# What was the very worst thing you've ever seen cooked? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760 "2020-01-21T17:35:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/81 "2020-01-24T18:57:43Z")
Raw sea urchin set the truly awful bar for me, when I was in Tonga. I can still say, 30 years after that experience, no matter what I try, “It was better than raw sea urchin!”😃 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/82 "2020-01-24T19:08:32Z")
> [@Dogginit](#): > > Raw sea urchin set the truly awful bar for me, when I was in Tonga. I can still say, 30 years after that experience, no matter what I try, “It was better than raw sea urchin!”😃 Yes, sea urchin is one thing I’ve eaten and would prefer to not eat again, and I’ll eat _anything_. Heck, I tried chicken sashimi. I was a bit grossed out by the mental picture, but it wasn’t bad and I’d eat it again. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/83 "2020-01-24T19:34:37Z")
> [@songsearch](#): > > The oddest thing I’ve eaten (and I would eat again if I could find it) was what a French restaurant billed as ‘sweetmeats’, which I understand now to be cow thyroid. It was excellent. You are confusing [sweetbreads](https://shannonselin.com/2016/09/sweetbreads-sweetmeats-bonapartes-ribs/) (thyroid or pancreas) with sweetmeats (confections). ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/84 "2020-01-24T19:49:27Z")
Funny. Raw sea urchin is my absolute favorite delicacy for sushi. It’s expensive but I make a point to have it a few times a year. Intensely pleasurable texture and flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/85 "2020-01-24T21:33:47Z")
Nothing to compare with eating bats or anything, but my dear departed mother in law was a delightful person but not to be trusted anywhere near a kitchen. Unfortunate culinary experiences at her table are too numerous to mention, and too likely to trigger PSTD, but early in my relationship with the Lovely and Talented Mrs. **Shodan** I was served a dish that my MIL dreamed up herself. Canned fruit cocktail, lemon pie filling, mixed thoroughly and served on a bed of iceberg lettuce vinaigrette. I was anxious not to offend, so I ate it without comment. In the car on the way home I asked my then-girlfriend-now-wife what it was called. It had no name, so we christened it Fruit Vomit and so it was referred to between us. I loved my MIL, but [Escoffier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Escoffier) had nothing to fear from her. My daughter, when she was four or five, made Rice Krispie bars for us, except she used Fruity Pebbles instead of Rice Krispies and added cinnamon hearts. I managed to eat one and after I managed to pry my jaws apart, which were nearly fused together, to thank her warmly for the effort, before I was sent into diabetic coma from the massive sugar overdose. After she left, I asked my wife what to do - “I can’t eat those things!” My wife said, “Take them to work. Those people will eat anything.” Sure enough - twenty minutes after I put them on the printer table, they were gone. Although I don’t recall anyone asking me to bring anything to any pot lucks for some time afterwards. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/86 "2020-01-24T21:42:20Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > My mom was a depression baby from the midwest, and wasn’t much of a cook. > > She’d combine all the leftovers from the fridge in one pot and call it “garbage soup”. All the small refrigerator containers of spaghetti, creamed corn, tamale pie remnants, and red beans and rice would be stirred together in a pot with water and served up. I’m still nauseated just thinking about it. > > ETA: as far as restaurant meals, we were once in a Chinese restaurant, and a waiter walked by bearing a plate of fermented tofu. It smelled exactly like cat shit. Diners in the restaurant were covering their noses and gagging. My mom is a born-and-bred Hoosier and thus a poor cook when I was a kid. She and Dad raved about a dish at a Mexican restaurant near Seattle that served “Prison Food” which seemed to be all of yesterday’s leftovers thrown into a pot and cooked. My folks bought a side of beef every year, and one year she cooked beef tongue. I don’t know what she was supposed to do, but the gray lump with the texture of my own tongue was revolting. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/87 "2020-01-24T21:55:28Z")
> [@CelticKnot](#): > > My folks bought a side of beef every year, and one year she cooked beef tongue. I don’t know what she was supposed to do, but the gray lump with the texture of my own tongue was revolting. My mother loved beef tongue. I didn’t think it tasted that bad, but the texture was creepy. One of the best bits from _All In the Family_: Edith: Archie complained about the tongue sandwich I made him yesterday. He said he didn’t want to eat anything that had been in a cow’s mouth. Gloria: So what did you make him instead? Edith: Hard-boiled eggs! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Brother\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_brother_1/32/3513_2.png) [@Little\_Brother\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Brother_1)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/88 "2020-01-24T22:43:32Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > This is an actual ‘thing’. Comedienne Phyllis Diller popularized it years ago, she called it ‘Garbage Soup’. You start out making soup with meat or a bone, add onion, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and vegetables, and you basically clean our your refrigerator of any leftovers. Including leftover spaghetti, and salad (with salad dressing) - all boiled together. > > I wasn’t there, but my grandmother told us how grandpa wanted her to cook kidneys, and she refused. One day she was out, and came home to find he and a neighbor had bought and cooked kidneys. Without preparing them properly, I guess, she said the house reeked of urine! The neighbor and grandpa were violently ill following their kidney feast. Ah, those Great Depression culinary habits! My friend’s mom, a child of parsimonious Catholic parents and a Depression baby, had that horror of “wasting food”. My friend and his siblings warned me in advance when I accompanied them on a shore vacation. Instead of making soup, Mom would simply add any and all leftovers in quantities insufficient for a second meal to eggs, and serve it up as a “breakfast omelet”. Her kids swore that she also secretly included plate scrapings, although she denied this. Some leftovers were “omeletable”, but of course the varied, random leftovers and the mixing of various incompatible flavors usually resulted in a vile concoction. Once I attended a graduation party at their house; the buffet-style food included big plates of mini-sandwiches: standard supermarket white bread and fillings like ham and tuna. Despite protests and objections from her kids, after the party Mom insisted on wrapping the uneaten sandwiches in plastic wrap and putting them in the freezer. There are foods that just don’t freeze well. In this case, the moisture in both the slightly soggy bread and the sandwich filling formed ice crystals when frozen; when thawed out, the bread was gooey and the meat/tuna had an off taste and gritty texture. Sometimes even Mom reluctantly agreed that her recycled offerings were inedible. When the defrosted sandwiches were nominally tasted and rejected _en masse_ during a subsequent lunch, she didn’t insist that they were perfectly fine as she was wont to do. But her daughters pointedly gathered up the remains and disposed of them. There was a clear and present danger that despite conceding defeat, Mom might attempt to rescue the food in the form of a Sandwich Omelette. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/89 "2020-01-24T23:18:52Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > You cannot put warm things in the fridge, and a big pot takes forever to cool down. In summer you have a big problem. At other times of year, you can either leave it on the stove if the room is not too hot, or park it outside, after covering it to deter hungry animals. > > It depends what is in it. Anything with fish or eggs (no, they are not usual ingredients of a stew): fridge it or bin it. Meat: usually OK overnight, pork is a bit more dodgy. and it is best to heat it to boiling point in the late evening. Anything purely vegetarian lasts longer. So does curry or chllli. However, don’t tempt fate, boil it briefly as soon as possible the next day. I just break it down to smaller portions, set it down on the counter, and put it in the fridge after about an hour to two. It’s usually plenty cool by then to refrigerate. I’m pretty lax with food, but I will not leave anything brothy/soupy overnight on the counter – that’s just like a bacterial playground, so no thanks. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/90 "2020-01-24T23:21:35Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Do you like conch? We love it, prepared correctly. Just back from St Martin, where we always have at least one dinner at Yvette’s (best conch on the island). The conch ceviche and the conch and dumplings, with Johnny cakes, rice&peas, and plantains on the side. A cheap dry white and a sparkling water and you’re set.😃 I ate a ton of conch fritters when we visited Andros Island in The Bahamas. They were excellent. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/91 "2020-01-25T00:32:27Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Canned fruit cocktail, lemon pie filling, mixed thoroughly and served on a bed of iceberg lettuce vinaigrette. I was anxious not to offend, so I ate it without comment. > > In the car on the way home I asked my then-girlfriend-now-wife what it was called. It had no name, so we christened it Fruit Vomit and so it was referred to between us. I think if you used fresh diced fruit, fruit vomit would actually be tolerable [though instead of pie filling, blend well lemon curd, mascarpone and a small amount of honey if you want it sweeter might be interesting] > [@Little\_Brother\_1](#): > > Ah, those Great Depression culinary habits! My friend’s mom, a child of parsimonious Catholic parents and a Depression baby, had that horror of “wasting food”. . GOt lucky, mom mom grew up on a small farm during the depression, and while she also had the horror of wasting food, she was taught not to make more than enough to feed the people at supper, she rarely made anything that was considered leftovers though desserts [cakes, cookies, pies] were the exception and breadmaking was a 3 times a week evolution [4 loaves per batch, it was a 5 pound sack of flour, a cup of sourdough starter and salt with however much water was needed.] Me? I like making batches so I can freeze or can portions for another meal. With the recent cancer kerfluffle the stored food saved me lots of effort - I could just grab and nuke =) I also like canning my own produce to my own recipes. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by Brayne Ded View Post > You cannot put warm things in the fridge, and a big pot takes forever to cool down. In summer you have a big problem. At other times of year, you can either leave it on the stove if the room is not too hot, or park it outside, after covering it to deter hungry animals. > end quote > > Re soup: I just break it down to smaller portions, set it down on the counter, and put it in the fridge after about an hour to two. It’s usually plenty cool by then to refrigerate. I’m pretty lax with food, but I will not leave anything brothy/soupy overnight on the counter – that’s just like a bacterial playground, so no thanks. IN a word, [cooling paddle](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/3071/cooling-paddles.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAyKrxBRDHARIsAKCzn8wEaDUAdlzHVT9Z599rQcWn_XVHqqkls3dkrEUdCW1sARsMXG-t7UcaAgYiEALw_wcB)=) One can buy one, or one can simply freeze water in heavy plastic bottles and use those instead =) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/92 "2020-01-25T01:23:48Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I think if you used fresh diced fruit, fruit vomit would actually be tolerable [though instead of pie filling, blend well lemon curd, mascarpone and a small amount of honey if you want it sweeter might be interesting] > > GOt lucky, mom mom grew up on a small farm during the depression, and while she also had the horror of wasting food, she was taught not to make more than enough to feed the people at supper, she rarely made anything that was considered leftovers though desserts [cakes, cookies, pies] were the exception and breadmaking was a 3 times a week evolution [4 loaves per batch, it was a 5 pound sack of flour, a cup of sourdough starter and salt with however much water was needed.] Me? I like making batches so I can freeze or can portions for another meal. With the recent cancer kerfluffle the stored food saved me lots of effort - I could just grab and nuke =) I also like canning my own produce to my own recipes. > IN a word, [cooling paddle](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/3071/cooling-paddles.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAyKrxBRDHARIsAKCzn8wEaDUAdlzHVT9Z599rQcWn_XVHqqkls3dkrEUdCW1sARsMXG-t7UcaAgYiEALw_wcB)=) One can buy one, or one can simply freeze water in heavy plastic bottles and use those instead =) Yeah, but then you need freezer space for it. I find breaking it down into smaller portions it’ll cool down enough that I could put it in the fridge. That said, that paddle will get you a hell of a lot faster into the “safe zone.” You could also use an immersion chiller like they use for beer-making (which I do happen to have around), but I don’t usually have five gallons of stew or soup I need to chill; just typically a gallon to 5 quarts at the most. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/93 "2020-01-25T04:38:15Z")
> [@songsearch](#): > > We picked up some kidney at a local ranch market, and my wife made kidney soup, which was quite good. Have had steak and kidney pie when my neighbor was a british guy, not so good. The oddest thing I’ve eaten (and I would eat again if I could find it) was what a French restaurant billed as ‘sweetmeats’, which I understand now to be cow thyroid. It was excellent. Are you sure it was thyroid and not thymus? Eating animal thyroids can cause symptoms resembling hyperthyroidism; there was a butcher shop in the Midwest some years back that wasn’t diligent about removing the thyroids from the animals they slaughtered and processed and this made some local residents very sick, and it took a long time to figure out why. [https://apnews.com/1a42e4368636a673764c368ea9ab2225](https://apnews.com/1a42e4368636a673764c368ea9ab2225) "Sweetbread" is another term for the thymus and/or pancreas of a cow, or perhaps other animals as well. Beef- and pork-sourced thyroid has long been used as hormone replacement, although most doctors nowadays use synthetic levothyroxine. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/94 "2020-01-25T04:40:30Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > It will keep. Apparently in Africa they have stew pots that have been going for years. So I am told. NPR’s “The Splendid Table” once told a story about a burger joint that had used the same grease for almost 100 years; they didn’t change it, but instead simply topped it off when it got a little low. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/95 "2020-01-25T15:00:16Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I’ve had chicken feet at dim sum. They are quite tasty if disconcerting. I like dimsum chicken feet. I’ve also purchased chicken feet to make broth. Yum. > [@Colibri](#): > > You are confusing [sweetbreads](https://shannonselin.com/2016/09/sweetbreads-sweetmeats-bonapartes-ribs/) (thyroid or pancreas) with sweetmeats (confections). Ugh. I had sweetbreads once. Like little blobs of brain surrounded by a sea of mucus. I won’t be ordering that again. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/96 "2020-01-25T15:08:52Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > … > I just wanted to say that if you cook a stew, or a soup for a couple hours in a covered pot it will be sterile. If you take the lid off and take some out, it won’t be sterile but it won’t have many bacteria in it. If you then boil it up before serving again, it will be sterile again. Rinse and repeat. What do you think people did in the days before refrigeration? > [@pulykamell](#): > > While the bacteria may be dead, there are toxins some bacteria produce that are heat-stable and still can get you sick, like staph, for instance. > > ETA: Oh, sorry, I should have [a cite](https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/HYG-5564-11). sure, if the staph ever builds up that can be a problem. But if the stew was made with fresh meat and cooked thoroughly, there shouldn’t be much staph in it to grow overnight. Especially if they left the lid on when they turned off the stove. I know that spoilage bacteria are different from toxic bacteria, but they both like the same conditions. Spoilage bacteria are a decent indicator of how much has grown in your stew overnight. If it still smells good in the morning, and you reheat it, odds are it’s fine. I’ve left broth out overnight when it was too hot to put in the fridge. My experience is that in the winter, when my kitchen is cool overnight, it’s fine. In the summer it frequently spoils. I don’t do that anymore because now I have an instant pot, and I just leave it on “keep warm” overnight and process it in the morning. But I used to do it regularly. I sometimes had to toss a pot of broth because it smelled off, but no one ever got sick from my broth. And I doubt my relatives are magically immune to staph toxin. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/97 "2020-01-25T15:30:50Z")
I made it myself!!! Last April, when wild onion season came in (or as we call them 'round here, “munions”), I decided I’d look on YouTube for a recipe that uses them. Sure enough, I found a guy whose schtick is creating old-timey (think 1700s and 1800s) recipes using period-specific equipment and techniques, and foraged ingredients. He had a recipe for a sort of meatless shepherd’s pie that used them. It was utterly disgusting on every level – taste, texture, visual presentation. No sooner had the fork entered my mouth then I was violently spitting it out and gargling with water, trying valiantly not to puke. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/98 "2020-01-25T15:39:54Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I’ve left broth out overnight when it was too hot to put in the fridge. My experience is that in the winter, when my kitchen is cool overnight, it’s fine. In the summer it frequently spoils. Well, there we go, so it does go off. I suspect one bout of food poisoning I had was on leaving my stock pot overnight (with chicken) on the stove and eating the soup the next day (though much later, like for dinner). I thought I had cooked it through when I reheated, but either I didn’t, or the toxins did me in. At any rate, not an experiment I care to repeat, and I don’t care to figure out where the point is between how long I can leave it out and how warm the room temperature can be and when I’m likely to get sick when there’s an easy way to avoid it. (And I very rarely get food poisoning; I can only think of two or three other times; one was particularly bad, though, with eating what I think were some bad eggs in Transylvania and being sick for three days after that. I was surprised at how quickly that one put me out. Fever, chills, muscle pains, vomiting, diarrhea. Ugh.) To be fair, though, I still have no problem eating raw eggs and raw meat, but broth left out overnight just squicks me out. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/99 "2020-01-25T15:52:57Z")
In, “A Christmas Story,” the big pot of red cabbage cooking on the stove looks like some three-taloned-fingered creature should reach up out of the dreck and pull the mother down into its foetid depths. Happy Holidays! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760/100 "2020-01-25T15:59:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > …leaving my stock pot overnight (with chicken) … I doubt chicken broth (or stew) is any more dangerous than any other meat broth. I think the issue with chicken is that the bacteria it is likely to carry when raw are harder to kill than the ones likely to be on beef. But once you’ve killed them (by making broth) the risk is from whatever happens to be around your kitchen, not from the animal the broth was made from. Broth is a good medium for stuff to grow in, of course. To be fair, I have an unusually good sense of smell. I am the family food-tester, because I can smell “off” a long time before anyone else. So that might have something to do with my success rate. I do think spoilage bacteria are a good indicator of how much has grown on something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-very-worst-thing-youve-ever-seen-cooked/846760.md?page=6)