OT: Freezer Question

On 5/28/2004 9:08 PM Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these
great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

Quoted message said:

I have been trying to find some info on how long food will
last in a deep freeze without electricity. Our electricity
was out for 20 hours. Most of the meat and items towards
the bottom of the freezer stayed frozen. Other items like
TV dinners towards the top of the freezer thawed a bit. I
don't know about the stuff in the refrigeator either.
Milk, eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc. Sheesh...
AND the yard looks like a hurricane hit. What a mess.

Michael <- extremely hateful and had a root canal on top
of it all

The frozen items don't worry about. The other items "that
thawed a bit", as long as they still have ice crystals in
them THEY SHOULD BE OK. If there were no ice crystals in
them, cook em up or throw em out.

The lettuce and other FRESH veggies and fruit should be OK.
If the seal on the mayo jar OR any other jar in the fridge
has been broken, toss it. Same with the eggs. Sniff the
milk, you will be able to tell if it is good or not. If you
are not sure, toss it.

Replacing food is a lot cheaper than a trip to the emergency
room and/or a night or two of extreme "discomfort".

In article <[email hidden]>,

Dog3 dognospam@adjfkdla;not said:

I have been trying to find some info on how long food will
last in a deep freeze without electricity. Our electricity
was out for 20 hours. Most of the meat and items towards
the bottom of the freezer stayed frozen. Other items like
TV dinners towards the top of the freezer thawed a bit. I
don't know about the stuff in the refrigeator either.
Milk, eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc. Sheesh...
AND the yard looks like a hurricane hit. What a mess.

Are you worried about spoiling? Everything should be fine.
If you're really concerned, get a probe thermometer and
check food temperatures.

--
to respond, change "spamless.invalid" with "optonline.net"
please mail OT responses only

Quoted message said:

Dog3 writes:

I have been trying to find some info on how long food will
last in a deep freeze without electricity. Our electricity
was out for 20 hours. Most of the meat and items towards
the bottom of the freezer stayed frozen. Other items like
TV dinners towards the top of the freezer thawed a bit. I
don't know about the stuff in the refrigeator either. Milk,
eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc.

So long as the door was not opened a fridge without power
for a measly 20 hours will easily keep food from spoiling,
witnessed by the fact that your freezer compartment still
contained frozen and partially frozen food... refreeze.
Dairy does not spoil so rapidly, butter, eggs, cheese would
be fine even were it out on your kitchen table the entire
weekend... even mayo will be fine so long as you were neat
about keeping it uncontaminated with lumps of tuna. I
seriously doubt any of your food spoiled in so short a time.
Right now, get out the yellow pages and locate the nearest
ice house and write the phone number on your fridge, if they
have dry ice all the better.

---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =--- ---= Move
UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without
tribulation." Sheldon ````````````

"Dog3" <dognospam@adjfkdla;not> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have been trying to find some info on how long food will
last in a deep freeze without electricity. Our electricity
was out for 20 hours. Most

of

Quoted message said:

the meat and items towards the bottom of the freezer
stayed frozen. Other items like TV dinners towards the top
of the freezer thawed a bit. I

don't

Quoted message said:

know about the stuff in the refrigeator either. Milk,
eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc. Sheesh... AND the
yard looks like a hurricane hit. What a mess.

Michael <- extremely hateful and had a root canal on top
of it all

It could be worse....power coulda gone out in the middle of
your root canal.

Jack Oragel

Ted Campanelli <[email hidden]> got [censored] and typed
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The frozen items don't worry about. The other items "that
thawed a bit", as long as they still have ice crystals in
them THEY SHOULD BE OK. If there were no ice crystals in
them, cook em up or throw em out.

The lettuce and other FRESH veggies and fruit should be
OK. If the seal on the mayo jar OR any other jar in the
fridge has been broken, toss it. Same with the eggs. Sniff
the milk, you will be able to tell if it is good or not.
If you are not sure, toss it.

Replacing food is a lot cheaper than a trip to the
emergency room and/or a night or two of extreme
"discomfort".

Thanks you both Ted and Scott for your answers. The one last
question I have is about left over meat items. I've got
about 2 lbs of grilled pork steaks and 3 or 4 leftover
grilled chicken breasts in the fridge. Will these have
lasted or should they be tossed. The only concern I have is
making someone or myself sick.

Michael <- pitched the Hellman's, potato salad and eggs
--
Deathbed statement...

"Codeine . . . bourbon." ~~Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d.
December 12, 1968

[email hidden] (PENMART01) got [censored] and typed
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Dog3 writes:

I have been trying to find some info on how long food will
last in a deep freeze without electricity. Our electricity
was out for 20 hours. Most of the meat and items towards
the bottom of the freezer stayed frozen. Other items like
TV dinners towards the top of the freezer thawed a bit. I
don't know about the stuff in the refrigeator either.
Milk, eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc.

So long as the door was not opened a fridge without power
for a measly 20 hours will easily keep food from spoiling,
witnessed by the fact that your freezer compartment still
contained frozen and partially frozen food... refreeze.
Dairy does not spoil so rapidly, butter, eggs, cheese
would be fine even were it out on your kitchen table the
entire weekend... even mayo will be fine so long as you
were neat about keeping it uncontaminated with lumps of
tuna. I seriously doubt any of your food spoiled in so
short a time. Right now, get out the yellow pages and
locate the nearest ice house and write the phone number on
your fridge, if they have dry ice all the better.

Thanks Sheldon. The power has been restored. I'm going to
remember the dry ice tip for the next time. It's been
happening a lot in my area lately, and not just from
storms. This is the longest stretch we've had though. Too
many old trees falling everywhere. I'm thinking about
looking into one of those generators that you can hook up
to your gas line.

Michael
--
Deathbed statement...

"Codeine . . . bourbon." ~~Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d.
December 12, 1968

Ted Campanelli said:

On 5/28/2004 9:08 PM Ted shuffled out of his cave and
grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of
knowledge:

Quoted message said:

I have been trying to find some info on how long food
will last in a deep freeze without electricity. Our
electricity was out for 20 hours. Most of the meat and
items towards the bottom of the freezer stayed frozen.
Other items like TV dinners towards the top of the
freezer thawed a bit. I don't know about the stuff in the
refrigeator either. Milk, eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce,
mayo etc. Sheesh... AND the yard looks like a hurricane
hit. What a mess.

Michael <- extremely hateful and had a root canal on top
of it all

The frozen items don't worry about. The other items "that
thawed a bit", as long as they still have ice crystals in
them THEY SHOULD BE OK. If there were no ice crystals in
them, cook em up or throw em out.

The lettuce and other FRESH veggies and fruit should be
OK. If the seal on the mayo jar OR any other jar in the
fridge has been broken, toss it. Same with the eggs. Sniff
the milk, you will be able to tell if it is good or not.
If you are not sure, toss it.

Slow down...

Stuff that stayed in the freezer and was cold can be
refrozen with very little issue about safety. Mouthfeel and
quality are a different subject. They're safe, but they
might eat differently than before.

Vegetable material in the fridge will be fine.

You mention, "Milk, eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce, mayo..."

Mayo and virtually anything else in the fridge won't spoil
in that amount of time. Mayo can be left on the counter with
extremely small chance of hazard. Same with jams, jellies,
mustards, etc. Condiments are extremely unlikely to spoil
this way. Butter and cheese are fine. The eggs will be good
for another 3 months. Just rechill them.

Smell the milk.

Don't confuse spoilage bacteria with pathogens. And don't be
so eager to throw food away because of some scare-tactic
standards.

Quoted message said:

Replacing food is a lot cheaper than a trip to the
emergency room and/or a night or two of extreme
"discomfort".

Don't just mindlessly throw out the food. Check it. If it
looks fine, smells normal and doesn't feel different to the
touch, chances are very good that it's ok. I'd dump raw
meats, particularly if they're ground or small, thin pieces.
Roasts, I'd check well. Spoilage would begin at the surface,
and on a big piece of meat, you could rinse it or even cut
off the outside and cook it as usual.

Pastorio

"Jack Schidt®" <[email hidden]> got [censored] and typed
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

"Dog3" <dognospam@adjfkdla;not> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have been trying to find some info on how long food
will last in a deep freeze without electricity. Our
electricity was out for 20 hours. Most

of

Quoted message said:

the meat and items towards the bottom of the freezer
stayed frozen. Other items like TV dinners towards the
top of the freezer thawed a bit. I

don't

Quoted message said:

know about the stuff in the refrigeator either. Milk,
eggs, butter, cheese, lettuce, mayo etc. Sheesh... AND
the yard looks like a hurricane hit. What a mess.

Michael <- extremely hateful and had a root canal on top
of it all

It could be worse....power coulda gone out in the middle
of your root canal.

Jack Oragel

The water was turned off. They had to rinse my mouth with
distilled water from a jug. The suction thingy couldn't be
used and I had to spit in a styrofoam cup. Right out of the
dark ages. The dentist had electricity for the drill but no
water. Go figure.

Michael <- has had a [censored] week

--
Deathbed statement...

"Codeine . . . bourbon." ~~Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d.
December 12, 1968

In article <[email hidden]>, Dog3

dognospam@adjfkdla;not said:

Ted Campanelli <[email hidden]> got [censored] and
typed :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The frozen items don't worry about. The other items
"that thawed a bit", as long as they still have ice
crystals in them THEY SHOULD BE OK. If there were no ice
crystals in them, cook em up or throw em out.

The lettuce and other FRESH veggies and fruit should be
OK. If the seal on the mayo jar OR any other jar in the
fridge has been broken, toss it. Same with the eggs.
Sniff the milk, you will be able to tell if it is good
or not. If you are not sure, toss it.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Replacing food is a lot cheaper than a trip to the
emergency room and/or a night or two of extreme
"discomfort".

Thanks you both Ted and Scott for your answers. The one
last question I have is about left over meat items. I've
got about 2 lbs of grilled pork steaks and 3 or 4 leftover
grilled chicken breasts in the fridge. Will these have
lasted or should they be tossed. The only concern I have
is making someone or myself sick.

Michael <- pitched the Hellman's, potato salad and eggs

Are they still cold? If so, they're fine. Michael, it seems
you're subject to horsy weather down there. Next power
outage, first thing you do is tape the freezer and fridge
doors shut and do not open them. That's your best shot for
preservation. We were without power for a couple days
sometime back and everything was fine. It helped that my
freezer was fairly full (at least half)

Poke around here some: < uga.edunchfpOpen ↗> That's
the National Center for Home Food Preservation sited at the
University of Georgia. It's got a decent search engine, too.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> Sam I Am updated 5/16/04.
Less than a month until my birthday. "Shop early, shop
often, shop big." Good gin and cheap chocolate preferred.
Or is it cheap gin and good chocolate? I can never
remember. . . .

Dog3 said:

Thanks you both Ted and Scott for your answers. The one
last question I have is about left over meat items. I've
got about 2 lbs of grilled pork steaks and 3 or 4 leftover
grilled chicken breasts in the fridge. Will these have
lasted or should they be tossed. The only concern I have
is making someone or myself sick.

Of course. They ought to be good assuming you kept the door
shut. If you're not sure, cube the meats and make a couple
of swell soups. That'll sterilize them both.

Quoted message said:

Michael <- pitched the Hellman's, potato salad and eggs

Didn't need to pitch the Hellman's or the eggs and probably
not the potato salad, either.

Pastorio

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bob (this one) said:

Don't just mindlessly throw out the food. Check it. If it
looks fine, smells normal and doesn't feel different to
the touch, chances are very good that it's ok. I'd dump
raw meats, particularly if they're ground or small, thin
pieces. Roasts, I'd check well. Spoilage would begin at
the surface, and on a big piece of meat, you could rinse
it or even cut off the outside and cook it as usual.

Thermometers are your friend. If the meats' temperatures
didn't rise to above about 40F, they should be fine. Odor is
not a reliable indicator of spoilage--the food can be
teeming with E. coli and still smell fine.

--
to respond, change "spamless.invalid" with "optonline.net"
please mail OT responses only

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

We were without power for a couple days sometime back and
everything was fine. It helped that my freezer was fairly
full (at least half)

It also probably helped that you live in the vincinity of
the north pole as well. 🙂

-Mike

"Bob (this one)" <[email hidden]> got [censored] and typed
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Dog3 said:

Thanks you both Ted and Scott for your answers. The one
last question I have is about left over meat items. I've
got about 2 lbs of grilled pork steaks and 3 or 4
leftover grilled chicken breasts in the fridge. Will
these have lasted or should they be tossed. The only
concern I have is making someone or myself sick.

Of course. They ought to be good assuming you kept the
door shut. If you're not sure, cube the meats and make a
couple of swell soups. That'll sterilize them both.

Quoted message said:

Michael <- pitched the Hellman's, potato salad and eggs

Didn't need to pitch the Hellman's or the eggs and
probably not the potato salad, either.

Pastorio

This thread has been extremely informative and I thank all
that responded. I did throw out the mayo, eggs and potato
salad. I'll rethink that next time (I'm sure there will be
a next time). I knew enough to keep the deep freeze and
refrigerator doors closed. Everything seems to be okay and
I did not have raw meat in the fridge, just cooked, left
over meat.

Well, we had sun all day yesterday and so far this morning
it looks promising. The only drawback is, I have to take the
cat to the vet at
11:00. I'd rather wrestle a mountain lion than haul her
snarling, hissing, evil self to the vet. I have to
completely disassemble her crate to get her out of
it at the vet's office. Then I'm likely to get
bitten. The vet has "Use Extreme Caution" written
all over her chart. She only weighs 8 lbs but can
terrorize an entire animal hospital within 2 minutes
after arrival.

Michael
--
Deathbed statement...

"Codeine . . . bourbon." ~~Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d.
December 12, 1968

Scott said:

In article <[email hidden]>, "Bob

(this one) said:

Don't just mindlessly throw out the food. Check it. If it
looks fine, smells normal and doesn't feel different to
the touch, chances are very good that it's ok. I'd dump
raw meats, particularly if they're ground or small, thin
pieces. Roasts, I'd check well. Spoilage would begin at
the surface, and on a big piece of meat, you could rinse
it or even cut off the outside and cook it as usual.

Thermometers are your friend. If the meats' temperatures
didn't rise to above about 40F, they should be fine. Odor
is not a reliable indicator of spoilage--the food can be
teeming with E. coli and still smell fine.

Sorry, not quite. First, spoilage and E. coli are different
issues. Spoilage is a harmless degradation of quality and is
caused by several sources including bacteria, heat,
dehydration and other mechanisms. Second, E. coli is one of
many pathogenic critters that can hurt you. They aren't the
reasons things spoil. Different varieties of creatures.

Odor is, indeed, a reliable indicator of spoilage. It's not
a reliable indicator of the presence of pathogenic bacteria
or viruses.

Meats don't spoil as quickly as the "throw it out" posts
imply. And since pathogenic contamination is largely a
surface phenomenon, cooking reduces hazards to statistically
insignificant levels. It's not that *all* bacteria need to
be killed; that's a virtual impossibility. It just needs to
be a low level so our immune systems can deal with it.

Pastorio

Bob (this one) said:

Damn. I missed the memo about that, didn't I?

Ok, fill me in. Tell me if I've got it here: the world has
to be made sterile, right? And the *only* acceptable number
of bacteria is ZERO, right?

Ok. Got it...

Pastorio

The memo you probably missed is the (absolutely serious)
recommendation by medical researchers that picking your nose
and eating the boogers is GOOD FOR YOU because of the
bacterial exposure:

ananova.comsm 903083.htmlOpen ↗
quirkies.badtaste

--Blair "Paging Dr. Elders.
Dr. Jocelyn Elders."

In article <qqVtc.1436$CW.1054@lakeread05>, "Mike Pearce"

Quoted message said:

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message news:barbschaller-
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

We were without power for a couple days sometime back
and everything was fine. It helped that my freezer was
fairly full (at least half)

It also probably helped that you live in the vincinity of
the north pole as well. 🙂

Quoted message said:

-Mike

I don't think it makes any difference in the middle of
July, though.
:-P That's when we were out for 2-3 days.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> Sam I Am updated 5/16/04.
Less than a month until my birthday. "Shop early, shop
often, shop big." Good gin and cheap chocolate preferred.
Or is it cheap gin and good chocolate? I can never
remember. . . .

Dog3 said:

Well, we had sun all day yesterday and so far this morning
it looks promising. The only drawback is, I have to take
the cat to the vet at
11:00. I'd rather wrestle a mountain lion than haul her
snarling, hissing, evil self to the vet. I have to
completely disassemble her crate to get her out of
it at the vet's office. Then I'm likely to get
bitten. The vet has "Use Extreme Caution" written
all over her chart. She only weighs 8 lbs but can
terrorize an entire animal hospital within 2
minutes after arrival.

A friend of mine had a cat like that. They would have to
take measures at the vet so everyone didn't wind up
shredded by cat teeth and back claws. Cat was not only a
mean cat, but a very sick one, so vet visits were common
later in life.

Only thing is ... her cat was enormous! (laugh)

nancy

Bob (this one) said:

Meats don't spoil as quickly as the "throw it out" posts
imply. And since pathogenic contamination is largely a
surface phenomenon, cooking reduces hazards to
statistically insignificant levels. It's not that *all*
bacteria need to be killed; that's a virtual
impossibility. It just needs to be a low level so our
immune systems can deal with it.

Pastorio

It is politically incorrect to assume that people have
functioning immune systems. (I really think that's part of
the reason for some of the overly-cautious dire warnings
about food spoilage and contamination.)

Best regards, Bob

Blair P. Houghton said:

Bob (this one) said:

Damn. I missed the memo about that, didn't I?

Ok, fill me in. Tell me if I've got it here: the world has
to be made sterile, right? And the *only* acceptable
number of bacteria is ZERO, right?

Ok. Got it...

Pastorio

The memo you probably missed is the (absolutely serious)
recommendation by medical researchers that picking your
nose and eating the boogers is GOOD FOR YOU because of the
bacterial exposure:

<LOL> I've gotten that from about a dozen people who know me
as a food writer. Of course, my first reaction was to look
for the logo of The Onion somewhere on the page. As I
thought about it, it makes sense for the same reasons we've
played with in this thread. Still pretty oogy, though.

Quoted message said:

ananova.comsm 903083.htmlOpen ↗
s.quirkies.badtaste

--Blair "Paging Dr. Elders.
Dr. Jocelyn Elders."

Dr Elders wanted us to play with other things, IIRC.

Pastorio