Chicken question (reassurance needed!)

[calibrax]

I've just popped a small chicken (1.5kg) in the oven. I bought it last week and it's been in the fridge since then.... it's use-by date is 09/12/11. So it's now three days out of date. I had a sniff and it doesn't smell at all, so I've just about convinced myself it'll be fine once cooked through.

I just need some reassurance to put my mind at rest (and to avoid a future inverted chocolate fountain...)

[Mobile Chicane]

If it smells ok (presuming you have a sense of smell), eat it.

I eat 'out of date' food the whole time, and haven't died yet.

[Du1point8]

Just cause it says best before on it, it doesn't mean that one day afterwards its suddenly going to give you food poisoning...

Best before is a guideline for you not a deadline to eat it

[calibrax]

Du1point8 said:

Just cause it says best before on it, it doesn't mean that one day afterwards its suddenly going to give you food poisoning...

Best before is a guideline for you not a deadline to eat it

I know... but it's "use-by", not best before. All those things that can give you the 'two-bob bits' (such as chicken, fish etc) have use-by dates.

[Mobile Chicane]

calibrax said:

I know... but it's "use-by", not best before. All those things that can give you the 'two-bob bits' (such as chicken, fish etc) have use-by dates.

You mean the 'tom tits'?

Meh. If it smells ok, eat it.

Or get a cat. Cats will turn up their noses at anything that's even faintly 'off'.

[21TonyK]

/work hat off

If it didn't smell it's fine.

/work hat on

[jas xjr]

Should be ok as long as it was stored correctly in the first place

[A.C.E]

your all wrong.

the OP is going to die a horrible death, his sts are going to be so bad that they'll rot cast iron, and he will spontaneously combust.

If you do survive never EVER eat anything else again that is beyond the use by date it WILL kill you in the end taking such chances.

• not one bit of the above is true, but if your that worried, don't eat it*

[mattdaniels]

Get the bog roll in the freezer now you fooking lunatic.

[Dan_1981]

Completly off topic - but calbrax - I know somewhere in here you've posted your recipe for slow cooking ribs, along with some loveyl close up pictures.

I can't find the post that you give the full recipe / method - you don't know where it is do you?

[dazco]

You would smell it if it was off. I took a chicken back last week that was three days in date.

The nose knows

[dazco]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Mine was Sainsburys, big six quid bird. but the manager threw some Lilies at the missus, so all is well.


Honestly though, there was no mistaking it was on the turn.

[Turtle head]

Do you have a meat probe? If you do the magic number we look for is 72deg C. Also does the chicken feel sticky to the touch. If it does thats bacteria forming.

As a note cooking will normally kill of most bacteria and virus but some can still survive 180deg C for a couple of hours.

[calibrax]

Cooked it to 82c to make sure

We will see how I feel in 24 hours time!


roastchicken01 by calibrax12, on Flickr

[Henry Hawthorne]

I always eat food out of date - most recently, mackerel that was eight days out.

Before I've had sausages a week out.

The most extreme was bacon that was twenty-two days out of date, and had been open for sixteen... That did make me puke up at lunch time but you live and learn.

[tontoro]

Turtle head said:

Do you have a meat probe? If you do the magic number we look for is 72deg C. Also does the chicken feel sticky to the touch. If it does thats bacteria forming.

As a note cooking will normally kill of most bacteria and virus but some can still survive 180deg C for a couple of hours.

72 is annihilated for white chicken meat, 61 is perfect IMO. Brown meat wants to be cooked a bit more

[Pete Franklin]

Henry Hawthorne said:

most recently, mackerel that was eight days out.

If it was "fresh" mackerel that must have been properly grim.

[madbadger]

Are you dead yet?

[calibrax]

Dan_1981 said:

Completly off topic - but calbrax - I know somewhere in here you've posted your recipe for slow cooking ribs, along with some loveyl close up pictures.

I can't find the post that you give the full recipe / method - you don't know where it is do you?

This?

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

or this...

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

If not, then the BBQ thread (stickied at the top of the forum) has quite a few posts by me...

[Henry Hawthorne]

Pete Franklin said:

If it was "fresh" mackerel that must have been properly grim.

No was smoked.