Turkey: to eat or not to eat after 9 days?

[TobleroneWrestling]

Is it safe to eat a turkey, cooked on Boxing Day, allowed to cool and then kept in a cold fridge since? It looks and smells fine but it is almost 9 days since it was cooked. It seems a shame to waste it if it is safe to eat.

I know some people would eat it without considering it an issue and some people would run screaming for the hills rather than eat it!

But can anyone tell me please if it is safe to eat from an actual food safety knowledge point of view?

I'm verrrrrry relaxed about things like this...but no.

As pp said, had you frozen it, it would've been fine to reheat/use again, but after nine days I wouldn't risk it.

If you really notice no signs of offness - cut a couple of slices, microwave or fry them thoroughly, sniff them and if still smelling OK, eat them with a condiment of your choice. If you feel no ill effects by dinnertime, chuck the rest of the turkey in a curry.

Writing as someone who hates throwing out meat. It just seems so wrong to not even eat and animal that's been killed to be eaten. But if there's even a hint of whiffiness, bin it.

Really it depends on how good your nose is. I have to involve my husband these days as my nose never recovered from covid...

You obviously want to eat it. If you accept the risk of possible mild to severe illness that goes along with that choice, regardless of how it smells (not all toxins smell), then crack on.

As you cooked it on Christmas Eve, then you ate your leftover sandwiches at the same 9 day point. My turkey was cooked 2 days after your three bird roast.

I'm similar about best before, use by dates and the lack of previous food poisoning from food at home. This 9 day turkey is beyond my experience though, so thought it wise to ask.

Offer it to the cat. If they turn their sniffy little nose up, I would avoid.

Please come back Monday and let us know if you are still alive

Is it a whole bird, cooked and totally untouched? That will have kept much better than sliced meat and tbh I'd probably risk it.....
But if you do- then get it all cut up, cooked into other dishes or ready to use and freeze NOW, don't start cutting it snd pick at it for days

I wouldn’t really eat it past day 3 (day 4 is the absolute max!) unless I literally had no other food in and it meant I would go hungry; in that case, I would unhappily eat it if it still smelt and looked fine.

To whit my previous comment, I think you won't get a clear answer here. Because there's the sensible adults who know the stupid risks and won't sully their digestives systems with the easily avoidable aftermath/potential hospitalisation that such a forbidden slice could wreak..

But then, inevitably, like night to day, dark to light, right to wrong, there's also the brave contingency of snack mavericks. The people who boldly accept food poisoning a couple of times a year as a natural consequence of their innate curiosity and gluttony, nay, see it as a badge of honour 😅

If you have nowhere important to go for the next week then yes.

No chance would I eat it as phobic about being sick but a pre xmas cooking programme I watched said that your xmas gammon was fine for 10 days (Jamie oliver) which shocked me as I'd never risk more than 3-4 days with cooked meat. I did, however, work in a deli decades ago and the cooked meats were sliced up for as long as they lasted and sold, one of which was turkey, used to make me cringe, but never had anyone complaining of being sick🤷‍♂️

Nope, no way!

No. I googled this, and it says 4 days. We binned ours on day 5. It's a shame but we fed 13 people on it and had many turkey based meals. I feel we got our money's worth, and it wasn't worth risking our health.

Oh God, DO NOT EAT!!!

I once ate turkey on New Year's Eve that had been cooked on Xmas Day - the fall out was spectacular! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was spewing for England, it was horrific & I thought I was gonna die.

Not after 9 days. Definitely not. I might be wrong but I think 5 is the max. You can't mess around with poultry.

No extra pounds to loose this year, unfortunately. Christmas didn't go according to plan, hence the uneaten turkey.

Awh sorry to hear that. But still don't eat the turkey please

You can eat it if you have enough buckets and toilets for everyone to have one of each at the same time.
Are you mad OP?

It’s a hard no from me.

Personally, it’s three days in the fridge for me (I’ve never had to test it further because leftovers never make it past that point).

Also, my dad had chicken that looked and smelled fine that was about a week old and he had campylobacter very badly for two weeks! So I would never risk it.

No, absolutely not.

I cooked a boned and rolled turkey crown on Christmas Day, had it cold with bubble the day after Boxing Day and finished the last bit of it in some rolls at the weekend, but I certainly wouldn't be entertaining it at 9 days from cooked.

Are you joking? Do you think that food poisoning is 'just an upset stomach'?

Nope, 3 days max in the fridge here. Anything not going to be used in that time and scrappy bits from the carcass are in the freezer and will be used in soups in the next few weeks.

No way, put it out for the fox

As a person who doesn't like wasting things, do NOT eat it.

Poor fox!

throw it in the bin! 9 days is way too long.