I left my chicken stock on the counter overnight..should I throw it away?

[Oonah]

4 quarts of fresh stock can I keep it or should i toss it.

[abigail_b]

Oh I am so sorry!
I go by the rule of no more than 2 hours on the counter for perishables, so if it were me, unfortunately I would throw it away.

[Zenzero]

Hmmmm....I don't know....I've left mine out overnight before (a few times!!) and just made sure I boiled it well before using it and we have never had any problems. Might depend on how hot your kitchen is though...our weather never really gets that hot but I might feel differently if it did. If it looks and smells ok, I would probably use it, but then I think my standards for things like that are fairly low I think!!

[onthemove]

I wouldn't throw it away...I would boil it or freeze it before eating it though...I usually leave mine out overnight because it wasn't cool enough to put in the fridge...how long was it out?

[Chicky2]

I would bring it to a good rolling boil for 15 minutes and then I wouldn't worry about it.

[saratc]

I would bring it to a boil and use it.

[Ola_]

I wouldn't throw it out either, another vote for boiling though.

[vermontmomma]

i always leave it out to cool overnight, there's a pot reheating right now as a matter of fact. if you're worried just bring it back to a boil again.
in some cultures it's common to keep a pot of soup simmering low on the stove and add new ingredients every day or so.

[LisainCalifornia]

Originally Posted by vermontmomma

i always leave it out to cool overnight, there's a pot reheating right now as a matter of fact. if you're worried just bring it back to a boil again.
in some cultures it's common to keep a pot of soup simmering low on the stove and add new ingredients every day or so.

That is actually different...because the soup is left on the stove simmering at a temp that is safe. That is similar to crock pot cooking...which is cooking at very low temps, but the temps are high enough to avoid food born bacteria. There is a delicate balance there.

It is also a myth that bringing something to a rolling boil kills all bacteria. That is just not so, many bacterias are very hearty and survive re-heating. Sure you can gamble on it and win, but is it really worth it?

Perishable foods can be left out for a few hours, and after that if it is not refridgerated, bacteria growth happens very quickly and in an exponential fashion. After that point, just one little cell of microorganism can double every 20 minutes or so. This means that if you have a bacteria count of 200 in a pot of soup at 2 hours, an hour later you will have 1600, and a few hours after that you will have 12,800 bacteria. In this quick growing phase of bacteria, they have the ability to create toxins that are not killed by cooking or heating (even boiling). Consuming these bacteria can not only make you very sick, but have the potential to kill you. This is especially true if you are a child or older person.

And for heaven's sake--just think about it. Who wants to eat bacteria filled soup? You guys can have my portion! Go ahead, I am full...

[Oonah]

Originally Posted by LisainCalifornia

It is also a myth that bringing something to a rolling boil kills all bacteria. That is just not so, many bacterias are very hearty and survive re-heating. Sure you can gamble on it and win, but is it really worth it?

I get what you're saying and I am leaning towards dumping it. But I wonder about boil orders that happen - are you saying those aren't effective to kill the dangerous bacteria in water...or maybe those are different bacteria?

The stock was out about 10 hours. Ugh I just hate that this happened.

[notneb]

Toss it. I have done the same thing before and it is so frustrating to lose the stock, but better to lose it than for it to make your family sick.

[RiverSky]

Throw it out.

Way too risky to keep it. Frustrating, yes, but safer to throw it out.

[LisainCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Oonah

I get what you're saying and I am leaning towards dumping it. But I wonder about boil orders that happen - are you saying those aren't effective to kill the dangerous bacteria in water...or maybe those are different bacteria?

This subject is actually really interesting to me. I use to work in a college biology dept., helping to run program that taught biology (mostly recombinant DNA techology) to elementary school teachers. We did a lot of work with growing cultures on slides as well. Then, after college I went to Mexico for one summer, helping to dig wells and trying to get clean drinking water to people who needed it there. We spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how to make water potable. It was a lot more complicated than I had ever dreamed.

Boiling water doesn't kill all the bacteria, just some of them. Some bacteria are actually resistant to the temp. or boiling water. This is because the bacteria forms spores which help them to survive dispite boiling temperatures. Once something like a pot of soup starts making microbes and spores, these must be take to the point of sterilization in order to make it safe to eat. To kill all bacteria, you need to raise the temperature to over 120 degrees C.--and you cannot do this with pot boiling because atmospheric pressure won't allow it. You would need to use something like an autoclave in order to get the water suficiently heated. Sometimes a pressure cooker can work too, but it has to be done under very specific conditions, and with great care.

The reason I cringe when I hear that people just leave pots of soup out over night and then eat it later is that food born illness can be very tricky. Yes, there can be occasions where you will do it and then claim to never get sick from it. But sometimes you just don't know what kind of bacteria brew you have in that pot, and that will be the time you will never forget. You can also get long term illnesses that come on slowly from eating tainted food or water. You may not even realize you have contracted something until much later, and then the damage is already done.

As parents we have a special responsibility to keep our kids safe. I am the one in charge of cooking for my family, so I am especially careful to have very clean hands, utensils, and use careful handling of food. I would never feed my children a pot of soup left out all night long--just because I wouldn't be able to be certain it was safe to consume.

I know that feeling of having to throw out a big pot of something I worked long and hard on--it really sucks!

[noobmom]

If I had boiled the stock and left it with the lid on without tasting or sticking any spoons into it, I would keep it.

If it was a pot of stock sitting uncovered on the counter and/or I had stuck a spoon (esp one that I had been tasting with) into after I took it off the heat, I would toss it.

Sorry

[treemom2]

We often leave it out overnight and don't throw it away before using it. I can't see throwing it out. . .then again, I hate being wasteful.

[Ola_]

I think, like a lot of things, this comes down to your personal comfort level. As you can see this is different for everyone.

[momtoS]

hmmm....I have left stock out several times...I have always used it.....I will read the other posts...but I haven't had a problem in the past couple years...

[baglady]

Boiling just isn't enough. I would pitch it. I'm so sorry. I've done it before with a giant pot of soup and it just sucks.

[Yulia_R]

I definitely would not throw it away. If you are concerned, you can always use it to cook, let's say, brown rice, which takes an hour+ to cook.

[elanorh]

Absolutely throw it away.

Even if you followed 100% the safe cooking guidelines at every step of the process that you had control of the chicken -- you don't know whether somewhere else along that industrial food chain it was contaminated by being left out a little longer than it should have been, or etc.

And, even with 100% safe cooking guidelines, that stock was sitting on the counter at the perfect temperature to grow bacteria for a long time ... you could have a tremendous culture of bacteria in there without knowing it. Those who recommend throwing it out, have a lot of scientific research on their sides -- to reach a temperature high enough to kill the bacteria which likely have grown in your stock, for a long enough duration to kill the bacteria down to a 'load' which is less likely to make your family ill, you'd be looking at a very high temperature for a very long time - which would render your stock pretty much inedible anyway.

I can drive down the highway on the wrong side for miles where I live without seeing another car. Doesn't mean it's safe for me or for my family, and it doesn't mean that there isn't a car coming down the highway that I'll hit, either. Just because people have done this before and not been ill doesn't mean that they WON'T be ill, nor does it mean that it's safe.

The majority of food borne illness is a result of foods eaten at home. "Stomach flu" isn't a random thing - it's pretty much always the result of eating a contaminated food.

It stinks to throw out a food like this - but it would be much worse if you made yourself/kids/guests ill. You can make more stock.

If you really hate to waste it and have a pet - then give it to the pet. But know your pet might get sick, too.

I really like this website for information about food safety, food preservation, etc.:

http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/foodsafety.shtml

(It's by a Family & Consumer Science Educator for the Coopertive Extension Service in Nebraska)

ETA:
If people are leaving stock out on the counter to cool before refrigerating it - here is a safe method of cooling stock quickly before putting it in the fridge.

We use a Kleen Kanteen for this but I heard of it originally using a plastic pop bottle. Fill the container with water and freeze until it's solid (obviously don't fill to the top or you'll have a burst container).

When you need to cool a pot of soup, broth, stock, or chili -- use the frozen bottle to stir the pot to cool it more rapidly. Once the temperature is cool enough that you're comfortable partitioning it into containers to refrigerate or freeze, then do so. Unless you are making an extraordinarily large pot, you should be able to use one frozen bottle and then refrigerate.

When I learned this technique, I was told that many restaurants use it to quickly cool broths etc. as well. I suspect that there is an actual tool which they use, but our make-do works well too.