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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To throw out the bolognese?

70 replies

CinnabarRed · 03/08/2014 07:34

DH cooked a big batch of bolognese yesterday evening to freeze for meals during the coming week. It's probably 4 nights' worth of supper for DH and me.

We both forgot to put it in the fridge, so it's been sitting on the hob overnight. DH left the top off the pan to allow some liquid to evaporate, and when I noticed this morning there was a fly on it.

I want to throw it all out. DH thinks it will be fine and it would be a waste to bin the lot.

Who is being unreasonable?

OP posts:
Original poster
CinnabarRed · 03/08/2014 08:09

Lay eggs? Spread pathogens from its bodily fluids?

You're all going to want an update, aren't you?

OP posts:
londonrach · 03/08/2014 08:10

It's not what the fly can do but where he has been before..... Just checked food standards website and reheating twice (thinking you reheat after it's frozen) is very risky. If your dh wants to take the risk that's his choice as an adult. I'd bin it...

Hakluyt · 03/08/2014 08:10

"so you are going to reheat it now then freeze then reheat again? You are not meant to reheat more than once for starters "

Nobody actually follows that rule, do they?

R4roger · 03/08/2014 08:10

just take off the top layer and freeze

londonrach · 03/08/2014 08:11

Yes cinner update. Hope your dh is going to be ok if not binned.

combust22 · 03/08/2014 08:11

Flies carry germs- the last place they could have settled may have been a pile of shit. They deposit saliva on food prior to eating. They can also lay eggs.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 03/08/2014 08:14

Okaaaayyyy.... you're next to a field of cows, so the last thing the fly probably landed on was a cow pat?

Yeah, I'd bin it.

R4roger · 03/08/2014 08:15

so let DH eat it. put it in man size portions and freeze.

Notso · 03/08/2014 08:21

I would eat it. We pick and eat fruit and veg from the allotment I dare say flies have landed on all the strawberries, raspberries and tomatoes we scoff as we are picking.

picnicbasketcase · 03/08/2014 08:24

Regardless of whether it would make me ill, the very thought of a fly having a nice bath in it would put me off. I'd have to throw it away I'm afraid. And I'm not usually wasteful at all.

TeaAndALemonTart · 03/08/2014 08:39

I would 100% bin it. I never eat food if I've seen a fly on it. I just think of them landing in dog shit then on the food.

I don't think it will give food poisoning I just couldn't fancy it with that mental image in my head. Yuk.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 03/08/2014 08:39

Fruit and veg are a bit different, a nice moist room temperature bolognaise is like a lovely nutrient-rich meaty broth for those bacteria to multiply...and multiply....and multiply.

butterflybuttons · 03/08/2014 08:44

I find it worrying that so many people don't follow basic hygiene with food. Do they not know? Not refrigerating stuff, flies landing on food, reheating more than once. Does nobody care about basic common sense any more?

OTheHugeManatee · 03/08/2014 09:59

I've often left a pan of bolognese out overnight. Unless you are habituated to a sterile environment, have no gut flora or an immunodeficiency you and your DH will be absolutely fine eating it.

StealthPolarBear · 03/08/2014 10:05

What sort of a fly? A little cute one that sometimes has a sip of your wine in the summer or a great big ugly bluebottle giving you the evils from its many eyes?
...you can see where I'm going with this...

No way I'd reheat twice.

wowfudge · 03/08/2014 10:10

Reheating after something has been frozen is absolutely fine. If you freeze raw meat then defrost and cook it you can quite safely freeze it again and then defrost and reheat it. Cooking and then freezing make all the difference.

For the sake of one fly I'd skim of the top layer then freeze it in portions.

BeanyIsPregnant · 03/08/2014 10:10

I think I'd bin it, and be truly gutted that so much food has been wasted
this is the reason I always double check the kitchen for food before we go to bed..

UsedToBeAPaxmanFan · 03/08/2014 10:11

If it had been left covered, I'd say reheat then freeze. Uncovered, I'd throw it out ( because of the fly issue).But tbh, I'm probably a bit over fussy.

I think with bolognese you'd be fine to reheat more than once. I certainly reheat beef and lamb dishes more than twice on occasion. Hmm I wouldn't do so with chicken or pork, or anything containing rice.

StealthPolarBear · 03/08/2014 10:14

Yes as a vegi I accept I am paranoid about storage and preparation of meat. But stuff that seems obvious to others isn't to me. Why is beef ok but pork not for example? Why is chicken still so worrying when generations of chickens have been vaccinated against salmonella now?

upupupandaway · 03/08/2014 10:15

I'd suggest if you make a dish for freezing you put the pot in a bowl/sink of ice cold water and cover it until it is completely cold then freeze it for later use.

JimmyCorkhill · 03/08/2014 10:31

Yum yum!

dustarr73 · 03/08/2014 11:12

I would throw it out,you dont know how long the fly was in the sauce for.Or what other unsavoury things landed in it overnight.

BreadForBrains · 03/08/2014 11:24

We sometimes eat things that have been left out overnight, even, shock horror, rice. Haven't seen any flies but I'm sure flies have landed on it at some point.
We don't follow guidelines, we follow common sense. Reheat to piping hot has managed to kill off anything problematic as none of us have had food poisoning or gut ache after eating it.

gamerchick · 03/08/2014 11:27

Christ don't heat it up again and then freeze. Freeze it now and sort It out when you want to use it.

whois · 03/08/2014 11:27

I'd do what others have suggested - add wine, boil then summer for a bit before cooking and freezing.

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