Beefy blunder

August 5, 2012 11:04 AM

Can I cook and eat it? Roast Beast Edition.

bought a 2.5 pound roast at the grocery yesterday, took it home and put in a 10 degree freezer from 1pm to 9:30pm last night. After that, I tossed it in a neoprene bag with some veggies, and drove about an hour 15 min to get home.

Put it on the counter in the neoprene bag and forgot about it from 10:30ish to 9am this morning.

At 9am, it was warmish but still cool as if the center were refrigerated.

Threw immediately into the fridge. Standard plastic pak wrap - meat plopped on styrofoam like plate and wrapped in clear plastic.

posted by tilde to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

I probably would see if it is salvageable. The surface area is low, and you are almost certainly going to cook it whole, right? If it smells OK and doesn't trigger any of my (sometimes mysterious) repulsion triggers, I would treat it as still-food.

I am obviously not a microbiologist or food-safety obsessed.
posted by janell at 11:21 AM on August 5, 2012

I would cook it today and eat the hell out of it.
posted by ottereroticist at 11:22 AM on August 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

You're cooking the surfaces that have been exposed - it is a roast. Common advice is to let a roast of other piece of meat completely thaw (that is, to room temperature) before cooking, to promote an even cooking.

If it doesn't smell or look off, you are fine. Cook it soon.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:24 AM on August 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Cook and eat.
posted by one4themoment at 11:26 AM on August 5, 2012

Another vote for eating it. I would sear the outside well in a hot frying pan with oil before putting it in the oven/crock pot/etc., just to be sure that any microbes growing on the surface had been killed. (Which is what you're supposed to do anyway, for better texture/flavor.)
posted by dendrochronologizer at 11:34 AM on August 5, 2012

Best answer: Eat that beast. Leaving it on the counter overnight is not exactly best practices but it won't have rotted and anything that's living on the outside is going to get destroyed in the cooking process. Worse things happen every day without making anyone sick. Just don't make a habit of it.
posted by Scientist at 11:46 AM on August 5, 2012

Cook and eat it, like everyone has said, but do it today. Have a great dinner!
posted by mermayd at 12:25 PM on August 5, 2012

Trust your nose. It always knows.
posted by jenkinsEar at 12:56 PM on August 5, 2012

Best answer: Can I cook and eat it?

Hell yeah. (We've done worse things than that, and I still can write here.)

[I read Road Beast for some reason, and was thinking groundhogs or skunks for a while. Which would have influenced my answer somewhat].
posted by Namlit at 2:20 PM on August 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Unless it was a manager's special (read: now past the sell-by date), it's still good. Roast and enjoy.
posted by WasabiFlux at 3:16 PM on August 5, 2012

Another vote for cook and enjoy.
posted by Splunge at 3:22 PM on August 5, 2012

Trust your nose, not your eyes.

Unless it was purchased from a sketchy butcher from the back of a van without running water, I'd say go for it. There are butchery safety rules for a reason.
posted by porpoise at 4:32 PM on August 5, 2012

Response by poster: Good points folks, all. My nose is pretty ineffective (I cook a number of things I don't eat or taste, relying on feedback from the eaters) - & I have major aversion issues to smelling raw & cooking meats, though I do eat them.
posted by tilde at 6:31 PM on August 5, 2012

Response by poster: + was delicious.
posted by tilde at 8:51 AM on August 9, 2012