Cooking question

lol, yeah, I'd eat it if it was just overnight, too, but after two whole days, I'd be expecting it to walk off the counter by itself! perhaps while singing and dancing...:banana02:

There are a lot of foods that dont mind being left out overnight, Cheese comes to mind. I have never heard of any bacterial toxins that boiling for ten minutes or so does not kill. Supposedly that is the purpose of boiling any canned goods for ten minutes before eating.... to destroy the botulism toxins that may have built up over time in the jar. My rule of thumb..... if there is any doubt, feed it to the pig, eat the pig later.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Growing up with a mother who had no clue about food safety, I'm sure I've eaten some of that 9 day old porridge in a pot that wasn't reheated daily but found languishing in the fridge then casually stirred in as part of the base of one of her soups--"waste not, want not". (Actually, she made excellent soup; most bits were "something new" but others were "something old" and maybe "something blue" so recreating one of her masterpieces was impossible.)

I believe in eating a bit of dirt, mold and something "blue" daily; doing so has given me the constitution of an ox it seems.

Does your Uncle do this regularly?

No one died from eating the ham and bean soup.

Yes 7thswan, he does this regularly. He will buy " managers special " meat and then just stick it in the fridge for a few days before doing anything with it. YUCK.
I will buy " managers special " meat only if I am going to cook it that same day.

They also dont see anything wrong with leaving the refridgerator open for up to 5 minutes at a time.
and no, my uncles is not slow or mentally disabled, just different. LOL

I will leave butter out for a few hours but then it has to go back in th fridge and I have heard or read that if eggs are never refridgerated they can be stored at room temp but once they go in the fridge they have to stay there. I have never tried this, all my eggs go in the fridge.

When in doubt, throw it out. After 48 hours, there is no doubt.......
geo

Agreed.

Farm fresh eggs have what is called a bloom (until they are washed). You can wipe them off but not wash them and they will stay viable for a couple weeks. That's what allowed the old timers to keep a basket of eggs on the counter. It's also what keeps the eggs from rotting before they are hatched.

Legumes (beans, lentils) turn fast, and when they turn, they's nasty! Not worth the chance - not at the price of a trip to the emergency room.

Or the funeral home!

Glad your Uncle survived, I am sure he has built up a tolerance to his method of cooking and storing food. Might be a little harder on your system though. People used to keep stuff like that in a cool pantry or larder back before we had refrigeration so I agree we probably are overly cautious today.

Boiling might kill whatever is living in the soup, but wouldn't the toxins still be present? So maybe you don't get sick now, but you get some sort of bean cancer down the road...I wouldn't risk it.

That said, my MIL is Japanese and they eat fermented soybeans (it's pronounced nah-toh, but I don't know how it's spelled) and they are supposed to be really good for you. Still, there is a big difference between leaving food out and fermenting it deliberately, with specific probiotics. (The fermented soybeans stink to high heaven, at least in my opinion.)

If was not sealed air tight and you cook it, its going to be safe to eat. It might not be 'fit' to eat taste wise but it shouldn't have anything it which would harm you.

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I am wondering why you didn't just put the pot in the fridge yourself, rather than leave it out for two days? You live there too, unless I misunderstood your post.

So your uncle does this on a regular basis, and he is still very much alive and well. That in itself should tell you something. I know for a fact that butter can sit out for days on end with no ill effects, and eggs too for that matter. I prefer to toss the managers specials in the freezer myself if I am not going to get around to eating them within the next few days. My wonderful Yvonne goes absolutely bonkers about food storage too. Apparently growing up in the city and never dealing with real foods has affected her thinking along those lines. I have managed to get her to eat a few bites at least of road kill venison. Turtle on the other hand is quite safe around her. shes just not having any!! she will refuse to eat a bite out of a country ham because its had "mold" growing on it, but she will stuff herself with blue cheese or other nasty products of a similar nature. go figure?!?!

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Gross - I would not eat it. But - I will admit that my Grandmother who lived to be 92 years old did similar things with food. She would set plates or pots out on the porch in cooler weather, she put leftovers in the freezer long after I thought it was OK and she claimed the freezer killed the germs. She would point out that she was over 90 and healthy and did not get sick from the food and she just did not care what we said! Everyone who came to visit learned to bring food!

I wonder how folks dealt with leftovers before refrigeration? I imagine they tried to cook only what they could eat before it went bad.

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In Wilderness survival class were taught to cook everything into a soup and bring it to a full rolling boil for 10 minutes a couple times a day to kill the beasties and toxins.

The organisms that would spoil the beans, would not usually be hazardous to humans.... it is the waste matter from these organisms that is toxic. While reheating the beans will kill the organisms themselves, it usually won't remove the poisons they have produced. The kind of microbes that are most likely to be decomposing beans, are the ones that prefer proteins..... these are the most dangerous kind. If the beans had been heated to boiling every couple of hours since they were made Sunday, it wouldn't bother me to eat them, because the bacteria, etc would have been kept killed to the extent that little toxins could have been produced (heh, they might be scorched or mushy as heck), but there is no way I would eat beans sitting out at room temperature for 48 hours. One would be asking for a bad case of the Hershey's at least

uncooked eggs in the shell can stay fresh for days.... cook some eggs and leave them at room temperature for two days..... a whole different ball game.

This all reminds me of the chili that a friend used to make with his roommates. They made it in a huge stockpot and it stayed on the stove until it was gone! This could easily take a week as they would occasionally add "stuff" to it as the week progressed.

This also raised another question about canning: if boiling canned goods for 10 mins kills any botulism that may be in the jar, why do we have to pressure can at 240 degrees for an hour or more?!