The pot was so hot, it would have heated up the refrigerator. I usually set a timer on my watch or turn on the light over the stove as a reminder but I forgot.

If I decide to throw it out, I can't even give it to the dogs because it has onions in it.

I know this seems silly, but I made an awesome batch of Chicken and Dumplings last night. I used drippings from a turkey I smoked and added it to the chicken broth. It was fantastic. There was enough there for another meal or two for all of us. Since I made it in a big, heavy pot - I put the pot in the sink with water and ice so it would cool off. Then I forgot about it until this morning - 10 hours later.

If I add some more broth and bring everything to a boil for several minutes - will it kill off any bacteria? I will throw it out if I have to, but would love to be able to save it.

I know this seems silly, but I made an awesome batch of Chicken and Dumplings last night. I used drippings from a turkey I smoked and added it to the chicken broth. It was fantastic. There was enough there for another meal or two for all of us. Since I made it in a big, heavy pot - I put the pot in the sink with water and ice so it would cool off. Then I forgot about it until this morning - 10 hours later.

If I add some more broth and bring everything to a boil for several minutes - will it kill off any bacteria? I will throw it out if I have to, but would love to be able to save it.

So have you eaten it yet?

I can't believe no one's mentioned it, but your Chicken & Dumplings can't have been all that awesome. I mean, you had leftovers.....

;-P

No!

There's 2 main issues with food safety.

1. bacteria etc that grows - in theory, if you boil the crap out of it, you should be able to kill the bacteria. That's why people think it's ok to do that. However, they fail to consider 2.
2. food changing into something poisonous. If food is left out for a while, it can change into something poisonous. For instance, rice can germinate, with spores turning into toxins. Thus no matter how much boiling etc you do, it doesn't go away. An analogy would be someone putting ricin or cyanide in your food. You'd think it's the most absurd thing to think that boiling would get rid of it. This isn't any different.


Different topic - if something has little water activity and the right pH, it can last for a long time (which is why people can eat cereal that's been on the shelf.)

I know this stuff. I ran a national manufacturing business which supplied food to Fortune 500 companies, and had to be well versed in HACCP, and GMP.

May folks have survived eating almost day-old cold pizza the morning/early afternoon after a bender where they can't remember ordering the pizza in the first place, so you'll be fine.

Both are high-protein foods. Salmonella has been observed to be able to survive for a couple months at temps as high as 60 C or 140 F. Unless you're raising the food's internal temperature to at least 140 F (and I always recommended 145 F, minimum) upon reheating you may not kill all salmonella bacteria within it. That's food infection (with the Salmonella organism). Food intoxication (such as from the c. botulinum toxin) is a whole different animal. Fortunately, you don't see botulism in chicken and other high-protein products cooked at the oven or stove top, usually. That's more the case with a canned product.

THAT was risky.

THAT was risky.

In the end, it worked out okay. It was my best batch of chicken and dumplings (which is saying something), so we hated to let such a big pot go to waste. I made three batches at once so we would have leftovers.