose, for what? weeks? more? Yes it's refrigerated but wasn't back in the day. I'm pretty conservative about pathogens but if you cook it, it's probably fine.
It is nearly midnight here. I ate some several hours ago, and like all responsible health consumers I went straight to the most reliable source of medical information...the Internet...where I found that if I was going to become ill, it would have happened by now.
It was delicious, even though cooked much more than I prefer. Long enough actually to set off the smoke detector. So, not only am I just fine, I have confirmation that the alarm works. All supportive of a good night's sleep.
This has been interesting. I wrote here for advice, certainly, but I was so upset about wasting money that I had to share and also knew I would not be mocked by posting here. Given this experience, I am equally certain that I have tossed perfectly edible and healthy food in the past. Guess it is time to change my ways.
Rosie, I remember that my grandparents always took a long drive out into the country to visit a butcher market where their specialty was aged beefsteak. When you walked into the place in this tiny bump in the road, the smell was exotic and mildly pleasant. There were sausages, and things that looked like sausages, hanging all over, stacked like cordwood on surfaces, crazy looking cheeses and odd jars of stuff, bits and bobs of all kinds of food everywhere.
Just sitting here, I am right back there. I can see the butcher and his two helper-butchers. I can feel how cool it was inside there; this was before air conditioning, so I wonder how he kept it like that. I can smell the smoked fats and cured meats, all the spices and the smell of breads in paper bags, brought over from the bakery on the other side of town.
It was an event, albeit a regular one, for them and the ride out there and back was nice. Them asking me about my life, but mostly me listening to them share their daily lives and a life-time of memories that those long car trips seemed to make flow out of them. There was a little diner kind of place down the street where we would go and have bowls of steaming, hearty and plain soup, and more of that bread from the bakery. We did not linger because of the meat bounty waiting in the car. I remember asking them a couple of times over those years why we did not visit the butcher shop after having lunch and they always answered that they might miss something special if we ate lunch first and someone else got there for the special stuff before we did.
Glad you are still with us Jilly. 4 hours isn't bad for beef. I just found a wrapper of thick-cut bacon that I bought 2 weeks ago. I don't think I'll be cooking that even though it's been in the fridge the whole time. I'm getting worse and worse about remembering to cook what I buy with in a couple days. I think from now on I will only buy meat on the way home the day I plan to cook it. Wednesday morning I grilled everything I bought and it was nice to have already cooked meats in the fridge ready to use. I wonder if the butcher you visited when you were young had big ice blocks delivered or if the butcher shop was over a cave. I knew of a small cave north of Springfield, MO that had been used as a butcher shop. They were also used as dance halls, roller rinks, concert venues in the 40's and 50's since they were wonderfully cool on hot summer days.
Oh, I like the idea of a cave.
Glad you didn't get sick, not that I expected it from 4 hours. Another thing in favor of eating them as opposed to ground beef is something mentioned on the news the other day regarding the tainted hamburger recall. That is that with hamburger there's a lot more chance for bacteria to get spread throughout the meat during the grinding up process, whereas with a steak only the outside is likely to get infected with bacteria so even cooking it rare gets the outside cooked and thus kills anything on it.
I am very happy to be wiser about food management and to not be sick. This is a liminal moment for me. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to manifest my inner-non-cowardness.
I know meat is a bit different than other products, but I always use things way past their expiration, if they look and smell okay. I'm still using milk that "expired" about 2 weeks ago, and cottage cheese and buttermilk that are older than that. And I'm okay. But I might look a little like this though. !pow!
haha
Do not worry, it is probably from the ergot-ed rye bread you had with that cheese.
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