My very first "Can I eat this?" question

February 17, 2025 5:29 PM

For Reasons, the items in a top freezer came essentially to room temperature, or pretty close. The now-thawed frozen pizza and the puff pastry dough have been thrown out. The only other things in there were jars of homemade freezer jam and pumpkin butter. Are they safe to refreeze and eat later? Are they at least safe to eat now but not to refreeze? Or are they now secretly plotting to murder me in my bed and must be discarded immediately?
posted by DrGail to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

If they stayed fridge cool I'd happily refreeze them without hesitation or worry.

Both of those products are typically and historically made to be shelf stable for years. This is accomplished in part by heat canning, but also very importantly the fact that they are relatively inhospitable to growth of microorganisms, due to the factors like the high density of sugar and acidity in the case of the jam. Even without a sterile canning, they didn't rapidly fill with bacteria or their toxins while sealed and thawing from frozen for a few hours.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:20 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]

It depends on how long and what temp everything reached, though. If it was at fridge temp, I'd refreeze everything. If it was at room temp for less than 4 hours or so, I'd fridge it and eat ASAP. I would probably have baked and eaten the pizza and puff pastry in that case, too. How long and what temperature do you think it was at?
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:55 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I believe everything was at room-ish temperature for days since the faulty freezer setting was set just before I left town for more than a week. So… I guess it’s goodbye freezer jam and pumpkin butter. Sad.
posted by DrGail at 4:24 AM on February 18

Yeah, even something pretty stable like jam is a hell no from me after several days. Too bad.
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:26 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]

Not to refreeze, but safe to eat. Can you gift jam and punkin' butter to friends and family? You can even mention the reason you're asking if they want it, and suggest they eat it immediately. That way they can either turn it down, accept and dispose of it, or scarf it up.

Meanwhile, be profligate in your use--tons of jam on toast, make cakes and cookies, sauce, glazes, etc. (they can be frozen for later.)
Punkin' butter recipes
Jam ideas

I'd take a couple jars of homemade in a heartbeat!!
posted by BlueHorse at 11:15 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]

I believe everything was at room-ish temperature for days

If these are things that aren't packaged in a way to stay safe at room temperature, that is still the case even if they were at this temperature inside of a large box that is normally kept at a different temperature.

I don't know what "freezer jam" is, but I'm assuming it is not sealed for room temperature storage the way you would do if you were making home-canned jam. There's a reason one has to go though the canning process to make jam shelf stable. I would toss it.
posted by yohko at 4:06 PM on February 18

I'd take a couple jars of homemade in a heartbeat!!

Freezer jam is not processed for long term storage at room temperature- it's not even cooked on the stove like regular jam. You just macerate the fruit, dissolve pectin in boiling water, stir it all together and then freeze. I would not eat it if it had been at room temperature for several days. You're meant to keep it in the fridge when it's thawed.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:43 PM on February 19

Any freezer jam I've made had sugar in it, also.

A couple days, I'd still eat it. Two weeks on freezer jam, probably not. Even scientists are on the fence about it.

I'm 71, I grew up with the opened jam and peanut butter right next to each other in the cupboard, and until the kids left home that's where it lived in my house. Now jam lives in the fridge, but only because we buy the big jar and Mr. BH and I can't eat it up that fast. My grandmother was very spiritual about things like chicken and mayonnaise, but there were a lot of things that we didn't worry about refrigerating as strictly as we do today. If milk sours in our house, I cook with it. I pare the moldy rind off cheese and wash it in vinegar to keep the rest. The only food poisoning we've had we know occurred from eating restaurant food with friends, so apparently our lackadaisical ways haven't caused problems.

That said, it's always wise to err on the side of caution. You can buy a lot of jam when you contrast that with lost days at work and trips to the doctor.
posted by BlueHorse at 7:11 PM on February 19