Did I Ruin My Frozen Chicken Tenders?

[russ_watters]

So I'm about to find out if a box of frozen [not precooked] chicken tenders thawed and went bad when I accidentally left them on my kitchen floor for 6 hours. How are my odds?

...Wish me luck!

 

[Astronuc]

They should be OK.

I've eaten meat (beef, pork, chicken, fish) that has sat out for about 72 hrs on a kitchen counter, so I think 6 hrs is not a problem.

 

[OAQfirst]

Is ordering delivery an option?

Good luck.

 

[Cyrus]

Why would it go bad? 6 hours isn't long. It probably took at least two hours before they became room temp. Come on engineer...

 

[russ_watters]

Why would it go bad? 6 hours isn't long. It probably took at least two hours before they became room temp. Come on engineer...

I'm an engineer, not a biologist. Actually, though, the box was still cool to the touch, so I wasn't too worried.

I've eaten meat (beef, pork, chicken, fish) that has sat out for about 72 hrs on a kitchen counter, so I think 6 hrs is not a problem.

Yikes, I accidentally let meat thaw on the counter overnight about half the time (meaning to leave it out for a couple of hours, then put it in the fridge) and never eat it after that. I've opened packages of chicken that really smelled after that much time.

 

[confinement]

The bacterial colonies begin to grow after T > 40 degrees F.

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fssummer.html

"The key is to never let your picnic food remain in the "Danger Zone" - between 40° F and 140° F - for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour if outdoor temperatures are above 90° F. This is when bacteria in food can multiply rapidly, and lead to foodborne illness."

 

[Evo]

Just think of what people ate before the days of refrigeration.

 

[Danger]

Jeez, but you guys are wimps. We leave our left-overs out overnight all the time, and sometimes for a couple of days. Something frozen gets tossed into a sink of cold water for at least 8 hours to thaw it out enough for cooking.

 

[Cyrus]

I'm an engineer, not a biologist. Actually, though, the box was still cool to the touch, so I wasn't too worried. Yikes, I accidentally let meat thaw on the counter overnight about half the time (meaning to leave it out for a couple of hours, then put it in the fridge) and never eat it after that. I've opened packages of chicken that really smelled after that much time.

Cough cough, you do thermal design.

How cold to you think those packages are when you get them at the grocery store sitting on the shelf all day long. There not nearly as cold as your freezer. There just a little below room temp. There just 'cool'.

 

[russ_watters]

Hmm...that last one didn't taste quite right.

 

[russ_watters]

How cold to you think those packages are when you get them at the grocery store sitting on the shelf all day long. There not nearly as cold as your freezer.

I should hope so - otherwise that "Frozen Food Section" has a serious false advertising issue!

 

[russ_watters]

Just think of what people ate before the days of refrigeration.

Beef Jerky?

Jeez, but you guys are wimps. We leave our left-overs out overnight all the time, and sometimes for a couple of days.

I also still have all my original teeth - you should try teasing me for that too!

 

[Danger]

I also still have all my original teeth

So do I, with the exception of 2 wisdom teeth that I got yarded out about 6 years ago, and half of a front one that succumbed to a misplaced hockey stick.

 

[turbo]

You're safe, Russ. 6 hours at room temp to defrost is not excessive, considering the mass of the package and the fact that the interior (very cold, if not frozen) product was refrigerating the outer portions of the package. While thawing, the internal portions were drawing heat from the outer portions to supply the latent heat needed to make the phase-change from frozen to thawed.

 

[Cyrus]

How many engineers/chemists/physicsits does it take to thaw out a chicken.

Sorry mathematicians, you don't count...you integrate.

 

[turbo]

How many engineers/chemists/physicsits does it take to thaw out a chicken.

Sorry mathematicians, you don't count...you integrate.

One. And two ER nurses and an overworked intern to counter the salmonella poisoning if the E/C/P really screws up.

 

[Danger]

How many engineers/chemists/physicsits does it take to thaw out a chicken.

Or one of me with half a kilo of thermite...

 

[turbo]

Or one of me with half a kilo of thermite...

Won't the chicken be a *bit* over-done? And dispersed enough so that it would be hard to gather for consumption?

 

[Astronuc]

Just think of what people ate before the days of refrigeration.

Well my dad would slaughter a chicken just after church and mom would prepare (including cooking) so it would be ready for lunch after church. We lived next door to the church.

We made a lot of preservatives or picked directly from the garden.

Otherwise, before refrigeration, dried, dried/smoked, or dried/salted was the way to go.

 

[Danger]

Won't the chicken be a *bit* over-done? And dispersed enough so that it would be hard to gather for consumption?

The trick is in the proper distribution of the thermite.

 

[turbo]

My mother and I processed and canned a lot of vegetables when I was a kid, and we salted down a lot of stuff in jars, including scallions, leeks, etc. We had a big chest freezer, but we needed that to store berries, fruits, fiddleheads, venison, and shares of pigs/beef, etc that we got through cooperation with our families. We also had a large potato bin in our dirt-floored, dry rock-walled cellar, and we buried root vegetables in wooden boxes filled with sand buried in the dirt floor. I grew up in the age of refrigeration, but not in the age of "adequate" refrigeration for long-term storage.

 

[turbo]

The trick is in the proper distribution of the thermite.

Ah! When I was a youngster, I played around with exothermic reactions a bit. Probably a good thing that I did not have access to thermite. "Boys will be boys" is not a valid response to the loss of a home, barn, out-buildings, etc.

 

[lisab]

Hmm...that last one didn't taste quite right.

Well...it's been about 2 hours since you ate it, Russ...hope you're OK !

 

[Danger]

"Boys will be boys" is not a valid response to the loss of a home, barn, out-buildings, etc.

In retrospect, I agree. You wouldn't believe how many shotgun-powder rockets we fired around inside the house. Between things like that and early driving habits, it's bloody amazing that I'm still alive.

(For the benefit of non-gun nuts, I specified shotgun powder because it's slower-burning than other types.)

 

[Loren Booda]

Microwaving for an infinite amount of time at an infinite power will kill just about any bacteria.

 

[Phrak]

On the other hand, taking a leg of lamb backbacking, and nawing on it for a week is a bad idea.

 

[BobG]

On the other hand, taking a leg of lamb backbacking, and nawing on it for a week is a bad idea.

You realize you're supposed to shave the wool off first, right?

 

[russ_watters]

Well...it's been about 2 hours since you ate it, Russ...hope you're OK !

Well I'm a little nauseous, but admittedly that may have been the beer.

 

[brewnog]

Medical treatment for salmonella? You guys really are wimps! Just put a bog roll in the fridge and don't venture too far from the khazi.

 

[mgb_phys]

As someone who worked in supermarkets as a student.
The frozen deliveries arrive as the store closes - then they sit on pallets on the shop floor, it takes a whole shift to refill all the freezers. So some of the stuff has been sitting there long enough to defrost. That's why a lot of the bags of frozen veg are a single solid lump.

 

[Moonbear]

I assume you survived. Really, 6 hours is not a big deal. When I was a kid, and before everyone was paranoid about bacteria, that was the normal defrosting time for anything frozen...take the meat out from the freezer in the morning before Mom went to work, and leave it out on the counter to defrost all day so it was ready to cook when she got home. As long as you cook it thoroughly, it should be fine. I would not put it back in the fridge to use another day though.

 

[turbo]

If you're really paranoid about bacteria, you can put frozen foods in a sealed container (like a covered bowl) to defrost. It may surprise you how long it takes for a package of frozen food to thaw in such an environment, so this could take a bit of practice, but give it a try. If I have frozen meat or seafood to defrost and I'm around to monitor it, I set the package on a dinner-plate on a counter and let it go. If it could take a while to thaw due to the mass of the package, I might cover the plate with a dish-towel so that the food on the outsides of the package does not get too warm while the insides thaw. Never, ever have gotten food-poisoning at home.

 

[Phrak]

Medical treatment for salmonella? You guys really are wimps! Just put a bog roll in the fridge and don't venture too far from the khazi.

OK, I'll bite. What's a bog roll, and a khazi?

 

[redargon]

Bog roll is a toilet roll (roll of toilet tissue ) from the word bog (think it has UK origin) for toilet. Have no clue where khazi comes from, but I'm guessing it's a synonym for toilet.

 

[Phrak]

Bog roll is a toilet roll (roll of toilet tissue ) from the word bog (think it has UK origin) for toilet. Have no clue where khazi comes from, but I'm guessing it's a synonym for toilet.

Got it. Put the Sears in the icebox and stay close to the glory hole.

But why are we putting TP in the frig again?

 

[Danger]

why are we putting TP in the frig again?

Perhaps for the numbing effect of the cold...?