Ice to see you.
August 21, 2011 12:06 PM Subscribe
Went on vacay for three nights. Came home to see freezer open a tiny crack. Everything inside seems sort of 75% frozen, with a combination of dripping liquid water and solid icicles decorating everything. What can I salvage?
Literally, partially frozen. Ice cube trays had some frozen cubes and some liquid cubes.
Edible contents include:
- Bag of individual chicken thighs -- the kind with saline in them
- some bags of veggies
- some Trader Joe's naan and pie crusts
Everything looks fine. Anything that didn't look fine (like the completely crystallized pint of ice cream) I chucked. Is this stuff going to be safe? Tasty?
Thanks.
Literally, partially frozen. Ice cube trays had some frozen cubes and some liquid cubes.
Edible contents include:
- Bag of individual chicken thighs -- the kind with saline in them
- some bags of veggies
- some Trader Joe's naan and pie crusts
Everything looks fine. Anything that didn't look fine (like the completely crystallized pint of ice cream) I chucked. Is this stuff going to be safe? Tasty?
Thanks.
Stuff that's defrosted and then refrozen will probably have unappealing textures, even if it's not actually bad for you. They might be worth keeping if you can disguise the texture of things like veggies in a soups or stews.
The chicken thighs (and any other meat) can probably pass the sniff test - if it smells and looks fine, it probably is fine. (ie. in the much the same way that you can defrost chicken in the fridge and then leave it in the fridge for a day or two and then safely cook it, you probably can here too.) However, like the veggies, re-freezing them will make them too unappealing to eat. I'd fully defrost the chicken and cook it. Either eat the cooked chicken, or freeze it again once it's cooked.
posted by Kololo at 12:19 PM on August 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
The chicken thighs (and any other meat) can probably pass the sniff test - if it smells and looks fine, it probably is fine. (ie. in the much the same way that you can defrost chicken in the fridge and then leave it in the fridge for a day or two and then safely cook it, you probably can here too.) However, like the veggies, re-freezing them will make them too unappealing to eat. I'd fully defrost the chicken and cook it. Either eat the cooked chicken, or freeze it again once it's cooked.
posted by Kololo at 12:19 PM on August 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Do you really want to risk food poisoning? You left your freezer open for three days. You cannot smell bacteria. Toss the meat. Just toss it.
posted by Scram at 12:36 PM on August 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Scram at 12:36 PM on August 21, 2011 [2 favorites]
You are just fine. Your situation is the same as someone who is eating out of cooler when camping out for several days. The stuff didn't stay frozen solid but it stayed cold enough to be mostly frozen so it didnt get above 34 deg for certain, this is just fine as far as safety goes. Cook it all in a gumbo or chicken pot pie chicken and dumplings or some such meal in a slow cooker if the refrozen texture is bad (maybe, maybe not-tastes vary).
posted by bartonlong at 1:11 PM on August 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by bartonlong at 1:11 PM on August 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you can afford a vaycay, you can afford to toss out some question mark food. Listen to Scram. Food poisoning is no joke.
posted by IndigoJones at 3:09 PM on August 21, 2011
posted by IndigoJones at 3:09 PM on August 21, 2011
If the freezer was open a crack and 25% loss of freezing had occurred, that was equivalent to leaving the chicken to thaw in a fridge for a few hours. Unless the freezer had been wide open, things had thawed completely, then fallen below fridge temperature for several hours, then the door magically almost closed again and re-froze everything to 75%, your chicken is probably OK.
But I agree that you should finish thawing it in the fridge, sniff it, and if it smells OK, cook it immediately. If it's a lot of chicken, you can freeze the cooked remnants if you like. With what you have on hand, you can make some nice chicken pies.
posted by maudlin at 4:11 PM on August 21, 2011
But I agree that you should finish thawing it in the fridge, sniff it, and if it smells OK, cook it immediately. If it's a lot of chicken, you can freeze the cooked remnants if you like. With what you have on hand, you can make some nice chicken pies.
posted by maudlin at 4:11 PM on August 21, 2011
Best answer: This chart from the USDA gives guidelines on "When to Save and When To Throw It Out" for various foods.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 4:26 PM on August 21, 2011
posted by SuperSquirrel at 4:26 PM on August 21, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
The veggies, naan and pie crusts aren't going to kill you. The chicken, I'd thaw (in the fridge). If it doesn't smell bad once it's thawed, cook it well. The fact that you were only gone three nights factors into this as even if it had been completely thawed, it still would've been good for as much as two days in your fridge (ie: less than 40-degrees).
posted by philip-random at 12:15 PM on August 21, 2011 [1 favorite]