Help! Can I serve this lamb?

[Lovesacake]

Doing a lamb casserole for Mother’s Day lunch, browned off the lamb and precooked the veg/sauce etc. intended let it cool then put it in the fridge overnight. Will need an hour in the oven today. Just realised it never went in the fridge! So has been out ‘cooling’ for 13 hours. Is it still safe to cook??

This. No way would I use it.

Mainly a selection of tubs of ice cream

Well your freezer space problem is easily solved.

100% would have it without a doubt.

It takes longer than 2 hours for a big pot of something to get cold enough to put in the fridge doesn't it?

So after 2 hours in a room food gives you food poisoning? Absolute horse shit.

You are cooking it again so it'll be absolutely fine

Don't worry

The risk is increased. Not to 100%, but to a non-safe level. Particularly at population level - if everyone did this, there would be increased sickness.

Why do so many MNers find it so hard to understand risk? Be it re driving, food, covid or safeguarding - there's this view that if something doesn't happen 100% of the time (eg crashing when travelling at 85 mph) then it's not worth mitigating.

But this isn't raw food that will be cooked completely before serving.

It's food that's been browned and then left overnight with all the other ingredients.

If it was raw or fully cooked it would be slightly different but this is like the worst of both worlds.

I wouldn't

Gosh how much was it if it is colossal. Such a shame!

I’d eat it.

I'd eat it too, but make sure middle is thoroughly cooked to a very high temp (over 90 degrees C?) Maybe slice and braise? Don't have rare whatever you do.

So sorry about your lovely casserole!

I think I’d do the same as you in this situation and I’m generally pretty relaxed (def not a MORE THAN TWO HOURS IS DOOM type as, while that’s very sensible food prep restaurant hygiene advice as a rule, it doesn’t exactly tally with reality - eg when I cook a Xmas turkey it rests for a whole hour, then we are probably still eating it an hour later etc, and it’s probably still too warm to go in the fridge).

If it was just me and my family I MIGHT just risk it, as I suspect it’ll probably be fine, but for serving up as a special meal to guests - too risky. Aware that isn’t entirely logical but that’s probably what I’d do!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2923573/amp/Chef-manager-jailed-pub-firm-fined-1-5m-Christmas-dinner-killed-mother-left-dozens-sick-food-poisoning.html

I always remember this case. The turkey wasn’t cooled properly. Admittedly it wasn’t heated properly either but the meat being left out without being cooked correctly was a factor. Other papers reported this but the Mail article specifically mentions the lack of proper cooling.

32 Ill, one dead.

I would. I do this all the time but I do have quite a cold kitchen.

Perhaps heat through a portion and eat it and see if anything happens.

I honestly think it will be fine unless it was in a very warm room with the lid off.

‘Cooled correctly’ my post meant to say

I’m finding it concerning all the people saying this is fine and it puts me off eating in other people’s houses. It’s meat that has been warmed up (not even cooked all the way through) and left in a fairly warm kitchen overnight for bugs to multiply. Cooking it all the way through will not kill off all the bugs/toxins, as others have explained.

I was thinking exactly this as I read through. Same as the old "well my mum/nan/aunt smoked all her life and that never killed her so are cigarettes really that harmful"

Also shocking lack of basic scientific knowledge such as the difference between bacteria and toxins, what makes you sick and what happens when you cook food.

You did 100% the right thing OP

So after 2 hours in a room food gives you food poisoning? Absolute horse shit

After the food drops below hot enough to kill bacteria but warm enough for it to start rotting the meat, the bacteria multiplies really fast. It depends how long the food takes to drop to under 70 degrees. But two hours after that point it will make a few people ill. After 4 it will make a lot of people ill. After 13 hours everyone’s gonna be sick. The bacteria that rots dead carcasses (because that’s what’s happening) are in full force on warm, dead meat a lot faster than normal people realise.

The elderly and young kids are at particular risk.

Actually i am changing my mind because you just browned it. If you gad cooked it and left it out, i would eat it but not if it has been browned. I don't understand why you did that in advance .

I wouldn't. Then again I'm an Environmental Health Officer so what would I know?

I wouldn't eat it. If it had been properly cooked I wouldn't hesitate. But just browned, no way.

I hope all these over cautious posters never eat out

There are strict laws in commercial kitchens, mandatory training and log keeping and fines and imprisonment for people who don’t adhere to them. Hence the jail sentence for the man who killed his customer for reheating a turkey not cooled and reheated properly posted upthread.

So after 2 hours in a room food gives you food poisoning? Absolute horse shit.

This x100, what nonsense.

Leaving food out overnight in summer, yes, it can go bad and start smelling. A few hours though? Ffs

So after 2 hours in a room food gives you food poisoning? Absolute horse shit.

Well, it's not guaranteed, but the longer you leave food sat at room temperature, the greater the risk that you'll get sick.

That's just basic science.