French Door Fridge

[walkitout]

I lusted after these almost as soon as I learned about them and when we moved to our current home a few years ago, I got one. I still love it -- most of the time. However, sometimes one of the doors doesn't close all the way. And it isn't obvious that it isn't closed all the way. Usually, we catch this relatively quickly, but last night A. decided she wanted a bowl of cereal after we were partway through the going-to-bed process. I was okay with that -- I knew she hadn't eaten much -- but apparently when I put the soy milk away, I didn't close the door entirely, and no one go into the fridge again until T. was closing the partly open door about 12 hours later. The mayo, when tested with the instant read thermometer, was about 60 degrees. Ouch. Into the trash with that. Also, the chocolate milk, deli meat, soy milk, home-made honey mustard dressing (mayo, again) and assorted other odds and ends. The most annoying was the grilled chicken breasts -- we'd eaten half the package the night before and I was planning on those being Sunday dinner.

Fortunately, I usually go grocery shopping on the weekend, and I hadn't done so already. Even more fortunately, the fridge didn't destroy itself trying to keep an open main compartment cold.

Also, the freezer stayed frozen. Win some, lose some.

Comments

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you can heat stuff back up to an internal temperature of 165F you are ok; that is what the food service safety standards require.

A little less seriously, I remember seeing mayo served warm, in an open bowl, at a British archive lunch room. So far, this practice hasn't managed to kill the Brits....

The Mayo Myth

[walkitout]

I read coverage in the NYT about how commercial mayo makes stuff it is mixed with go bad more slowly, so I'm sure you are right. That said, I wasn't going to recook any of the meat, and the mayo made me nervous. Since no one else in the house will eat the stuff, I would have just given up eating mayo and let it sit there indefinitely -- which, honestly, probably would have been good for me from a calorie perspective.

How long do you think the mayo sat out on the table [ETA at the luncheon]? I seem to remember the rule-of-thumb being 4 hours, but whenever I say that out loud around my brother-in-law, he completely freaks out. OTOH, that brother-in-law is extremely paranoid about food safety issues. He won't let the kids eat a piece of french toast that has been sitting out after breakfast for a couple hours. Which strikes even me as being a little paranoid.

Re: The Mayo Myth

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

Long enough to have turned a pale yellow on top. I have a suspicion they set it out for lunch and put it back in the fridge after hours.

Re: The Mayo Myth

[walkitout]

See, it's things like that that make it hard for me to figure out what's "being crazy paranoid" and what's "totally neglectful of safety". I really notice this given where I live, because a lot of people around me seem "crazy paranoid" and so I feel like I'm being all casual, but then I blog something that I think it a pretty reasonable response and I abruptly realize what a protective bubble my town creates within the layers of protective bubbles in the greater world around us.

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends on how much preservative you think is in the mayo!

I think food service guidelines (I worked a commercial kitchen for a while as a grad student job) says food should not be left out over 4 hours, and edibles either have to be refrigerated, or heated to that 165F.

I try to be relaxed without being "totally neglectful" or "following every media panic attack". But it can be hard to get reliable information.