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?
Turkey soup!
I see this as your only option. Cook long slow and add enough spice to cover up the fridge flavor
I’d be quite happy to make soup with it. After re-roasting and boiling it, the foul odor is gone. I’m sure it would taste fine.
But some people seem convinced it cannot be salvaged by any process. If it has clostridium perfringens, even if I kill the bacteria in the recook, it would have an exotoxin that would survive any amount of cooking.
I really wish I could have easily tested or know from the odor whether clostridium perfringens was present. The odor could have come from a less dangerous bacteria but I guess it’d be a risky gamble.