how long can I....

[lennyluminum]

keep pulled pork and chicken in my fridge before it goes bad?? I heard that you can keep smoked food for a very long time, what do you guys think?

 

[fatback joe]

Depends on how cold the fridge is and how air tight the container you got the sfuff in......after about 3 days I get a little leery....especially on the chicken.

I don't think your chicken and pork got smoked to the point of preservation (think Jerky).

 

[lennyluminum]

so than a week and a half is probable to long

 

[fatback joe]

Probably......

How does it smell and look? Did you have it loosely wrapped or vaccuumed? How cold is your fridge? Does the door to the fridge get opened much? All factors in that.

Personally I wouldn't eat it..........gives me an excuse to cook more, anyhow.

 

[curious aardvark]

well both cooking and smoking are methods of preserving food.
But a week and a half for a low temperature cooked meat - is stretching it a bit. Bear in mind that even if you used a salty rub - it's just the outside that's salt preserved - not the interior.
If you intend to keep it that long, chunk it and freeze it.

 

[crewdawg52]

A week and a half, IMHO, is too long. Why take the chance. Yardbird and pork butt doesn't cost very much, so cook another (practice makes perferct). If it smells funny, it is funny....dont eat. Next time, just freeze the stuff. No worries then.

 

[Dutch]

lenny-

Here are a couple of links from the USDA Food Saftey Inspection Service. The links deal with safe food storage. . .

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Factsheets/...fely/index.asp
(Handling Food Safely)

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Factsheets/...fety/index.asp
(Barbecue Food Safety)

The first link has a chart listing the different types of food and how long they can be kept refrigerated and/or frozen. The link states the following
Place food into shallow containers and immediately put in the refrigerator or freezer for rapid cooling.
Use cooked leftovers within 4 days.

The second link deals with Barbecue Food Safety.

Hope these links answers your questions.

 

[flash]

A week would be pushing it, now if you had frozen it, smoked food last a very long time.

 

[motorhedd]

Hi lenny.
here is a valuable investment that you can make ,should be able to pick it up at your local supermarket.Its made by reynolds.

Hope that helps
Happy Smokes

 

[packplantpath]

I second freezing, it comes out tasting like the day it went in. At least 2 weeks later, that's as long as mine has ever lasted.

How much vinegar was in the pork? If a lot, it may yet be fine, but still iffy.

 

[ronp]

Nice. There is a coupon there but it is only for 55 cents.

I wonder how much they cost?

http://www.reynoldspkg.com/reynoldsk...ac/en/home.asp

 

[zapper]

Not much gets used after three days in the fridge at my house. We are either tired of the same thing three days in a row or not risking it food saftey wise. When in doubt, throw it out! My wife will eat very little in the lines of leftovers after one day, so I have to eat them or they need to be frozen the same day they were made.


We try to freeze what we can from the big cooking events. The way we try to do things is like this. Whenever we make a large amount of say stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbages, multiple butts or whatever it happens to be, we try to put as much as we can into single or double serving size freezer containers the first night. This is almost part of the clean up process and it makes room in the fridge for the stuff that doesn't freeze as well.

We like the single serving size freezing method for a few reasons.
Sometimes all there is to freeze is a single serving, we don't have to plan on when to use a big frozen batch of food, midnite snacks are usually a single person event and the containers are the most common size at our place.

 

[meowey]

Any potentially hazardous leftover food should stored at 41°F or lower, and be used within 5 days. (Assuming that it has been properly handled and cooled.) After that, throw it out.

I just completed the ServeSafe Essentials course, and that is based on the the guidelines that were presented.

For any food based on the leftovers (like pulled pork chili), the 5 day timeline is based on when the original food was cooked or smoked.

Hope this helps!

Take care, have fun, and do good!

Regards,

Meowey