Will it kill me?

testing fate?

Since the holidays were approaching, I bought the obligatory foods for Christmas and New Year's celebrations that I like. That's right, I can celebrate alone, just food and me. The night I bought all this, I rushed in with half a dozen plastic bags, dumped it on the couch and ran to the bathroom.

 It was chilly and getting colder, so I turned on the heater, changed out of clothes I wore out and bundled on some warmer clothing. I grabbed a few bags and went to put the contents away. As the night wore on, I brought some items from the dryer and dumped those on the couch. The dried laundry was not freshly dried and hot.

As hours and days rolled by, I sporadically searched for the sour cream. The refrigerator was the target of one search. Nope. The sour cream was not to be found.

Finally, on day four or five I accidentally found the little container all alone in a bag and sort of scrunched down, looking as though it were an empty bag on the sofa amongst other bags I put there to fold away and put into another bag for reuse.

What to do?

hmmm

I opened it and looked in. Some of the tiny bit of liquid spilled on me. Hence, the bowl.

What to do?

smells okay

I smelled it.

Again.

Again.

Since it was not separated, did not smell unlike sour cream and had no mold, I contemplated eating it....for about five seconds. It was okay!

When exbf came in from the yard, I posed the question to him: "Smell this. Do you think this sour cream that has been on the sofa and not in the refrigerator is safe to eat? 

He was bending slightly to smell and sort of recoiled and bent to smell, "It might be spoiled."

It is fermented milk, "spoiled" milk, to begin with, just milk. I make buttermilk by putting it on the counter on a warm day and let it sit for 24 hours. This has been on the sofa covered, well-insulated, but clothes and plastic bags. That sofa sits on the coldest wall in this part of the house and is not near the heat, not that it ever gets warm in here. It was still cold!

"I don't know. I don't think I want to eat it."

teaspoon of liquid when dumped to mix
in French's Onion Soup Mix

still firm

no colors within

 

 

onion soup smells good



So, I ate it.

 

I did not die and don't think I took a chance. The odor was fine. There was not a breakdown in the texture of the sour cream with lots of liquid. It tasted like it should. There was no visual evidence that mold might be forming. I was 100% positive that I would be fine even though the sour cream spent 4 or 5 days out of the refrigerator. I don't believe the temperature was over 50, maybe 40 degrees these days it lived on the couch.

 

The sour cream would not be fed to anyone who did not have a chance to make a decision. Oh, I would serve it but reveal my slip. Let me make this clear--I would serve this to others, BUT I would reveal what happened. I would never serve food not stored properly and keep it a secret! People do need to have a choice as to whether to take a chance or not.

 

Your turn

Would you have been afraid to eat the sour cream? What other steps would you have taken to ensure the sour cream was okay to eat? Do you ever eat things that was not stored according to the "rules?"