Kitchen Garden Forum

On BBC Breakfast last Wednesday a "chef" was giving suggestions for what to do with Christmas leftovers. The first thing he said was "Don't use the turkey; yesterday (Tuesday) was the last day it was safe to use it". I can't say I've heard that before; and yet sitting down later to read through the Christmas Eve paper, I found exactly the same statement.

Now I can understand that if you undercook a badly defrosted turkey, then leave it out somewhere warm, you might have problems. But I wondered how many perfectly good half turkeys ended up in the bin last Wednesday. We finished our turkey (except for a large bowl of stock) on Friday and are none the worse for wear!

What are other people's thoughts on this? Of course, anyone who has fallen prey to the killer turkey probably won't reply

Well we are having the last hunk of Turkey today, so if i'm not online tomorrow you know why.

It may well be that they are covering their backs. Like doctors giving the worst possible scenario in case they get sued.

We live in a desperately litigious age. Had he not said that and someone fell ill because of a bad turkey, it is not beyond the realms of imagination.

It is like the sell by and use by dates on food. People looked at me as if I were crazy when I got a chicken for 99 cents because it was its last day . ( If you see what I mean!)

But yes, ,too many throw stuff out when it is perfectly fine.

Something I don't have to worry about as we don't have turkey but you would think if there was a problem like this it would be something we were made more aware of - and is it just turkey - if so what is special about that type of meat? Or is there a time limit when any left over cooked meat should be used?

glallotments wrote:Something I don't have to worry about as we don't have turkey but you would think if there was a problem like this it would be something we were made more aware of - and is it just turkey - if so what is special about that type of meat? Or is there a time limit when any left over cooked meat should be used?

Salmonella?

Marigold wrote:Salmonella?

Sorry I must have sounded stupid at the - I didn't mean I thought cooked meat could be left indefinitely. I found this info on the web

Its safe to store cooked, cold turkey in the fridge for up to 3 days. Cool quickly after cooking by transferring to a cold plate and putting it in an unheated room or in the garage. When cold, wrap any leftover meat in foil or plastic film and put it into the fridge

http://www.britishturkey.co.uk/

We are all still here...we had the last of the turkey yesterday

When I was a kid my dad use to call it the turkey's revenge everytime he heard of some one with food poisoning after christmas .
So it must of happened but I think now adays with better fridges and more education on not putting cooked food beside raw etc , its probally not so normal.