chicken too old for stock?

[eakers]

Hi. I've been putting off making chicken stock for a week, and the chicken carcass has been sitting in the fridge for almost two weeks (it smells fine, I have a brand new super-fridge). Is it ever ok to make stock from an old chicken, considering that I'm going to be boiling the bijiminy out of it anyway? If so, how old is too old? Can I just use the smell test? Thanks!

[akila001]

Personally, I wouldn't do it, even if it smells fine. Two weeks sounds long. I always throw my meat away after two or three days.

[Suzanne]

A couple of questions back at you:

1. Is the carcass raw or was the chicken already cooked (roasted, etc.)?
2. Has the carcass been well wrapped, or has it been allowed to dry out?

If the answer to the first is "raw" then I would have qualms about using it. Likewise, if number 2 is, yeah, well, I wasn't as careful as I should have been.

It sounds like you're like me -- and leave projects close to the edge. If the bird was already cooked, and it was closely covered, I'd still use it. But I'm sure there are others here who will use the good adage: When in doubt, throw it out. (We disagree, but in a friendly way. )

[eakers]

Originally Posted by Suzanne

A couple of questions back at you:

1. Is the carcass raw or was the chicken already cooked (roasted, etc.)?
2. Has the carcass been well wrapped, or has it been allowed to dry out?

Thanks Suzanne--it's always good to have a kindred spirit--even if it's about procrastination!

In answer to your question, the carcass is from a roasted chicken, and it's been in a big ziplok bag.

I guess I just don't know the mechanics of food safety. Even if it did smell bad (meaning that the germs had started doing their thing), wouldn't it theoretically be sterilized by boiling? I would imagine that it would then come down to a question of taste, right? If the meat smells rancid, then it'd make rancid tasting soup; but if it smells fine, then the soup should be ok too, right? This is my logic stream...

Also, I have a friend who's Thai, and she tells stories about keeping soups just on the stove for a week or longer, and just making sure that it comes back up to a boil for several minutes before serving, so what does that tell us? I don't know.

Thanks for your help!

[Someday]

Yeah, boiling will kill the bacteria. But the bacteria leave behind toxins as a result of their eating, and those toxins can not be destroyed by cooking.

In most cases of food borne illness its the toxins, not the bacteria, that make you sick.

I would throw it out. Chicken is cheap...your health isn't. If you end up sitting on a toilet seat holding a trash can, I bet you would pay 5 bucks for it to stop.

[DC Sunshine]

I agree - ditch the chicken. Perhaps next time around, if you don't have time to make the stock within a few days, pack it securely and freeze until you do have a spare few hours to prepare it. I'm a great fan of home made chicken stock - sure beats anything you can get out of a box or in powder! Making your own lets you control the amount of salt and fat in the stock, I find commercial brands generally too high in both for best results. Yes you can get salt reduced which is great, they just taste too mass produced and need a lot of tweaking to compare with the home made version.

When I make a master stock for asian cooking, I don't use it often enough to keep it on the back of the stove, so I reduce it right down and freeze it for next time, just add water to get it back to the right mix and use again.

[eakers]

Thanks everyone for your help. It is very good to know about the toxins being the cause of sickness and not the bacteria. Do you know anywhere I can read up on that topic?

I did end up ditching the old chicken carcass--you're so right about paying $5 to have the bad stuff stop! Aaah well. Soup again next week.

Lastly, DC Sunshine, I'm curious about the condensed asian stock that you make--how is it different than making regular stock? Just reduced more?

Thanks!

[HotChef]

if you have no time, space on the oven or maybe not enough bones / carcasses freeze what you have and do it at a convinient time.
what i do for everything, soups or stocks, i quickly blanch the bones and carcasses. you never know where the things were floating around and blanching will also remove any dirt that might not have been removed by washing the bones.
also you will have far less scum on top of the soup / stock or sauce.
i never would even THINK of doing anything with bones that have been in the refridgerator for 2 weeks.

[kuan]

OTOH, old hens are great for stewing.

[Suzanne]

And we make a lot of posts, too.