Useless Father Bought Xmas Meat Today (Tues 19th)

[Smerk]

Just want a sanity check here. We're hosting Xmas for 10 adults and 2 small children (as usual). My dad's one contribution to this is ordering the meat from his local butcher for me or him to collect close to Christmas.

After chasing him up for a week asking if he'd managed to order the beef joint and pigs in blankets, he finally confirms today that be has bought it all and it's currently sitting in his fridge.

When I expressed concern that it's not going to last until next Tuesday, he replied:
"The butcher said it'll be fine. The pigs were frozen and my fridge is cold."

I thought that you had 24 hours to eat something that was defrosted. I also thought that meat was good in the fridge for only 3-4 days. I am very concerned that if we wake up on Xmas Day and it's turned, we're absolutely fucked. I'm also worried that we're going to make my elderly in-laws and breastfeeding SIL sick.

We can't refreeze the pigs if they've already been frozen. I don't particularly want to eat a frozen joint, but maybe I should tell him to stick it in his freezer and I'll buy a replacement of everything. Money is not an issue but the waste makes me sick.

AIBU to rebuy all the Christmas meat?

As in vacuum packed from the supermarket..

Yes but we don't live in the dark ages anymore

Oh my God! I'd never thought of doing that!!! Thank you 🤗🤗🤗

The 70s were not the dark ages, we used less plastic for one.

Of course they weren’t. The beef I saw today wasn’t vacuum packed in any case. It was on a polystyrene tray and wrapped in clingfilm. Still good to almost the new year.

When my mum & dad were getting old and confused, they once got a fancy fresh turkey for Christmas from M&S and left it out on the kitchen bench for 2 days to "thaw". It didn't affect me as I'm a vegetarian but they wanted my son to eat some of it on Christmas Day so it led to the most furious argument, in which I thought at one point they were going to disown me and banish me from their house. I tried to persuade them not to eat it themselves but they insisted and then were ill the next day. Still to this day I think I should have been able to handle this better somehow.

Yes YABU - the beef will be absolutely fine. If it was fresh from a butcher when he bought it, it will be more than fine in the fridge until Xmas day. Beef lasts a long time - we’ve got so hung up and worried about sell by dates that we waste so much food. If it was chicken or fish then it would be a different matter. Your pigs in blankets should be fine too although be a bit more cautious with pork - I’d put them back in the freezer and take them out Xmas Eve morning

If you salt the beef and leave it uncovered it tastes amazing. I often salt a steak and leave it uncovered for a few days. It’s basically dry-aging in a less technical manner.

And just cook the pigs in blankets and reheat on Xmas. No disaster at all.

Maybe the meat they have out is older meat then, because if it was fresh then it should be fine by Xmas day.

We bought all our Christmas food today in M&S, meat included. Date is 27th or later. I'd say butcher is right, meat is perfectly fine. People often do weekly shops and eat meat the entire week, so something is a week old when you get to it!

My DP purchased the meat for our Xmas dinner today (I’m vegetarian so this doesn’t affect me) but we’re hosting this year.

He works in a Michelin recommended fine dining restaurant so I’ll happily take his word that meat lasts (and tastes better) after a little more time.

Freeze the beef.
Eat the pigs tonight / Tomorrow

I honestly think you’ve just kicked up a fuss because it’s your “useless” Dad who can’t get anything right. You don’t want to allow him to be right.

You're being unreasonable.

There are people living out of food banks and you're complaining that you might have to eat meat that's been frozen! Get a bloody grip!

You sound really ungrateful @Smerk. At least you have a father who has at least tried.

Buy an electronic thermometer. Probe it before serving to ensure it is hot enough in the middle.

My turkey is in my fridge. It's vacuum packed best before 31st.
If you buy on Saturday chances are that's what you'll be buying. It's just in someone else's fridge rather than yours

Freeze the Beef and take it out on xmas eve morning. Cook the pigs, eat them and replace them.

Cook anything that can be frozen, then defrosted and reheated, now. Freeze anything that hasn't been previously frozen and defrost for Xmas morning. Anything that doesn't fall into those categories eat as a pre-Christmas treat and buy a replacement. It's fine.

All of it back in freezer, piping hot on serving and it'll be fine. When I read your post it made me smile because this is something my dad would have done. He died two months ago, thank you as I'm not smiling much at the moment! I think next time definitely take care of it yourself. My dad used to buy the meat, and we would get it.

Honestly one day you'll look back at this memory, and it will make you smile. Treasure every precious moment, the times when everything goes wrong are the most memorable.

I would NEVER EVER EVER rely on some else to order/collect the Christmas meat. I have to have total control. People simply have to follow my orders 😂
I’m not joking.

If you’ve ever eaten really good beef that will have hung for 14 days. For your own sake educate yourself on this issue.

OMG sooo many precious people on here! Our parents used to hang beef in a larder....Often it would be seasoned and cooked with a grey greenish aged colour to it! Tases a lot better than the sterilised red stuff we buy nowadays.

A fresh dry beef joint will be fine in a cold atmosphere. Even shrink wrapped from a supermarket, I can keep beef in the bottom drawer of a fridge for 2 weeks easily. You'll know by the smell if somethings amiss. Your dad Is right OP.
The piggies I'd just cook and freeze.

Your father isn't useless at all and you are unkind, inviting other posters to mock him. You do realise there are people who aren't having any kind of family Christmas this year and would love to have your ridiculously first world dilemma.

This 100%. I wish I could have a family Christmas. @Smerk you have no idea how lucky you are.

With the beef, it’s the blood that goes off so if it’s patted dry, air flow around it and not wrapped in plastic it will be absolutely fine - in fact better for it.

With the piggies 6 days would make me nervous as they may have been sitting at the butchers for a couple of days while being made but I would have no qualms at shoving them in the freezer. And if they are shrink wrapped they will be fine.