is it too late to still be eating the turkey and ham

[EleanorReally]

turkey cooked 25th naturally.
ham cooked 23rd and roasted 24th

Before fridges and central heating were commonplace food would last for ages in a pantry or on a cool shelf. If it smells ok it will be fine.

My dad used not to always refrigerate cooked meals. I was usually OK when I lived there but invariably was ill at my grandmother’s. We visited in summer and she didn’t have a fridge. Went back to see mum once when dad was in hospital. I was very unwell with d&v after the meal she reheated from the freezer on my arrival. Next day she visited dad in hospital leaving me sitting with a bucket on the sofa(!) She also left the soup from the day before’s lunch sitting out all day in the centrally heated kitchen. “Mum, the soup’s been out all day, it will need to be thrown out.” Her response? “Rubbish! Your father never refrigerated anything.” Well OK, that does explain a lot.

I stripped mine yesterday. It all looked and smelled fine. I going to make and freeze pie filling today. That's long enough imo. The ham will be fine for sandwiches, its cured meat, designed to keep for ages.

We froze our leftover roast beef yesterday.

But ham goes on for ages in the fridge.

Cheese I threw out last year in June! This year I only bought a tiny cheese selection. And that's barely touched.

I'm going to finish the turkey today. It seems fine to me, I would bin if it smelt off though.

Bella with indestructible in laws - is their kitchen fairly cold?

No. It’s boiling in their house. Alway got the heating to the max and triple glazing. I’ll let you imagine the smell of the food left out (and the UTH milk that they leave opened on the side for days, they still leave it out, even when it’s open).

My MIL is the same. I went up for Christmas once and on Boxing Day we had left over turkey. I was horrified to discover later on that the turkey had been left out on the side in their very warm kitchen, sitting there ever since it had been cooked! It was still there the next day too. One Easter we went and she cooked fish on Good Friday. It was on the side waiting to be cooked at lunchtime when we arrived but she didn’t actually cook it until about 6pm. I was horrified and really didn’t want to eat it! She’s a lovely lady but I get very nervous about the food she serves …

We finished our turkey yesterday. We're freezing our ham today.

Made chicken pie with the last of our birds yesterday (after three days of chicken and stuffing sandwiches mmmm).

I think if it smells ok and has been in fridge all this time today is fine.

I read of refrigerated properly cooked meat can last four days. So if cooked Christmas Day then the 29th. However, if it still looks ok maybe another day? We are taking tte last of the turkey adding mushrooms and a white sauce to have with rice.

Turkey bones are boiling for soup today and I've made a turkey and ham pie filling for tomorrow. After that would be pushing it for me.

My local butcher re-opens tomorrow, I'm certain that everything they are selling, raw meat, cooked meats and cheese will have been in their fridges since the 24th. and would have been delivered previous to that. They do however know the provenance of everything they sell and make their own sausages and pies.

I'm making a turkey and ham pie for the freezer today using some of the turkey gravy for the sauce, The turkey carcass is in the Aga being turned into stock to make turkey soup and the ham stock is being turned into ham and pie soup with some of the leftover ham. Some of that will happen tomorrow and I'm happy to still be using the meat tomorrow.

Most of things in my fridge that we opened on Christmas Day say “use within three days” so we finished everything yesterday. I wouldn’t eat anything on day 4 but DP would.

This thread is making me feel better about contemplating eating the M&S Yule Log we have barely touched in the fridge .

It’s a cream one, use by of yesterday . I’ve been poorly so I didn’t get a chance to have any . It will be ok right ?? If people are eating 4 day old Turkey, then a Yule log will presumably be fine?

Yep, ‘yule’ be fine.

I'd still be happy to eat turkey now if it had been in the fridge but we had none left by the 27th

Beef just finished at lunchtime today. Some ham left. DH had over catered on the red cabbage for Christmas day which had been left out ever since as it was in a huge pot. He was still eating that last night 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

Blimey!

Finished the turkey yesterday but so much ham still left. I am running out of ideas. Think it might just be ham, egg and chips tonight.

Used the last of it yesterday then cooked another ham for the next few days.

I found most of the turkey leg bits to be either elastic, soggy or rock hard!

I grew up with a mother who would inexplicably leave leftover Chinese takeaway in the foil boxes in the microwave for days, and we’d just eat it until it was gone. How I never got sick (especially with reheated rice containing pork, chicken and prawns!) I will never know.

I am much more cautious with my food hygiene. Today would be the last day I’d eat Christmas turkey assuming it’d been stored and chilled properly and still looked/smelled ok!

I froze everything on 27th. I think eating the turkey today might be stretching it and I probably wouldn't. Ham will be fine.

Our turkey is still fine and we will be eating it today and tomorrow. The turkey soup is ready today, so I will be adding some of the meat. I’ve been cooking large turkeys since I first left home 50 years ago and we’ve never been ill from eating the leftovers several days later. Im usually the first to take notice of use by dates and throw anything out thst had gone over it’s date, but if cooked turkey still smells ok after 5 or 6 days, I would still eat it.

Just made turkey sandwiches with the last of the "cooked on the 25th roast"
Absolutely fine.
Refrigerated and it has only been 4 days-I think I binned some in a previous year when I felt it was going a weird texture/smell.

We had the ham on Boxing day and it's ham, eggs and fried up mash to use the last of the mash.

Bubble and squeak and gravy also still on the go. Yum!

Oh my @Bellagetdown ! I wouldn't eat at theirs either! I've just thrown away the veg that I left out on the kitchen side since Christmas as I saw it had mould on it. The meat however has been in the fridge this whole time.

We have the last little bit of turkey left made into a curry yesterday a few slices of beef and some ham. I feel ham will last longer as it was smoked a cured before I boiled and baked it. We also have some gravadlax left, but that apparently keeps for a long time. incidentally, if you've never made it before, and I only did this year for the first time, I can heartily recommend it. I used Mary Berry's recipe and it was a doddle.