Bad Gumbo

[traveylin]

Last night we made about 10 gallons of gumbo for a feed at noon today and placed it in the refrigerator for safekeeping overnight. This morning at 700 am the pot was taken out of refrigeration to transport to the feed site and was noticed that the contents had not gotten cold and was bubbling up. In 50 years of cooking I have never had a toxic dish, but was quick to declare this a disaster before serving. My studied evaluation leads me to believe that we did not get the pot up to boiling prior to storing in the refrigerator. The overnight storage allowed fermentation to occur. Refrigerator was operating properly, but the very large pot size did not allow for cooling in the center.
With lots of Clorox clean up, a new batch was generated that meets quality criteria.

Very very unusual to have a bad batch,,, and then to diagnose and dump prior to serving. Any body else had experience with declaring prepared food unsafe to eat??

I spent 20 years in developing countries and was on the lookout for fermented stuff and am sensitive to the issue...

pops

[Mocoondo]

In a previous life, I picked up quite a bit of experience running a number of restaurants.

You cannot put 10 gallons of hot anything into refrigeration and expect that to be safe or sanitary. You either have to keep it covered on the fire or divide it up into smaller containers for cooling in the fridge. Bottom line is that if you are going to refrigerate something, you need to get it cooled down to 40°F as fast as possible.

If you would have split the batch into four parts (2 1/2 gal ea), and then placed into commercial refrigeration, you would have been fine. You cannot use a household fridge in this case though because it doesn't have the cooling power with that much heat placed inside all at once.

Although I will admit, proper process or not, I am surprised that 10 gal of Gumbo went bad that quick. I've made similar mistakes over the years without that level of spoilage occurring.

[napadan]

The correct answer is "cool it in shallow containers". Once it is tainted, boiling it won't fix it. Don't take any chances with food-borne illness.

[juliev]

Funny - that would be a good name for a band. "Bad Gumbo"

[SWMO]

Well bacteria and yeast die at 140 or less. I'm sure it would have been fine, but the problem with that much food would be insuring that every bit was well above the 140 threshold when it was reheated. If I had no other choice I might have simmered it for a good long time. It's the same with hamburger, they can't guarantee it's E coli free so they tell you to cook it well above the point of killing all the bacteria, good and bad.

[hokeypokey]

Years ago, my Mother helped fix food for a wedding reception in her church. The Mother of the Bride had made chicken salad to use but the ladies working in the kitchen determined it was not safe to serve so they jumped on the problem and cooked eggs and made egg salad at the last minute. Take no chances.

[dons2346]

Were you using an aluminum pot? If so, with the starch in the food and the aluminum pot all was ripe for fermentation. Nothing wrong with the food once it is brought up to serving temperature.

[derouen6]

X2

[Paw_Paw_John]

Next time put some ice in it and stair it to start the cooling process. This will cool it off and when you heat it up you can boil out the extra water.

[bigdogger]

If it is true Cajun gumbo, are you sure the bubbles are caused by fermentation and not some of the critters still swimming around?:D

[ventrman]

traveylin wrote:
Last night we made about 10 gallons of gumbo for a feed at noon today and placed it in the refrigerator for safekeeping overnight. This morning at 700 am the pot was taken out of refrigeration to transport to the feed site and was noticed that the contents had not gotten cold and was bubbling up. In 50 years of cooking I have never had a toxic dish, but was quick to declare this a disaster before serving. My studied evaluation leads me to believe that we did not get the pot up to boiling prior to storing in the refrigerator. The overnight storage allowed fermentation to occur. Refrigerator was operating properly, but the very large pot size did not allow for cooling in the center.
With lots of Clorox clean up, a new batch was generated that meets quality criteria.

Very very unusual to have a bad batch,,, and then to diagnose and dump prior to serving. Any body else had experience with declaring prepared food unsafe to eat??

I spent 20 years in developing countries and was on the lookout for fermented stuff and am sensitive to the issue...

pops

If you want something to cool properly in the Fridge, it should be in shallow Pans.

[SWMO]

My thought is you got a virile wild yeast started before it hit the fridge. Refrigeration would only slow the fermentation, not stop it.It would probably been fine after reheating, but no way to be absolutely sure.

[bobwalter]

Smaller containers cool faster than one large one. Whenever you have a large quantity to cool, split into several smaller containers. Also works for a large piece of meat. You only have a certain time to cool it to get it into the safe zone. Reduce the size (cut into smaller pieces) and it cools faster and is safer.

Be safe,
Merry Christmas,
Bob

[johnhicks]

Good call! There's no way short of packing in dry ice you could've chilled 10 gallons of gumbo quickly enough.

[BajaLinda]

I had it happen once in a pot of beans, except everyone ate them and no one got sick!