Can we, or should we, eat it question number 9999.

January 26, 2014 7:38 AM

GF made a slow cooker pot roast last Monday (6 days ago). Nobody ate it and its been in the fridge all week. Can I make it into a pot pie today?

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posted by bricksNmortar to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

Best answer: Food safety would say no. "Day four and out the door." This is where you will get people who say to risk it.

I wouldn't.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:45 AM on January 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Noooooo.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:51 AM on January 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Don't do it! (When in doubt about anything, weigh the worst-case scenarios for both options. If you throw it away, the worst that can happen is that you have wasted money and time. If you eat it, the worst that can happen is a REALLY BAD case of food poisoning.)
posted by wisekaren at 7:54 AM on January 26, 2014

Nope.

Sucks, because pot roast is so yummy and leftovers would make brilliant pot pies, but no fucking way.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:03 AM on January 26, 2014

Wow. I'm surprised by the consensus here. I would make the pot pie and not give it a second thought as I enjoy tasty goodness.
posted by hydropsyche at 8:05 AM on January 26, 2014 [13 favorites]

I totally would.
posted by sanka at 8:08 AM on January 26, 2014

You probably shouldn't but I totally would and have done similar without a second thought.
posted by Aranquis at 8:09 AM on January 26, 2014 [4 favorites]

I would open the container it's in and smell it and look at it if you haven't done so already. I'd touch it. Then I'd taste it. Then if everything seemed good, I'd eat it. I have eaten such pot roast - although by a week out, all that would remain of my pot roast would be a little bit, not the whole thing! Who do you live with that nobody eats a pot roast?!
posted by rtha at 8:19 AM on January 26, 2014 [4 favorites]

Yes, do it. I would, no question about it.
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:24 AM on January 26, 2014

I eat six day old leftovers and don't worry about it. I don't see why you can't do this, although you can't save leftovers for long (if at all).
posted by J. Wilson at 8:25 AM on January 26, 2014

"Day four and out the door."

I've always used five days as my personal maximum, and most people I know consider me excessively careful. While many people would say to just go ahead and cook it, and your risk of getting sick would be very low, there's also a degradation in quality that happens when things sit around in the fridge, and personally I'm just not interested in eating things that have lingered getting progressively less yummy.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:30 AM on January 26, 2014

Having spent 8 days in the hospital with food poisoning once?


Toss it. It might be okay but it might not, and intestinal yukkiness is NO FUN WHATSOEVER.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:35 AM on January 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Gross, no.
posted by HotToddy at 8:43 AM on January 26, 2014

Best answer: I wouldn't. I find that beef doesn't smell "off" to me the way that chicken does, so it can smell okay in the fridge, but when you cook bad beef...ugh. The flavor will have turned, as well, even if you're not getting sick from it.
posted by xingcat at 9:01 AM on January 26, 2014

Did she cook it in something salty like store bought beef stock? If so, I'd totally make the pie. But there is always two camps in the eat it or not debate on AskMefi. I'm older and was raised by depression era parents. If the food in the fridge didn't stink or hadn't evolved to become a sentient being, my folks called it edible. So I'm more in the I'll assume the risk camp. You seem to fall into the "I'll risk it" camp, since you're considering this.
posted by Mittenz at 9:07 AM on January 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

Yes, but eat it today.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:07 AM on January 26, 2014

No. I'm usually pretty lax about this stuff (I'll eat chicken dishes that sat out on the counter overnight, and just cut the mold off bread), and I wouldn't eat this.
posted by windykites at 10:01 AM on January 26, 2014

Was it cooked properly and refrigerated promptly after cooking in a well sealed container? Is the fridge consistently kept at 40 degrees or below? If so, the rules say no, but I personally probably would cook and eat it in a pot pie (I had parents like Mittenz). I would first check though because the flavor might be a bit off after that long, in which case I would pitch it. I might discard the outer bits for reasons of taste, especially if the pot roast beef was not browned first before cooking in the crockpot.

(Next time, throw it in the freezer if it is not eaten by day 1 or day 2 after the cooking day.)
posted by gudrun at 10:20 AM on January 26, 2014

No one's asked the two critical questions:

1. how cold is your fridge? Are bottles almost painfully cold to the touch? Is it a newish fridge (unlikely to have uneven temperature areas)? If "yes" to both, I'd heat it thoroughly and expect to be ok. Obviously, don't save leftovers even after heating.

2. how swiftly did the roast go in the fridge after cooking? that's an important factor. If you weren't meticulous about rushing it into fridge after it lost some heat, toss the meat.

Fun fact: you can kill cooties with heat, but you can't neutralize the toxicity of their corpses and accumulated excretions. Remember this next time you eat in a restaurant/take-out joint which microwaves cold prepared food from unheated steam tables.
posted by Quisp Lover at 10:22 AM on January 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: i vote no for a different reason. it might be safe, but...

meat gets tired in the fridge. after several days, it doesn't taste as good. you will be contributing a quantum of your valuable time toward the creation of this pie, and you should honor your time (and yourself) by using the tastiest meat you can get ahold of, even if it means another roast.
posted by bruce at 10:30 AM on January 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: We're not going to eat it.... Not saying that I wouldn't eat it, but we decided not to.

The dogs seem to like it.

Thanks for your thoughts on this MeFites.. And next time I'll make sure it goes into the freezer the next day.

Now if I could only get your help figuring out why my excellent flaky apple pie (and pot pie) crust is always doughy when I use it for a cherry pie... I'll save that question for another week.
posted by bricksNmortar at 10:47 AM on January 26, 2014

If the pot roast had onions in it, you might not want to feed any more to your dog.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 11:30 AM on January 26, 2014 [8 favorites]

Cherry pie is wetter, probably. Glad you didn't eat it.
posted by Scram at 8:18 PM on January 26, 2014

Freeze your cherry pie unbaked, then put it right into a hot oven. The crust will get crispy before the filling has a chance to make it soggy.
posted by HotToddy at 9:38 AM on January 27, 2014