How long do you guys store smoked meats in the fridge?

[bdskelly]

 
Chill Promptly
Refrigerate meat and poultry within 2 hours of removing it from a smoker. Cut the meat or poultry into smaller portions or slices, place it in shallow containers, cover, and refrigerate. Use it within 4 days or freeze for later use.
 

BTW this info is from the USDA federal website. Hope it helps you and other's. 

Good info Judy.  b

 

[watcher]

I know I'm going to get in trouble but I just had to put in my two cents. I smoked a turkey before Christmas. It was heavily smoked and we served about half on Christmas eve. I put the rest in two bags and froze one and ate on the other till new years eve and I ground it up and made a cheese ball with it. We had twenty people tasting and loving the cheese ball and not one got sick. By the way the left over cheese ball is on my desk right now and I am eating it on celery sticks.

I think people have gotten extremely wasteful. My grandmother cooked pork chops for dinner and left the remaining chops out on the table till breakfast and she never once got sick. I keep everything in the fridge at least a week before tossing it to the dogs. They never get sick on left overs either and love our leftovers. I believe your eyes and nose can tell you when it is time to toss things out.

 

[butthead66]

I believe their point is that it is not how long the food can MAYBE last. It is more of a matter of safety. How long are the times that are CONSISTENTLY safe? Call it wasteful if you wish, but preventing a food-borne illness is more of a priority for me.  

 

[chef jimmyj]

USDA Fact sheet Guidelines are for the average person and provide a margin of safety for general protection. SMF recommends following them for Safe handling in all situations. We have no idea how something was handled. There is a big difference between 5 days in the family refer with 2 adults and 3 kids in and out every few minutes and 5 days in a spare refer in the garage that is open rarely...Is Pulled Pork fine on Day 5 but Toxic and deadly on day 6? Of course not... But use common sense. If you find some Smoked Turkey left from Christmas on Feb 1st...Don't risk eating it, even if it looks and smells fine...JJ

 

[GenzuBlades]

Got a smoked turkey on the Monday before Thanksgiving. 8 days after Thanksgiving (after keeping it loosely wrapped in foil) I made bone broth from the leftovers, then made soup with some of the meat. I was slightly nervous after reading these posts, but now have delicious soup and have survived without any food poisoning. :)