Cheesecake left overnight in room tempreture. Would you still eat it?

[Yulia_R]

We made a cheesecake yesterday. We turned off the oven around 5:00pm and planned to put it in the fridge once it's cool. But we forgot (it spent the night in the oven). Now it's 6:40am and I just remembered about it. I put it in the freezer. But I'm not sure if it's safe to eat it after a night with no refrigiration. What would you do?

[2xy]

Personally, I would eat it. No scientific evidence with which to back it up....I'd just eat it. I leave desserts out all the time. I make these lemon bars where the filling is mostly egg based, and I never refrigerate them, and nobody ever gets sick.

[itsmyturn]

I think it is a crime to throw cheescake out!

[Cavy]

Definitely a felony offense, itsmyturn.

It wouldn't even occur to me not to eat it . Maybe if I lived somewhere very hot at night I wouldn't.

[Yulia_R]

Thanks mamas! We just ate it, it was SO good!

[primjillie]

Obviously, too late, but I would toss it unless the room was very cold. As I said on the other thread, I am always amazed at these questions. You've got cream cheese, eggs, sour cream and many other ingredients which need to be refrigerated.

[EdnaMarie]

I would eat it unless the room was really warm.

I've eaten cheese and sour cream that have been left to sit for hours. Eggs, not so much, but I have in baked goods e.g. a cake, which has eggs that have been cooked, can sit out unrefrigerated, right? So why not a cooked cheesecake?

If it had raw eggs, that had already been cracked open, that would be different.

[Kirsten]

I would throw it out. Let us know if anyone has repurcusions from it.

[Storm Bride]

Too late for my opinion to matter, but I'd eat it. I wouldn't even think twice about it.

[eclipse]

I think you shouldn't eat it. You should send it to me, instead. I'll let you know how it is.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

I would have ate it no problem. That amount of time isnt enough in an air conditioned house to ruin it.

[Irishmommy]

Originally Posted by primjillie

Obviously, too late, but I would toss it unless the room was very cold. As I said on the other thread, I am always amazed at these questions. You've got cream cheese, eggs, sour cream and many other ingredients which need to be refrigerated.

But way back when wasn't the whole point of making cheese to preserve milk so it would last longer at room temperature?

[mamadelbosque]

Obviously too late but I'd have ate it too It was cooked, so no worries about the eggs (obviously, else we'd have to refrigerate all cakes & cookies - and we don't do that!!), let alone the other ingredients... just wouldn't occur to me NOT to eat it!! ;0

[Yulia_R]

We ate and everyone is fine . I froze it and we will be eating it for the next few days too .

You know, my mom never refrigerated things like pancakes or biscuit (which of course also had eggs and milk) and I never recall our family having any problem with it. I also think that our immune system is there to deal with bacteria, so if you don't train your stomach to deal with it you will become one of the people who need to use purified water in Mexico or DR to brush your teeth (which of course, our family never does). My rule always has been that if it smells good (not spoiled), than it is good to eat. I just double checked this time because the kids were eating it as well.

[elanorh]

All custard-type desserts including pies should be refrigerated after they cool. This includes pumpkin pie, custard pie, raisin pie, and, yes, cheesecakes. That's why they're sold in the refrigerator case at the store.

Cookies and cakes seldom require refrigeration, because of the ratio of liquid to egg to bake time which they use.

I sincerely hope that those who don't follow these basic food safety guidelines aren't feeding other people food which they have not followed those guidelines with; just because you believe you and your family could handle it, doesn't mean that someone else and their family wouldn't become ill.

Given that the risk of salmonella is something like 1:80+ eggs (that is, statistically you'd need to eat 80 raw eggs to find one with salmonella) - I think many people assume that they've been fine eating a food which wasn't handled properly, simply because they didn't sick; while in reality, they've been lucky not to have left their pumpkin pie out on the counter when it had an unsafe bacteria involved (whether through cross-contamination or through a harmful bacteria in the egg itself).

Please, when you are making and sharing desserts like this, follow the guidelines that you think are so foolish, if you're going to be sharing your dessert with someone else.

[Ola_]

I would eat it too. I have to say I'm kind of surprised at how many people would toss stuff out when it's left out of the fridge overnight. Maybe it's because I grew up in eastern Europe where fridges were very small and only stored meat and eggs. Anything else (including our raw milk) was kept in a "cold room" pantry or just stayed on the counter/stove. Cakes and soups would never get put in the fridge - heck, you couldn't even fit a soup pot inside there!

[Smokering]

One of the things I love about living in NZ is that we don't have salmonella in eggs. In other things, yes, but not eggs. It never occurred to me that in some parts of the world things like eating raw cookie dough were considered dangerous. As for cheesecake, I've often baked it late and night and left it in the oven, door ajar, to cool slowly overnight and refrigerated it in the morning. (I figure going into the oven hot is bad for the fridge food (plus it cracks the cheesecake); and leaving it out during the day is worse than at night because of temperatures.)

Plus, there are other factors. A cold room is different from a hot one. Free-range eggs are less likely to contain salmonella than battery eggs. Stuff like that. So it's not cut and dried.

[primjillie]

Thanks, elanorh. I was beginning to think I was crazy on these threads. You are right, I have never seen cheesecake sitting out on the shelf, even if it freshly made. Even the ready made filling is kept in the refrigerated section. I never thought about the food safety habits of other people who cook and may invite me over. I just hope they are as cautious as I am! :-)

[RedPony]

I am sooooo glad you ate it. I would have wept if you hadn't.

[EdnaMarie]

Originally Posted by Ola_

I would eat it too. I have to say I'm kind of surprised at how many people would toss stuff out when it's left out of the fridge overnight. Maybe it's because I grew up in eastern Europe where fridges were very small and only stored meat and eggs. Anything else (including our raw milk) was kept in a "cold room" pantry or just stayed on the counter/stove. Cakes and soups would never get put in the fridge - heck, you couldn't even fit a soup pot inside there!

Yeah, I have to say ten years in Eurasia pretty much did it for me.

I wouldn't serve anything even moderately questionable to guests! I am afraid to even serve chicken. I'll be thinking it's a little pink until it's black!

But way back when wasn't the whole point of making cheese to preserve milk so it would last longer at room temperature?

Cream cheese is one of the less-cultured cheeses, a post-preservation technique that was evolved, I think, for pastries and the like. I'm not sure that cream cheese would last sitting out as long as, say, Camembert or sharp cheddar, kwim?