Dear Lord is DH right about pressure cookers?

[Punchthosecalories]

Every week I buy a chicken to roast and I make stock from the bones.

This week my DH got out the pressure cooker which we had been given and still haven't used at our wedding.

He put the water and bones in and put it on the heat for 45 mins.

It whistled away but here's the crux: he let it cool on the stove then left it over night and day out of the fridge! I thought this was pretty awful and that he'd wasted the stock. He's convinced that it's perfectly usable stock because it's been in a sealed pressure cooker.

I'm not convinced but willing to find out what others think...as it's entirely possible that I'm wrong.

I would say its fine.
It's been heated to boiling for some time, and no air or bacteria could get in after that point as long as it remained sealed. That's how they make tinned and jarred stuff right?

I would eat it. Jealous of people who have discipline to make own stock. Maybe I need a pressure cooker......

Out of interest, did the pressure cooker help contain the chickeny smell you get when making stock?

I also think it'll be fine. I make stock in a normal lidded saucepan, and often leave it out overnight to cool because it is far too hot to put in the fridge.

Even if air has gone in, you're not going to be eating the stock cold are you? It's going to be reheated/boiled in whatever you use it in, so it will be fine. The flavour will have developed too. I often leave things out and then reheat the next day. The flavours in things like spag bol, curries and stews really intensifies.

It's fine. It was sterile after cooking and so the only bugs that get in will be airborne and of no real consequence. You are going to have to try really really hard to find any food poisoning bugs in there.

You can't stick warm stuff in the fridge anyway, it's got to be at room temp.

Spagbolagain IME pressure cooking bones for stock is brilliant but nope doesn't smell particularly enticing!

It's fine. Stefile env and all that.

even sterile environment

I do this all the time with stock that has been made in a regular saucepan. Never yet got food poisoning.
at a dh who makes stock. Mine only heats up pizza and chips.

The pressure cooking technique is pretty close to canning. It's an almost airtight environment and the contents have been heated well past boiling point. You wouldn't leave it in there for months (although that would be an interesting experiment) but it'll be fine after a day. Reheat thoroughly before using.

Pressure cookers are very heavy and solid so they take a long time to cool down. That means they stay at the dangerous "warm" state for a long time. But you can put it in a sink of cold water to cool down quickly so the contents can be put into plastic tubs and go in the fridge.

As it cools down it sucks air in through the vents, so it is not going to be truly sterile.

It's probably fine, especially if you boil it again before using.

PigletJohn yes pressure cookers stay in the warm state, but they get the liquid to the temperatures that can actually kill the spores as well as breakdown the toxins. So unlike simply boiling (which kills the spores that make you sick, but leave the toxins behind that produce the spores) the higher temperatures kill the spores too.

However I can't guarantee that all of them would be killed, but since the stock would be used again and thoroughly re-cooked, I would be absolutely fine with re-using it.

Thanks!

Chipmonkey He's not massively into doing housework but I think he fancied using a "new" bit of kit i.e. the pressure cooker rather than being great in the kitchen unfortunately I'm the one that does the cooking and the stock 98% of the time :(