Can I take raw chicken out of a mainade that consist of soy sauce, vinegar and other things and put ribs into it to marinade as well?  Its a couple days old and been in the fridge the whole time.
34753
I marinated chicken a couple weeks ago, and stored the marinade afterwards in a jar. Can it be reused, or is that dangerous? I've been told conflicting stories here. The marinade is mostly teriyaki if that makes a difference.   Intended use of used marinade: Marinate chicken which will then be cooked in the oven. It will not be used with anything that won't be cooked (like a sauce).
121351
I marinated chicken five days ago in lemon juice, seasoned salt, and garlic powder, is it still safe to cook in the oven?
109390
In the poor student or youth worker days it was popular to have never ending soup; a large pot on the stove that was topped up with new and leftover ingredients when available.  Normally the pot was stored in the fridge overnight.  Food items added were sometimes plate leftovers from fellow flat (share house) mates, who would in turn be eating the soup, too.  Most days other ingredients would be fresh(ish) vegetables, beans, grains, and fresh meat products sourced from the local butcher as money allowed.  Brussels sprouts where banned, and so were strong spices (you added those to your bowl before serving).  Also, for irony, a large (cleaned) stone is always left in the pot.  Fresh bread was sometimes baked in the oven while cracked bones were browning, but the oven was often an electrical and environmental death trap.  The pot kept going till the summer holidays, and no one got food poisoning in my time, or from any student stories I have ever heard.  This sort of activity is recorded in history as being a popular resource-saving idea.  Are there any real food safety implications with this method of cooking? And have any actual studies of this technique ever been published?  I still recommend this money-saving idea to current students, not keen on bad practices being continued though.
13503
What are the general rules regarding when can you refreeze food that was frozen and then thawed in the fridge? and what are the reasons behind them? (Hygiene? Food quality?). Let's assume for the sake of the argument that the items were in a non-frozen state only a few hours.  To be more specific, I'm interested in the application of these rules for  - Ginger garlic paste - Dough - Indian Curries - Green Chilly paste - Frozen green peas
91852
We received a turkey recently which was meant to be 'fresh'. When it arrived it was frozen on the inside. We are told that the fridge was probably set a bit low so the turkey froze on the inside.   I'm not rocket surgeon, but I would have thought that meat would always freeze from the outside in, and then thaw from the outside in. Meaning in this case that the only way for the turkey's inside to be frozen would be for the whole turkey to have frozen and then partially thawed.   My question: is it possible for meat to freeze on the inside first or is by butcher pulling a fast one?
118914
This question is the flip-side of the commonly asked food temperature safety concerns. I'd like to know, if a meat-based soup stock (chicken/pork/beef/etc) were to be held constantly at a safe hot temperature of 165F/73C-180F/82C, how long could it stay at this temperature and still be considered safe to eat?  Obviously, it would reduce over time, but suppose it's reconstituted with water regularly so that it could continue being held... Is there ANY sort of time limit (even completely unreasonable spans like, months, years, etc)?
79587
From my experience it is always best to marinate meat for a decent amount of time, so the meat can "soak" up the marinade and be more flavourful.  However, I came across this recipe here:   In the directions, it says: Add pork and marinade for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight, but no longer than 12 hours.  I was wondering, why does it say "no longer than 12 hours"? Isn't it good to let meat marinate for as long as possible?  Thanks.
79307
I make a product I invented called Maybe It's Marinade. Cold pressed extra virgin olive olive, pressed garlic as the base in three varieties, AoliOliO, Dill and Cayenne Pepper, garlic powder, and titch of salt. I package it in a 250 ml mason jar. I also place the jar in a celephane bag as part of its packaging. Recently, a public inspector noticed the product and sunk his teeth into it concerning Botulism risks.   I've been making this for eighteen years. No one has ever gotten sick. I designed the product to be stored in the cupboard. Using cold pressed olive, extra virgin olive oil I have never found the product to become awful, discolored, smelly, and I set some aside in my house on several occassions for months and tested it on myself and found nothing wrong.   The product is not a method of storing garlic in the oil, with the other ingredients in the recipe, it becomes a bread dipping oil, cooking tool, pasta sauce accessory.  The use of the mason jar provides a secure lid but a very reusable easy to open situation. I do not fill the oil to the top, so that the product can be shaken. Its a very interactive product if that makes sense, in the way that it's spoon accessible.   Can you provide some sort of pro and con overview? I only see articles on storing garlic in oil, not as an ingredient in a recipe? If there's a chance i will make people sick afer eighteen years, I may have to stop making it.  Thanks a heap.
78762
I left a fully cooked ham in a bag out overnight. It was refrigerator temperature when I took it out at 9pm. Our Seattle home was not heated; it was about 50 degrees last night. I found it at 6am and threw it back in the fridge, in case it was still good. I would cook it again and then use it with eggs or sandwiches. Would this be ok?
7850
I wonder if it is bad to cook frozen meat (chicken, fish, beef,...) without waiting for it to thaw?  Sometimes, I realize I forget to take meat out of my freezer beforehand, when I am too hungry already.
41736
I am tinkering with my stock recipes.   For pork stock I have been using 8 cups of water over a roasted trotter, a roasted backbone section with about 4 inches of rib attached, and a 1/4 inch slab of roasted pork belly.   For the beef stock I have been using 8 cups of water over an equivalent amount of roasted beef bones (knuckles and backbone/rib).   This gives a very flavorful stock and, for cost reasons, I want to determine how much I can reduce the concentration (by adding more water) without reaching too watery a taste.   Does anybody have any guidance on this topic?
49039
My whole life I've been buying small squid (maybe 4-6" long bodies without the head and tentacles), which are very mildly chewy and tender.  All it takes is sautee them in a little OO and they are good to eat, IOW, no additional tenderizing is needed.  Yesterday I got some large squid, about 1 lb each before cleaning, probably 10"+ long without the head, probably 5-6 times as much meat as the little ones I usually get.  I remember trying to cook that before and they came out very tough and with a bit of unpleasant odor.  Is there a way to marinate and tenderize large squid and to somehow neutralize the odor?
36357
I'm trying to develop my own "secret" fried chicken recipe, something that is similar to Popeye's or Church's. I'm a LONG ways from getting there. Here's what I did in my last experiment:   Chicken was marinated in buttermilk with Cajun spices and Tabasco sauce for 24 hours I used a deep fryer and canola oil. 175C. Prior to "dressing" the chicken, I let the excess buttermilk brine drip off the chicken. I then seasoned it with Cajun seasoning I made a batter using an egg, self rising flour, milk, baking powder I also tried using just plain flour for breading   Results:   Using the batter, the chicken came out looking burned and too smooth (didn't have that crunchy look). It burned too much that I couldn't finish cooking the chicken. Using the flour, the chicken came out with a thin crust, somewhat crispy, but also too burnt. Dipping the chicken in the batter AND then flour gave a bulky &amp; crunchy look. However, again, the result looked too burnt.   Modifications:  I then changed the the breading. I used bread flour and corn starch. I dipped the chicken in the batter again, then used the new breading. The bread flour was a bit lighter. And the corn starch was even more lighter. But they were still burn looking (just lighter shades). I also dropped the temperature to 160C.  Results:  Burnt chicken whose crust wasn't really sticking to the skin/meat.  Questions:  Any suggestions on what I can do to improve? I'm guessing something in the batter is causing the burnt coat. What flour should I use? What can I do to make the coat stick to the skin/meat? Any other suggestions on what to do?
1715
How do I know if a given food or ingredient I have is still good, or if I should discard it?  How can I best preserve a food or ingredient?     This broad question is intended as a "general reference" question to quickly answer many how long will food keep for? questions. Please feel free to edit this question to expand and clarify as needed.
111553
The bags of frozen mushrooms and okra that I just bought got mistakenly put into the refrigerator for a few days instead of frozen. I want to eat them now.  What's the problem with letting bagged veggies thaw and then eating them? Is there a danger of food poisoning?
109687
I've been reading various Googled recipes and techniques for stockmaking, as I made my first stock tonight using raw chicken bones. Just about every article/recipe I read says to skim the surface of the stock in the beginning, while it is simmering. Different articles variously refer to the skimmed substances as "scum", "impurities", and "proteins".   I had started out throwing all the vegetables in at the beginning, and probably had it at too high of a simmer, so I never actually got to see any foam or collections of anything other than apparently oils/fats from the chicken appear on the surface. This got me wondering: what is that stuff that floats to the surface? Is there any reason other than aesthetics to remove it from the stock?
60012
I smoked a whole chicken. When I cut into the breast I found this:    What is it and is my chicken ruined?