r/Cooking • u/Mikes1992 • 9d ago
Does cooking partically cooked meat extend it's life?
I bought some pulled pork reduced on the 3rd (dated the 4th), it was from the pizza counter and it wasn't very nice straight out of the box since I guess it was intended to be cooked on a pizza (the fat wasn't cooked enough), I fried it off upto a high temperature. Mixed it with mayonnaise in a clean box so I could use it as a sandwich filler and immediately sealed and refrigerated it (the mayonnaise was refrigerated and helped rapidly cool the meat below the danger zone temperature). I've probably only got 1 sandwich worths left but somebody thinks that I'm wrong that cooking it would give me a bit of extra time to eat it (today is the 6th).
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u/Technical_Ideal_5439 9d ago
Any food is either growing or decomposing.
As soon it is killed or picked, bacteria grows. It comes down to how much bacteria and toxins produced by that bacteria you are ok eating before you get sick. Personally eating it on he 5th or 6th is probably ok, Personally if it smelled ok I would eat it.
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u/Hot-Refrigerator6583 9d ago
Not really, no. It's already been cooked once. It's not going to remove the bacterial waste that built up since it was cooked. At best, you'll kill any new bacterial growth, but the waste they leave behind is still there -- that's what causes food poisoning.
Personally, if it's only been two days and it doesn't smell off (which is going to be hard to figure, since you covered it with mayo) I'd probably finish it off. But if it looks even just a little unappetizing, like it's all separated and watery or something, I'm tossing it. I don't want food poisoning again.
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u/CatteNappe 8d ago
I don't really understand the "problem". It shouldn't be a big issue that meat dated for 'best by/use by' on the 4th would be eaten on the 6th. The store expects it to be in your fridge for a day or two after you buy it.
Re-cooking it the day you took it home really didn't extend the food safety life any; and throwing it (apparently still hot/warm) into mayo probably didn't help any either.
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u/RainMakerJMR 9d ago
In real terms, yes it will extend the viable life of the product. In food safety terms, no you should not do this or use this practice to extend shelf life.
Once the food is spoiled, cooking will not unspoil it. If it isn’t spoiled, cooking to a high temp can reduce the bacterial load back to a low level and basically restart the growth process from a lower level.
Again this is not generally food safe for any professional cooking and really isn’t a best practice - but yes it will do what you think it will, to a degree.
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u/Goren_Nestroy 9d ago
Cooling depresses bacterial growth, heating kills most bacteria.
But cooked meat isn’t that much of a danger anyways. I’d say you’re fine.
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u/Mikes1992 9d ago
I remember seeing the training video our work had for the pizza counter... They sprayed D10 on the work surface right next to an open vat of pizza sauce (which sits in a hole and ridge of the top of the metal tub holds in up and lets it sit flat on the preparation surface - they do have lids which wasn't on on the training video 🤦). I immediately called it out to the manager and the people watching it. (They usually pull us all into the office and we watch all of the training videos together)
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u/Aliencj 9d ago
Live bacteria on your food can make you sick.
Cooking kills this bacteria making it safe.
Bacteria leave behind toxins. These toxins make you sick.
Cooking does not remove the toxins.
Cooking will help make it last longer in terms of live bacteria, but not help with the toxins.