really good seafood gumbo that spoiled overnight in the refr

[Chef #1546522]

I made a huge pot of spicy seafood gumbo from a recipe on the zarr. I had 10 or11 people here and we ate about half. When it cooled I placed it in the refrid an this morning it was bubling. No one is sick and they all are still saying how delicious it was. Has anyone had that happen and can anyone explain what happened. It was in stainless steel pot. Thanks...shadow123

[Chocolatl]

Never heard of that. What was the recipe number?

[Chef #1546522]

The recipe number is 80740p.

[realbirdlady]

Spicy Seafood Gumbo

Weird. It was actually bubbling? You could see gas coming off? Or it had foamy-ish stuff at the top? That just seems awfully quick to have seen gas coming off from spoilage. I don't know what else it could be, and I can't think how to test it.

Sometimes cooling a large pot of something is a little tricky. The edges (including the top and bottom) cool, but the middle is still warm enough to be in the danger zone for bacteria growth. Best practice would be to put the leftover stew into several smaller containers, and then straight into the refrigerator (not cooled on the counter). But, yeah, most of us don't do all that food safety stuff like we know we should.

[SarasotaCook]

Was it spoiled or just some of the foam that seafood can cause when it cools. It can happen and have seen it.

[Chef #1546522]

it was spoiled and smelled awful...

[Chocolatl]

Were there crawfish in it? Crawfish spoil very quickly.

[Chef #1546522]

no crawfish. the only thing I changed was -- I did not use the osters only the juice or fish but I did add beef Kielbasa sausage.

[going2]

I have always put any leftover seafood dish, immediately in the fridge---not waiting for it to cool down. Cooling down lets toxins form almost immediately in seafood--unless it is vacuum packed, canned, frozen, dried or refrigerated can't be trusted. Most restaraunts put any leftovers in the fridge right away--if not don't eat there.

[lotusland]

Did you have any green peas in it?

[Rainbow - Chef 536866]

Bubbles can mean fermentation, and does not necessarily mean that bacteria were involved, but that the molecular structure of it was breaking down. Some of the things we use are purposely fermented, like cider, soy sauce, some fruit mixtures we ferment because alcohol is a byproduct. It does seem that that happened pretty quickly.

I tried to get that recipe number up, but the computer doesn't like the p

[John DOH]

Seems like a pretty solid recipe, other than its a bit igger than most of us would use, and therefor might havean issue with preserving.

You might have got caught in one of those "wild card" things...the chicken broth being a tad "off", or, somewhat more likely, the tomato sauce being canned (bottled in glass is my rule) (I know, I know, I am such a food snob!) but the acid on steel thing can create of food issue, similar to what you describe.

Alternatively, you describe the ingredient as "drained oysters", as opposed freshly shucked, and this might well have been the culbrit. Easiest to have turned on you in the food prep, and thus you might have lived through the initial offering, but suffered on the second day.

A very very difficult diagnosis to make...I could be 100% out of line on my thought, and if so, please forgive me.

John

[Rainbow - Chef 536866]

I found the recipe. It's that number minus the p. I checked the ingredients and they all seem good, and the prep too, but I see that it says to ' simmer for 10-15 minutes or until seafood is done,' it could be that it wasn't quite done and that you let it stand to cool for a long time and then with the volume so large it took a long time for the center of it to get to the fridge cool temp. The cooking temperature of 'simmer' is hard to maintain on some stoves, like my gas stove,, so I usually have it a little higher than a real simmer, and more like a very slow boil.

I also agree about the canned tomatoes, that the acid in them tends to react with the metal can, and if it is at all old then there might be conditions that would tend to fermenting.

I note that you used beef kielbasa in it? What for? was that precooked? That would take longer than 10 minutes to cook if it was raw.

[Zurie]

Chef 1546522 wrote:
it was spoiled and smelled awful...

I just found this thread on the Community Page. I know it has stopped, but I read it with interest.

It is just so strange a thing to happen.

Stainless steel is pretty inactive, and I can't see how any food would actually spoil because of that.

Also, tomatoes in any form is an acid, and to a degree helps against spoilage.

A large pot of anything (but how "large" was this pot?) should probably be stirred several times at room temperature just so it cools evenly, and then put in the fridge.

There's also some risk in putting too-warm foods in the fridge, which will affect the temperature of the fridge (at least some fridges -- mine would throw a tantrum and get warmer).

You say it smelled awful. I also agree with John DOH that it's awfully hard to pinpoint where things went wrong: it should not have.

Did you, by any chance, add any raw protein to the soup after boiling, such as the oyster juice? Even then it's hard to believe that it would spoil so fast!

(To my own regret I had to empty a delicious seafood soup full of goodies on a corner of the lawn for the wild mongooses this morning ... My &*^%$ fridge had had a build-up of ice on the back panel, and last night I turned the temperature guage down 1 mark, for the ice to melt. (It's self-cleaning).

This morning the &^%$ fridge was literally room temperature!! So the seafood soup I had neatly packed to put into the freezer this morning would have been a health risk. I am threatening to get rid of this fridge ... if only a new one wasn't so expensive!! It does seem to vary its temperature far too often, for no reason. )

[Zarrowman]

I am from Maryland, and although not seafood gumbo, most here have a rule of thumb when it comes to preparing CRAB soup. NEVER cook and refrigerate crab soup during times of rainy weather. It will spoil overnight and seen to bubble.

Did you prepare and refrigerate the gumbo during rainy weather? Might be your answer. Possibly other seafood dishes may encounter the same besides crab soups.

Why this happens I really don't know. However, over the past 50 years I've heard countless stories of people having experienced this rain/spoilage combination with their crab soups.

Wives tale? Could be, but I've never put it to the test!