Everyone loves a good game of 'would you eat this', right? ![]()
First, a fun story. I mentioned this in Tirade Tuesday, but last week, I got up at 5:30 am to go to the airport and discovered my fridge had quit working. Boo. We have a second fridge in the garage, so we moved what would fit, but not everything. So, would you eat...
1. I had about 20 pounds of cheese in the freezer. It wouldn't fit in the garage freezer, so I put it in the fridge. Obviously, it defrosted, but was kept cold the whole time. Can I re-freeze it? There's no way we're eating 20 lbs of cheese that quickly.
2. I some turkey soup in that didn't get moved at all. It stayed in the broken freezer, which stayed cool-ish, but not frozen. This started last Wednesday, so it's been almost a week. Is that ok to eat tonight or tomorrow night?
3. Most of the frozen vegetables stayed in the broken freezer. They were all piled together and I think that helped. They still feel pretty frozen, although may have defrosted a little.
4. bonus question - We grilled some chicken last night and didn't eat it all. The extra pieces were accidentally left on the counter (covered) overnight. So probably around 12 hours, then put in the fridge.
The fridge repairman just left so hopefully everything is fixed now!
Re: would you eat this?
1. Typically they recommend that you not refreeze anything you defrosted. The quality of the food changes and bacteria starts growing once it's no longer frozen. That said, you could separate a piece, refreeze it all, then test the refrozen piece to see if it's gross. Cheese is typically uber pasteurized so the odds of it growing stuff is probably low.
2. Possibly, but I wouldn't.
3. I would keep the stuff that is more frozen than less. If you refreeze the semi-frozen stuff, it will probably be horrible. My freezer goes through weird cycles and I can always tell the stuff that got a little too close to the cold side rather than frozen. Gross.
4. Absolutely not.
I have a "when in even the slightest doubt, throw it out" philosophy. Maybe the frozen vegetables (if still cold, and maybe frozen) I'd keep, but everything else, definitely not. Especially the chicken and turkey.
I do have to say IL's make weekend breakfasts and leave the leftover sausage and bacon on a plate on the stove for the duration of the day and pick at it all day long (excuse me while i dry heave) and they don't get sick. However, they eat so much pre-made crap food I think their intestines are chock full of preservatives and chemicals.
Ditto.
Without seeing or smelling, my answers are yes, meh, yes, probably not unless I was really hungry and desperate.
This is my opinion too. I'm slightly paranoid about that kind of stuff. Does the cheese smell normal?
The cheese is fine now, it's just a matter of if I can throw it back in the freezer. I think I will, and just see what happens.
I went through last night and threw out all of my condiments and and random jars of stuff - spaghetti sauce, salsa, jelly, etc. Then I scrubbed down the whole inside. Now I have a squeaky clean, practically empty fridge. In a way, it's kind of nice.
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