Avoiding food poisoning.

[Digger]

Am I right in thinking you can, as in my case last night, cook a chicken curry, chill the leftovers as quick as naturally possible, bung in fridge overnight. Next day reheat gently and consume when piping hot? Can you do this with fish and various crustacea too? I guess not.

I only ask as last week for the second time this year suffered some all night and day stomach and gut churning reaction to food. Do not wish to repeat (pun intended).

[jas xjr]

As long as the chicken was fresh and well cooked in the first place I am sure it should be fine

[Dan_1981]

Probabaly not ideal but the missus will quite often take left over chicken curry that we've had the night before to work the next day and bung it in the microwave for 5 minutes or so.

Rice, chicken, sauce - the lot.

As I said probabaly not ideal but she's never had one negative experience with it.

[Flibble]

Rice is dodgy to reheat, most other stuff is fine as long as it's reheated thoroughly.

[Marf]

Curry will keep for well over a week kept in the fridge, assuming it was all cooked from fresh ingredients.

I cook large batches and just spoon it out as needed, lasts ages.

[Digger]

Aaaah, but as asked, a fish curry ie fish/prawn? I wouldn't trust that past second day of cooking? That about right.

[Marf]

Sorry, only saw the bit about you cooking chicken curry. Seafood, no idea, not my bag

[anonymous-user]

Flibble said:

Rice is dodgy to reheat, most other stuff is fine as long as it's reheated thoroughly.

it is more to do with how it is cooled than reheating.

[Saul Goode]

Digger said:

Can you do this with fish and various crustacea too?

Chicken will be fine if you have fully cooked it then heat to piping hot again. Fish the same although will not last as long in the fridge before stinking up the place; next day should be ok.
More wary about shellfish, particularly if you have cooked from live in shell. They are full of nasties.

[deeen]

Chicken / curry sauce, you have to do a bit more than re-heat, you should aim for a few minutes at temperature.
If the centre of the biggest bit of chicken is above 100 deg C for 5 mins you should be fine.

Bugs in rice are protected by spores, much harder to kill by re-heating.

[Mobile Chicane]

Sure it's something you've cooked?

It only takes a few organisms on, say, a restaurant salad to give you nasty bacterial dysentery.

Norovirus (winter vomiting sickness) is doing the rounds as well.

[tr7v8]

Flibble said:

Rice is dodgy to reheat, most other stuff is fine as long as it's reheated thoroughly.

My missus is afro-Caribbean & every house you'll go to will bulk cook rice & reheat over the course of 2-3 days with no ill effects. Mrs TR7V8 will recycle chinese & indian for 2-3 days as well.

[Digger]

Mobile Chicane said:

Sure it's something you've cooked?

It only takes a few organisms on, say, a restaurant salad to give you nasty bacterial dysentery.

Norovirus (winter vomiting sickness) is doing the rounds as well.

Nah. Nothing I cooked ... Well, heated in my case.

It was either the reduced price M&S ready-to-eat chicken pieces or Indian Starter Selection that I consumed but finished off two days later (same day as chicken).

[Roger645]

deeen said:

Chicken / curry sauce, you have to do a bit more than re-heat, you should aim for a few minutes at temperature.
If the centre of the biggest bit of chicken is above 100 deg C for 5 mins you should be fine.

Bugs in rice are protected by spores, much harder to kill by re-heating.

100 degrees for five minutes, sounds pretty excessive. Why so extreme?

[Digger]

Roger645 said:

deeen said:

Chicken / curry sauce, you have to do a bit more than re-heat, you should aim for a few minutes at temperature.
If the centre of the biggest bit of chicken is above 100 deg C for 5 mins you should be fine.

Bugs in rice are protected by spores, much harder to kill by re-heating.

100 degrees for five minutes, sounds pretty excessive. Why so extreme?

Sounds fair to be honest. Prefer to watch the b*****s boil for a few seconds just to be sure.

[Flibble]

tr7v8 said:

My missus is afro-Caribbean & every house you'll go to will bulk cook rice & reheat over the course of 2-3 days with no ill effects. Mrs TR7V8 will recycle chinese & indian for 2-3 days as well.

I've reheated rice myself many times and never had a problem, but apparently it's bad for you due to the spores issue, so I wouldn't recommend it.

[Parsnip]

You can only get it once - if you had it when you were younger, you are now immune.

Game of iron stomachs anyone?

[Flibble]

I have what might be described as a casual attitude to reheating things and use by dates etc. I reckon I'd be in with a shot.

[Chim Girl]

IMHO cooked rice is often the cause of food poisoning, not the curry. As stated earlier, cooked rice contains spores that can cause gastrointestinal upsets. Leftover rice should not be left at ambient temperatures; refrigerate as soon as possible. If left at room temperature the spores germinate, bacteria multiplies and the toxins that cause upsets increase. Unfortunately, these spores can survive cooking. It would seem that most of Asia chooses to disregard this advice, but that's what it says in 'the book'.

As for your fish/chicken curry, you should be okay to do either of the following:-

Chill => Reheat => Eat

Chill => Freeze => Defrost => Reheat => Eat

My opinion would be to reheat the curry to above 70 deg C, but I am happy to be challenged.

[cal216610]

Isn't fried rice and such made with re-heated rice, don't they boil it then heat it up with oil add soya sauce etc.
Have never re-heated fish etc though, so i don't know how dodgy that is.
meat curries are made in large batches, then portioned into tubs and once cooled frozen. never had problems doing this.