There seems to be widespread consensus that cooked turkey is only safe 3—4 days in the fridge. I’m on day 7 and it has the wrong odor. Can it be salvaged?
I am certain that I can kill all the bacteria. But really the interesting question is whether the type¹ of bacteria that likes cooked turkey produces heat-resistant toxins.
These articles say you can kill all the bacteria by cooking:
- https://thetrashcanturkey.com/does-cooking-a-turkey-kill-all-bacteria/
- https://stellinamarfa.com/meat/does-cooking-a-turkey-kill-the-bacteria/
- https://www.chefsresource.com/can-you-cook-bacteria-out-of-turkey/
So they all imply it’s safe to re-cook, but they neglect the critical question about toxins. Any ideas?
① stellinamarfa: “One turkey can contain Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, and other germs”.
Are those the kinds of bacteria that produce poisons?
I don’t have bacteria phobia, but any sound science on food poisoning risks would be useful.
I just found this article which lists Clostridium perfringens as producing a harmful exotoxin. From there, it would be interesting to know if Clostridium perfringens likes cooked turkey (as opposed to just raw). But without a solid answer on that, I guess I will toss the turkey.
If you’re able to smell the products of the bacteria, it’s not safe to consume.
The smell test is step 1 in determining whether food is safe to eat, and your turkey failed this step. There’s no way to know what bacteria colonized it outside of growing cultures.
Your phrasing implies that the bacteria itself is odorless and that any new odor (other than what cooked turkey normally smells like) is entirely borne from bacteria output. Is that correct?
The food was sealed so odor builds. Upon opening the bag I get a full strength dose of the odor – which is gone if I miss the opportunity to do the instant sniff. What plays tricks with my mind is the fact that sometimes an odor is just a stronger dose of the normal food odor. But as something rots there is a gradual subtle increase in new odors that makes it hard to know. I have always lived on the edge in this regard and consume borderline cases where it’s hard to tell. And I have always gotten away with it… never had food poisoning.
In any case, the turkey odor clearly had some wrong odors so I opted to freeze it to use as rat bait the next time rats invade the house (along with a frozen raw beef steak where I was also too slow to consume). I now have enough rat bait to take on 100+ rats. And what I’ll probably find is that the rats are smart enough to avoid it.