Quick Questions on food safety / sell by / use by dates

Bananabrain

aliama wrote: »

On the subject of whether or not to risk it, bear in mind that there's an Italian recipe for arancini which grew out of a need to use up leftover rice. The Italians have survived. Unless you're cooking for someone particularly at risk of food poisoning (small child, elderly person, pregnant woman), I personally think there's such a thing as being too cautious, especially when it comes to wasting perfectly good food.

Be aware of the risks, certainly, but know that the risk is slight, and even slighter if you take precautions like making sure the rice cools down as fast as possible.

There's still a risk of salmonella from uncooked eggs, but plenty of people eat raw eggs every day without incident. I'm planning to make hollandaise sauce eventually (got a good reason not to, right now), and I've been meaning to make arancini balls for ages. Just not got around to it yet.

Thanks for reminding me about arancini. I had some recently in a very posh restaurant and it was divine.
[Don't frequent any restaurants very frequently these days]
Might try and dig out a recipe for arancini tomorrow.

floss2

I had severe food poisoning from risotto in an Edinburgh restaurant 9 years ago, and it resulted in extreme digestive problems for several years that have now settled down to IBS and a couple of intolerances.

Despite all that, I still freeze my own risotto and have always decanter left-overs into a Tupperware box immediately after serving, then put that in the freezer when we have finished eating.

I always defrost it in the fridge and microwave it to death to reheat it.

BTW, left over risotto makes great stuffing for roasted peppers

aliama

Mojisola wrote: »

No, you should be rinsing the rice in ice-cold water to cool it and getting it into the fridge as soon as possible.

This is fine for left-over rice but wouldn't work with risotto.

That's another option, but not as convenient as spreading it out on a tray, which is one of the recommended methods and would work with risotto.

Ice water baths are another option.

From:
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/riceind.pdf
'If you chill down rice, do this as
quickly as possible, ideally within
one hour.
You can chill down rice more quickly
by dividing it into smaller portions,
spreading it out on a shallow tray, or
putting a container of hot rice into a
larger container of cold water or ice.
Do not leave rice in the pan to cool.'

Since any remaining bacteria will be spread throughout the rice, increasing the surface area will make no difference (except to the rate the rice cools down).

aliama

Bananabrain wrote: »

Thanks for reminding me about arancini. I had some recently in a very posh restaurant and it was divine.
[Don't frequent any restaurants very frequently these days]
Might try and dig out a recipe for arancini tomorrow.

Lots of them online seem to use freshly cooked rice, presumably to cut out the aforementioned dangers of food poisoning.

eleanor73

It doesn't freeze well just like it doesn't reheat that well however I have done it and have never been ill. Fried risotto cakes are nice with salad the next day. I have done that before but make sure you get them hot in the middle.

floss2

eleanor73 wrote: »

It doesn't freeze well just like it doesn't reheat that well however I have done it and have never been ill. Fried risotto cakes are nice with salad the next day. I have done that before but make sure you get them hot in the middle.

Actually I disagree - it can freeze well, but I think it depends how you make it. I make it less "loose" than DH, and his risotto freezes really badly, probably because it has more liquid, whereas my firmer risotto freezes well, and reheats well too. I always add extra parmesan when reheated to give it that extra bit of seasoning.

timehastoldme

I freeze and reheat risotto. We cool it as fast as we can, sit the pan in ice water or split and chill, then get it frozen fast too. I wouldn't if it's been sat out in a warm kitchen, but we're used to having a big cold bowl to put the pan in, so it's cold pretty fast.

Honeythief

I'm happy to take my chances with rice, and freeze/microwave it on a regular basis, but I am trying to imagine the consistency of thawed risotto and it just doesn't seem very appealing.

Missli

It was from a pack of 2 I opened Saturday evening. The opened pack was wrapped loosely in a plastic bag in the frdge. It smells, and looks fine, was wondering if its worth risking baking it for a quick lunch?

I'm not sure what bacteria are present in fish.

BitterAndTwisted

There shouldn't much harmful bacteria in smoked fish. I'd eat it without thinking twice about it.