Pinto beans gone bad? Help!

[Why Syzygy]

This is the SECOND time I've done this in a month. Last night I made a small crock pot of pinto beans/bacon/onion/garlic. They finished cooking, and I left them sitting on the cooling rack all night instead of refrigerating them.

I dumped the last batch. Did they go bad sitting out one night?

Thank you in advance.

[sandnsea]

1. I had beans go really bad once

Believe me, you will know. We were getting ready to go camping and I made a pot of chili beans at home, to be the first nights meal. I don't know exactly what happened, I thought they were just simmering all day. When it came time to put them in a container to transport, they tasted weird, and I think smelled weird too. My husband eats stuff that gets left out all the time. I don't, I'm a big chicken. But he never gets sick. If that helps.

[Why Syzygy]

3. If they had a bad smell,

I would know for sure. But they don't. They didn't finish cooking until about 1:30 AM and I finally stuck them in the fridge about 10:30 AM.

I used to have a book on food freshness and safety, but I must have sold it in one of my book clean outs. I hate when I do that. I'm thinking I will boil them some more and see how it goes. I hate throwing food out.

[flamin lib]

2. I would not think beans would go bad over night once they were cooked.

Most foods, once cooked, have a much longer shelf life at room temperature than when raw. I've lost beans when pre-soaking them. They ferment real fast. I've discovered that pre-soaking is unnecessary and actually gets in the way of good beans. Contrary to popular belief, pre-soaking will not preclude bean's musical qualities, they are a product of indigestible proteins. Try Beano.

Speaking of beans:

3 parts water to 1 part beans.
smoked ham or ham hocks
cumin
bay leaf(s)
oregano
salt and pepper

Do not pre-soak. Beans have an impermeable shell and only soften as water enters at the tiny "eye" so they need seasoning to enter with the water while cooking.

Dump everything into a pot. Add salt until the water tastes more salty than you think it should--the "oh shit, I over-salted" moment.

Heat to the beginning of a boil and lower heat to simmer--perfect heat is three-four bubbles per second.

Cover and leave alone for a couple of hours before beginning to test for doneness.

It works in the slow cooker too. 175 watt cooker on high for three hours should do it. Boils too hard for my taste, but fast & easy. If you boil the beans too fast they break up.

[Why Syzygy]

4. I just bought this crock pot yesterday.

It's a small one. The beans look great. I alternated some between High and Low, not knowing how long they would take and if I would leave them on when I went to bed.

Right. I never pre-soak.

I also bought a small inexpensive rice steamer. I'm not thrilled with the results yet. Takes some time to adjust everything.

[flamin lib]

5. Check the wattage on the UL tag. I'm assuming that 175 watts on

high is about 90 on low. Like I said, for me 175 cooks in about 3 hours but it boils pretty fast. Haven't tried the lo setting but would expect two more hours. Once it comes to temp the cook time should be about the same but warm up time takes a lot longer on the lo setting.

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. I'd worry more about the bacon than the beans.

Warm meat sitting out all night? I'm skeptical about it. If you want to risk it, boil it good to kill anything that's there now, eat a little and refrigerate the rest, wait 24 hours and see what happens to you. If you post again in 36 hours, we'll know you survived.;-)

[Why Syzygy]

7. Sounds like a plan

;) .. I hadn't thought of eating just a little.
The weird thing is my stomach has been acting up all week, so it might not be any different.

[Warpy]

8. Boil for about ten minutes

and they should be OK.

It takes longer than you'd think for really nasty bacteria to colonize cooked foods, especially foods with no meat in them. The bacteria you really need to be concerned about with cooked beans is clostridium botulinum, but it's an anerobe that would need to be within the beans in order to grow and produce toxin. Boiling for 10 minutes (and I mean bringing to a boil slowly so you know everything is up to temperature) destroys botulin and kills all other enteric bacteria.

Remember, people in days gone by didn't have refrigerators. They routinely let stuff sit overnight when the fire was banked and not suitable for keeping things hot. Yes, they died by the time they were 40, but not from food poisoning.

Pease porridge hot
Pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.

P-U!

[kestrel91316]

9. My sister tells me that one of the reasons my mom never liked my dad's mom

is that Grandma was in the habit (having lived on a ranch without electricity her whole life) of cooking up a pot of something, soup, chicken 'n' noodles, beans, whatever - then she would let them cool down with the lid on tight and just leave them there on the cold stove until the next day - then heat them up and eat more the next day. Her family never ever got sick. She never ever got sick and lived to 87.

Stuff that has been boiling or simmering all day is gonna keep for a while afte the heat is turned off. So sayeth kestrel the microbiologist.

I have accidentally left stuff out on occasion like this (soups, stews, etc - NEVER any egg-based or dishes with mayo!!!). I never get sick (except when I eat Papa John's greasy chicken strips, but that's another subject).