Huge row with DH over food safety - who is BU?

I’d not want reheated pork never mind reheated pork left out all night. Jeez. It’s good you both cancelled, although his childish reason was simply embarassing. He’s like a child.

Leave him to cook for his parents next time.

And must be protected from rank meat.

Well one major thing here is him telling his parents that the meal was cancelled because you’d had an argument. Now then, he needs to know you can give any reason for cancellation, explosive diarrhoea, cholera, rickets or whatever weird Victorian disease you can think of, but you must NEVER EVER, tell family that you’ve had an argument, especially parents, don’t give them that gossip, however much you get on with them, they must not know your faults, he needs to know you are a united front, a team and he should have solved this issue and the dinner gone ahead. Make it clear to him that he was being whiney and snitchey and you’re not happy with that behaviour, it needs to change, keep an eye on that part of him, it’s never attractive. But your young, it my be teething trouble, he may learn.

Now the next thing is pre cooking pork to reheat the next day, that’s if it had actually made it to the fridge. When I was little any meat was over cooked beyond recognition because people were worried about eating undercooked meat, and pork, well that was the worst. My mum used to cook it so that literally zero moisture was present in it, it was so chewy it hurt your jaw, even worse if you were late in and the whole dinner was left under a low light in the oven with a plate covering it, to keep warm and dry out even more lol. So just wondering what pork dish you could reheat that wouldn’t be really dry OP? However I’d wager it was something delicious and your cooking skills are better that 30 years ago.

Incidentally even though I was raised with stews left out and reheated and I survived, I know more about bacteria now, so wouldn’t have risked it.

When I make a meat casserole dish -- with beef, lamb or pork I always prepare and cook it one day then leave overnight in the kitchen before reheating and finishing with garnish etc the following day.
It's reheated thoroughly, to boiling point and held there for at least 10 minutes before serving. The flavour is enhanced as the meat will have effectively sat in a narinade overnight.
The only time I might not do this is during a heatwave. The nights are quite cool here ATM. (Cambridgeshire.)

You are right but its bad for anyone not just people in their 60s .obviously you think of them as ancient abd vulnerable
Sure they'd love to know that

2 hours yes, following morning not. It’s not bacteria landing on the food that is the problem, it is bacteria in the food multiplying in warm and moist conditions. Refrigeration after 2 hours cooling stops this process. It has nothing to do with foil.

Yes of course people have left food out overnight and been fine but it is a risk I would minimise by not doing it. Food poisoning is rising in this country and can be fatal.
Here is just one report from earlier this year.
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/06/people-in-england-facing-food-poisoning-russian-roulette-as-illnesses-soar

You do realise you’ve got all the armchair experts googling like mad now don’t you !! Stay tuned for the smarty pants that finds one !!

You are not being unreasonable and to be honest he shouldn't have cancelled and he should have cooked something else as it was his fuck up. Common sense says food needs to be out in the fridge over night.

Excellent point.

I would eat it myself but not serve to other people especially pensioners!

He should have sorted out an alternative even if it was takeaway with a confession about what he did!

Why would it have wiped you out if there was nothing wrong with it ? It stood out for a few hours while it cooled down. Potentially it would have done a lot more harm if you’d put it in the fridge hot or warm.

Unless the in laws have specific health conditions that make them more vulnerable I would have served it. I would have put in fridge in the morning and heated it carefully before serving. It would likely have been too hot to put in the fridge at midnight.

But his interfering sounds really annoying and I would have gone ballistic at that.

My husband and I do bicker a lot about things we don't agree on though and he also criticises my kitchen practices so I feel your pain, it's so stressful.

What a childish mardy arse! Does he have any redeeming features?

I cannot say who's being unreasonable and why,
because I never have been neither will I be in this situation.
Hosting and cooking, baking for 3,5 h to have my husband bitching - no, don't know that one.

At 65 your immune system has dropped and you are more vulnerable to food poisoning. They might be in good health, but in good health, for their 60's. Our bodies age, we are still expected to carry on working and given statins etc so we don't die. But we are still aging internally.
I could and would have fed my DP (57) it, but it would have wiped me out for a couple of days. It shouldn't be served before giving someone the heads up.

I would have done exactly what your DH did. It would have been quite a bit later that the meat was cool enough to put in the fridge, and I wouldn't have wanted to wait up.

If DH hadn't been annoying you, would you really have stayed up to do this?

I think this was an awful lot of work for a weekday evening when you were already tired after work, and your desire to impress perhaps overrode your common sense about what might be sensible to offer?

No, quite a few grown adults know that it’s dangerous to put hot or warm food into the fridge, which is what would have happened. We also know that pork is no different to any other meat and that if the meat is fresh and cooked right through, the cooking process negates any bacteria present. So it would have been fine to leave covered, out to cool properly overnight and then refrigerated the next morning.

We always leave meat stews out overnight in the pot it was cooked, then heat on the stove for lunch

It would have been eaten in our house. Left to cool overnight and put in fridge in morning. Then thourghly reheated. Growing up the turkey at Christmas was never put in fridge but put in the pantry which to be fair was very cool. Food was left a lot overnight. Not sure how we all avoided food poisoning.

I might have eaten it myself depending on temp of kitchen but I wouldnt have served it to guests. Honestly I would have got a take away to serve with the pudding at that point. Cancelling is ridiculous.
Next time he invites his parents over tell him he is in charge of feeding them since he is the expert.

i wouldnt care bout the food-so much,woulda made something fresh aanyway i think....but cancel cos and escalate from being a row to being a full drama is arsehole material.

If this pork was in the oven for quite a long time, long enough that all pathogens that potentially come with the meat are killed, which pathogenic bacteria do you think will grow in that brief window of time that pork dish (covered, I assume) was sitting on the kitchen bench unchilled?

Actually it’s correct. The cooking process will have negated any bacteria present and as long as the food is covered while cooling, putting in the fridge the following morning is the safest option as it will be fully cooled.

You are both being unreasonable.

I’ve eaten chicken left out overnight loads of times and still live to tell the tale. It’s not a massive deal. But also he is ridiculous to cancel over this.