We all know that meat should be cooked to kill any microbes, but are there hazards to eating spoiled meat even if all the microbes are dead?
Say, for example, I’m lost in the desert, am starving, and come across a rancid steak which fell off someone’s jeep 2 weeks ago. If I could build a fire and could cook the meat so that everything living in it was dead, could I safely eat it?
just off the top of my head, many bacteria produce toxins which are what sickens or kills. Cooking will destroy the bacteria, but in many cases, not the toxins.
If it fell off in the desert it may quite be edible but rather tough as it probably turned to jerkey. Carne machaca is one of my favorites but you need a lot of water to rehydrate the dried shredded beef as you cook it. In any event such dry conditions may not allow bacteria to get a foothold.
What QtM said, except IIRC most toxins (rather than merely some) are not destroyed by heat. BoTox being a notable example of one that is, but that wouldn’t be the problem here anyway.
So, to pick a more likely scenario, if you take something out of the freezer and leave it on the counter while you run errands, you’re running a food poisoning risk, especially if you’re gone longer than expected. Another common risk-scenario is to sear meat at the beginning of the recipe, then leave it on a plate on the counter while doing a bunch of intermediate steps before returning the meat to the pot. Yet another is to leave groceries in the car while running a series of errands; especially bad because the car usually will get quite warm during the ‘rest periods’.
Understand, though, there are no rules here, just probabilities. One concomitant of which is that just because you get away with it once doesn’t mean you’ll get away with it next time.