Is this going to kill us all?

[HolidayDjinn]

DH is flapping.

On busy days when no one is going to be home until 18:30 I sometimes make up a tray bake and put the oven on timer so it will be ready just as we walk in the door. The ingredients come out the fridge about 6am and oven comes on about 17:45 so that’s nearly 12 hours at room temp. Today’s has no raw meat but does have chorizo. Sometimes I do sausages. Have done chicken thighs before. I feel like this is probably fine but DH is convinced we will contract food poisoning. NB his worries don’t come with an offer to sort dinner.

Oh well, just carry on as you are then I suppose OP and risk making them seriously ill with food poisoning 🤷🏼‍♀️🙄

You'd try and stop it or ring 999. If you're not in the house it's going to be a far far bigger fire before people on the street notice and ring.

It’s reckless to eat food that has sat at room temperature all day. I wouldn’t eat it. I’ve had serious food poisoning and it’s not something to risk. Children are also more likely to die from it than adults, so I’m hoping you’re not feeding these meals to your children.

I think you need to learn how to use your slow cooker properly. Sorry.

I wouldn’t eat it.
But you have bigger problems if your partner won’t cook or help out.

No way would I eat that food!

You need to adjust flavourings for a slow cooker. It definitely needs more. And less liquid.

But YABU re your tray bake. Vegetarian (or even chorizo) is probably fine, but anything with meat is a recipe of food poisoning.

As others said, not a good idea. You're at high risk of getting food poisoning and it is not a pleasant experience and possible fatal.

Have you DH sort the meals.
Not sure why when you both are working, you are stuck with it all.

I don't think you'll die or get ill, OP.

As others have pointed out, there are plenty of places where people don't use fridges and they do this and it's fine. Also, the temperature inside a closed oven won't fluctuate much.

However, the obvious alternative is a pressure cooker/instant pot. Leave all the ingredients ready and chopped in the fridge, put them in the pot as soon as you get home. Dinner ready in 30 mins tops.

Only if you don't know how to use a slow cooker

Would not eat that! YOu need a slow cooker.

My slow cooker food is fantastic. Are you doing this wrong? I wouldn't eat it op if I'm honest. Why not just wait 45 mins to eat? Or do a totally vegetarian tray bake ,

One reason I make a lot of stir fry's is they can be ready within 15 mins and very little prep

I'd just swap to a veggie tray bake or only cured meats. Something like chicken could indeed make you all seriously ill. If you must have meat you could do a whole chicken in the slow cooker and a nice veggie tray bake in the oven and then serve them together.

Or get an air fryer

Freeze some of the ingredients to keep everything in the tray bake cool, theyll have defrosted before oven switches on. Assuming your kitchen isn’t warm in the daytime...

Cookibg will kill the bacteria but they’ll still have left toxins behind, so although Id not worry about veg or chorizo, I’d not eat one with chicken, sausages, fish, etc

It has only been the norm to have a fridge at home since about the 1980s.

Where are you from?!

Sorry, OP, this is very weird behaviour and very risky. Your OH is right.

I'm probably the most foolhardy person in the country with regards to food hygiene (for myself, I'm very careful when cooking for others) - as in I'll eat cooked food which has been out for way too long, and observe the five-second-rule... but there's no way on this Earth that I'd eat meat which had been out of the fridge while raw for this long.

If you really must do it for your own food, fine - but don't put your family at risk just for a little bit of convenience. As a parent you have a responsibility to provide safe food for your kids, you don't get to piss about with the definition of "safe" just because it'll shave half an hour off your evening plans.

You seriously need some hygiene and food safety lessons (and some cooking lessons if you can't manage a slow cooker dish without it being bland and watery).
Honestly it made me gag thinking about eating at your house, revolting.

• get a battery powered wifi thermometer (about £5 from amazon) and put it in the oven along with the chilled food and check the temperature after 12 hours. The insulation plus the cold from the tray may act like a cool box and keep the temps ok
• As above but freeze the veg/meat and put on the tray into the oven
• Try a ninja foodie - we have the flip which tucks out of the way and can do a tray bake in 20-25 mins
• cook double the day before and reheat (or earlier in the week and freeze)
• eat later and accept the compromise

Has it ever caused you any problems to date? If not, then I wouldn't worry.

Highly preserved meats like chorizo are not going to poison you in the context you outlined. If you were doing it with chicken thighs, I'd probably put them in frozen so that they have slowly defrosted before the oven comes on 12 hours later, obviously checking they are cooked through before consuming.

Very sensible answer

If cooking meat and poultry killed all the germs, then why would anyone bother with fridges or chiller cabinets in supermarkets? The answer is cooking doesn’t kill them all - especially not if they’ve been sitting merrily at room temperature reproducing by the millions. It’s only good luck that nobody’s been ill so far.

Choose a veggie tray bake. There are lots in the Green Roasting tin book that are quick and easy, or use meat recipes from the Quick Roasting tin (or whatever the book is called) and keep the tray in the fridge and put it in the oven when you get home.

As I said in a recent thread, a family member got extremely ill from chicken. That chicken had been kept in a fridge and cooked properly but still gave her salmonella. Don’t risk it.

People did used to live without fridges

this is what I mean. Growing up at my mums I thought the runs and feeling slightly sick all day was totally standard. It’s only once you realise it’s not; that you can put it down to cooking practises. My mum is still ill all the time and thinks she has IBS. Nope, it’s the meat you didn’t put in the fridge.

The living without fridges, routine illness aside, often involved knowing how to cook, a larder with a cold shelf, non-centrally heated houses, daily shopping and cooking during the day and a healthier diet.

Not sure, that is how it works! 😂