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?
What consensus? Properly cooked meat stored properly in the refrigerator should be fine for at least a week.
Of course, the true test is the sniff test, and if it smells off, that’s because it’s no longer safe to eat. Unless you are completely without other options, throw it out.
This should be used as an opportunity to look into why it went bad so quickly. Was it undercooked? Not sealed in an airtight container? Left out at a warm temperature all day before going in the fridge? Stuck in the fridge as a giant, hot mass, raising the temperature of the entire unit?
In a web search on how long cooked turkey lasts, the results were 3—4 days in the fridge in the first ~20 or so hits. Exceptionally, one deviant article said 5—7 days but I lost track of it.
I regret not vacuum sealing the meat, each piece individually. All was in a big zip lock. On day 1 and day 2 I opened it to pull out a piece, which was more opportunities for contamination. Some sites say there is only a 2 hour window of time to get it into the fridge after the initial cooking. In my case that was probably more like ~6 hours. So I guess I made plenty of mistakes.
And I’m assuming you opened and closed and opened and closed the fridge for other items, as well as not having perfect seals.
7 days would 100% be for very ideal if not perfect conditions.
Throw it out. Even if you killed off the bacteria, the endotoxins would remain and make you very ill.