Accidentally left cottage pies out overnight, will it be ok?

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I made 4 cottage pies last night, they were finished by 9pm, I put lids on them and I’ve only just found them and they’ve gone in the freezer.

Ive done this before and they were OK but I’m so worried now because the mixture was cooling whilst I was cooking the potatoes so they weren’t that warm when I’d finished anyway.

After I left them to cool I forgot about them and never returned to the kitchen and of course husband went in to the kitchen several times after that but didn’t think to mention the cottage pies.

Will it be ok to eat?

They were in the kitchen, away from the radiator and the heating was off by about 10pm.

How cold is your kitchen at night?

For me it would be fine but my DH and probably plenty of people on here will they you they aren’t and you should bin them.

They'll be fine but people get funny about this and lots of people will probaby tell you to throw perfectly good food

I would freeze and eat, no different to making them in the morning, leaving them to cool and putting them in the freezer in the evening.

They'll be fine. I accidentally leave stuff out all the time. I eat it anyway and I've never been ill from it.

They’ll be absolutely fine.

I’ve left chicken in microwave over night and eaten it the next day countless times.

Its really cold here, I'd not worry at all. Reheat well to eat

They'll be fine. Our kitchen is (feels like) a fridge anyway this week.

Fine. It's bloomin freezing. What did we do before fridges?

Well my kitchen gets really cold after heating goes off, probably a lot colder than the fridge, so I would say they will be ok. I probably wouldn’t feed to my DH who has colitis, so wouldn’t risk it with him, but myself and adult DS, we would definitely eat it.

It’ll be fine. Just freeze them.

Thanks so much all.

Im hoping the kitchen was pretty cold last night anyway.

I keep doing this I must remember to put a reminder on my phone or something.

I wouldn’t but I’m probably over cautious

My husbands just told me through the heating app that the house temperature was 14 degrees last night, is that cool enough?

I’d take the risk, should be fine.

That’s totally fine. Get them in the freezer.

They’ll be fine. I might not risk with chicken but beef/lamb I would just put them in the freezer.

They're fine. Freeze and cook to very hot when defrosted. Actually scary people will throw good food away for this. What a wasteful society we are.

The vast majority of people in UK didn't have a fridge until mid 20th century.Home fridges have been around for less than a 100 years. Cottage pie has been around for a lot longer than that and humans even longer than cottage pie recipes! 😁
Unless you unnecessarily heat your kitchen all night long, they will be absolutely fine.

Thanks all, you’ve all reassured me!

They will be fine. I wouldn't even have thought about, I've left left things out overnight regularly and I've never come to any harm.

If you think about it, in the past when people didn't have refrigerators, they would have stored meat in a meat safe or larder, which would have been cold, but not as cold as a fridge.
At the moment, it's cold, so I think you'd be OK to still use the food. My kitchen felt freezing this morning!

Well not everyone would have had a meat safe or larder, some people would just have had them on a shelf in the room or kitchen. Its fine.

I leave stuff out to cool overnight all the time (intentional and otherwise) and have never suffered any ill effects.

Thanks all, I think il risk it.

Very true!