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AIBU?

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Original poster

Would you have eaten this dinner?

170 replies

SurroundedByBlue · 05/01/2013 11:08

Thursday P comes home with ingredients to cook dinner, including mince to make meatballs. He leaves it on the side in the kitchen and we forgot about it and ended up having chippy tea.

I didn't realise he hadn't put the mince in the fridge so it stayed there until the middle of the next morning when I noticed it and put it in the fridge.

5pm last night he decides to make his meatballs. Rolls them into balls and leaves them on ghe side for 4 hours whilst he went out for a drink. Cooks them about 9pm and serves them. Cutting into one it was very pink in the middle and I asked him if he thought they were cooked. He says yes, definitely cooked. Not wanting to offend him I say I prefer mine well done (as I was sure they weren't cooked properly but didn't want to labour the point) and pop them back on the griddle for a bit. He puts his back on to cook more and then reserves. I still didn't think they were cooked so pushed them around my plate and ate around them. He ate all his, and mine.

I was probably being a bit fussy but didn't want to risk it at 36 weeks pregnant.

He was up all night with diarreah and is in bed with a stomach ache today. I suggested that maybe the meatballs weren't cooked after all, or had gone off from being out off the fridge. He was unimpressed and took offended saying that I was critical and should have eaten them etc.

Led to a stupid argument about how I'm ungrateful that he'd cooked etc with me pointing out how much I actually do at home (the usual type argument people have, it will be forgotten about in no time) We are both over tired, him after being up with his stomach and me after being up alot with our young child.

But, I still don't think that the meat was ediable.

Would you have eaten them?

OP posts:
nellyjelly · 05/01/2013 11:10

No

ILoveTIFFANY · 05/01/2013 11:11

Was your heating on high overnight?

I often leave food out and we are all fine! I think there is too much angst over this kind of thing

If it were off it would look and smell it

Hemlet · 05/01/2013 11:12

Definitely not. Even if I weren't 32 weeks pregnant. He's stinging because he cooked and presumably doesn't normally, and he wasn't heaps with absolute praise.

Yanbu at all.

GeraldineAubergine · 05/01/2013 11:12

I would have thrown the mince away when I found out it had been out all evening and morning, mince carries more bacteria due to surface area and production.

GiveMeSomeSpace · 05/01/2013 11:12

Depends what meat it was.

If beef and still in date when he bought it, then it would have been absolutely fine. They most definitely would have been edible.

Whether it's pink in the middle is down to preference.

issey6cats · 05/01/2013 11:13

NO after been out for almost 12 hours the mince which is high risk anyway been as the outside meat ends up in the middle would have been full of bacteria so you should have simply thrown the meat away

CloudsAndTrees · 05/01/2013 11:13

No, and while I don't think you really needed to make the point again when he was ill, he shouldn't have put his pride over your pregnancy health.

Chandon · 05/01/2013 11:13

mince needs to be eaten within 24 hours of purchase, and kept refrigerated, I would not have touched it with a bargepole.

Mince is very high risk for food poisoning!

MoetEtPantsOn · 05/01/2013 11:14

I wouldn't have let him make the meatballs fom the meat out all night in the first place. YANBU. I'd say the proof has been in the pudding. or the toilet

TheNebulousBoojum · 05/01/2013 11:14

Absolutely not. Well, I say that as a vegetarian, but I wouldn't have fed them to anyone in my family either. Mince is definitely one of those things, like shellfish, that you cannot treat in such a haphazard fashion. Leaving it out overnight? No way.
He needs do the joined up thinking bit and work out the effect his sloppy kitchen practices might have on a child.

gallicgirl · 05/01/2013 11:14

I'd have put it in bin rather than fridge the next day. Not worth the risk for a £2 pack of mince.

LovesBeingAtHomeForChristmas · 05/01/2013 11:15

No I wouldn't.

He is a knob saying you should have eaten them too when you are pg and they are clearly made him ill

ILoveTIFFANY · 05/01/2013 11:15

But if it was to make someone sick wouldn't they just throw it up?

BagCat · 05/01/2013 11:15

YANBU. I would never have eaten them, pregnant or not.

Grapesoda · 05/01/2013 11:17

Thank goodness you didn't eat them. as others have said, that meat was not safe to eat.
Would he have been happier if he'd poisoned you and your unborn child as well as himself?
Sorry to be disrespectful but he was behaving like a knob.
I hope he learns from the experience.

Bearfrills · 05/01/2013 11:18

I wouldn't even then, pregnant or not.

He more than likely knows you're right and he's annoyed with himself, which I know is no excuse for him being an arse.

I remember DH cooked a meal when we were dating, chicken in some sauce or other, and it was strangely chewy and not very warm. DH put the big light on (this was in our days of candlelit meals before kids came along) so I could go reheat it in the microwave. I very quickly discovered that the chicken was in fact raw. He had sealed the meat and then in between doing the rice/veg and me arriving for dinner he had forgotten to carry on cooking it. It had sat on the cold ring instead of the hot one, he made his sauce, poured it over and served.

We also had a big argument but I we laugh about it now.

AnotherPoster · 05/01/2013 11:19

'mince needs to be eaten within 24 hours of purchase,'

You what? I have been buying mince for approximately 30 years and rarely eat it within 24 hours of purchase. I have never had food poisoning and neither has anyone else after eating my cooking. Surely it only needs to be eaten within its eat by date? (and even then, I have eaten mince a day over the eat by date and been fine).

I agree it needs refrigerating though. I do not blame OP for not eating the meatballs. It all sounds very dodgy, especially being pregnant.

SarahWarahWoo · 05/01/2013 11:19

I wouldn't have eaten them but to be fair I would said before he cooked the meal and would have got more minced beef. His tummy could have been the food or one of the nasty bugs that are doing the rounds.

Sarahplane · 05/01/2013 11:19

no, not if it had been left out for so long

Tee2072 · 05/01/2013 11:19

First of all I'd like to know where gallicgirl buys mince for £2.

Second of all, it does not need to be eaten within 24 hours of purchase, so long as it's refrigerated.

Third of all, I would have binned it as soon as it was left out of the 'fridge for so long, no matter what colour when cut into.

fishandlilacs · 05/01/2013 11:20

if he gets over this tummy thing in 12-24 hours then it's more likely a bug than food poisoning, which lasts a lot longer usually.

It despends on how cold your kitchen is, I wouldn't have risked it when pregnant but probably would have if not.

TWinklyLittleStar · 05/01/2013 11:21

Yuck not a chance. Food poisoning is something not easily forgotten.

Hassled · 05/01/2013 11:21

I doubt the pinkness caused the illness - people eat rare beef in other forms quite happily. It would have been the sitting around in a warm room that caused the problems.

ILoveTIFFANY · 05/01/2013 11:22

Yeah I wondered that fish

Original poster
SurroundedByBlue · 05/01/2013 11:22

I shouldn't have mentioned that it might be the meatballs that had made him ill but was a tad fed up of his "I'm soooo poorly, give me sympathy" routine when I was tired and grumpy Blush

Heating clicks on and off during the night, its hot air heating so gets hot very quickly then cools down quickly too.

Not sure what mince it was, just bog standard Aldi mince. After being out all night and morning before finally getting into the fridge, he then left it out again for 4 hours on the side once he had rolled it into balls.

He's not a big fan of using the fridge and seems to have an iron stomach (he will make a big pot of chicken curry on a Saturday, leave it in the pan all week on the stove so he can quickly fill his lunchbox with it for work etc) He does do his fair share of cooking but has to be heaped with praise for it and be told how lovely it is even if its not. Gets offended if I or the children don't like or eat it. He does make a bloody good stew though.

OP posts: