how long before cooking a cornish game hen can you safely stuff it?

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Just wondering... how many hours ahead can you stuff it - anyone know? help!

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@Mame,

I don't know - I'll check my old Joy of Cooking to see if they comment on that.

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@ossobuco,

Aha, on page 560 of the first volume - on a page about stuffing.
"It is important to stuff food just before cooking".

Not sure of the bacterial consequences of disobeying that.

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http://bp3.blogger.com/_HRsq7UO-sBw/RuA2RLIVJCI/AAAAAAAAADU/orS9MJB_Bkg/s400/pridebeach.jpg

Oh, wait, you said Cornish game hen. My mistake.

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well - they sell stuffed pork chops and stuffed chicken in the grocery stores all the time. And they are kept in the chilled area.

I suppose it depends if you put raw egg in the dressing or if you used something like Stove Top.

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@PUNKEY,

I suppose the cons may be that something with dangerous spores may reproduce in the game hen cavity and subsequently be hard to kill by some temperatures - but I don't remember my bacteriology all that well, so that's just conjecture.

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@ossobuco,

Quote:

How do you safely prepare stuffing?

Stuffing should not be prepared ahead.

The dry and wet ingredients for stuffing can be prepared ahead of time and chilled.

However, do not mix wet and dry ingredients until just before spooning the stuffing mixture into a poultry cavity, in/on other meat, or into a casserole.

If stuffing a whole turkey, chicken, or other bird, spoon the stuffing in loosely - about 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound.

The stuffing should be moist, not dry, because heat destroys bacteria more rapidly in a moist environment.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Stuffing_and_Food_Safety/index.asp#3

I found a number of recipes for cornish game hen that recommend you pre-heat the stuffing before it is put into the bird - so it can ensure being cooked (I think it's the wall of the bird where it touches the stuffing that's the concern).

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@ossobuco,

http://www.helpwithcooking.com/cooking-poultry/stuffing-poultry.html

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@ehBeth,

Good work, ehBeth. I've never stuffed a turkey or chicken myself..

That's not quite true - I've put garlic cloves and cut lemons in chicken cavities, but no bread type stuffing.

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@joefromchicago,

Well, anyway, I stuffed them (rice, onions, raisins and pine nuts) about 2 hours ago and they're in the fridge. I'm not cooking them until 7:00 so if you don't hear from me tonight or tomorrow, you'll know I'm dead. We'll see. There are a lot of rules and so on in the kitchen that go to the extreme sometimes... I haven't bleached my cutting board after chopping up a chicken - just washed it with soap and hot hot hot water, and I've never died so there goes that myth. I always try to adhere to the so-called rules/guidelines, but this time, I'm risking it all, baby.

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@joefromchicago,

I love your sense of humor, I really do.

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@Mame,

Mame wrote:

...so if you don't hear from me tonight or tomorrow, you'll know I'm dead. We'll see...I'm risking it all, baby.

Um...anybody heard from Mame?

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@Eva,

heh heh... it was good! and I'm not dead and neither, more importantly, are my guests Smile

They didn't leave until 2:30 a.m. by which time I had fallen asleep on my couch. ooops. We played Texas Hold 'em and asked each other trivia questions from a couple games we have - it was a little surprising to see who knew what and who didn't Smile

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Quote:

However, do not mix wet and dry ingredients until just before spooning the stuffing mixture into a poultry cavity, in/on other meat, or into a casserole.

I've been doing it wrong for a really long time.

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@Irishk,

Well, from what I can tell, you're not dead either, so it didn't hurt you none, wrong or not.

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I didn't say this before because it could have been/could be irresponsible - but I'm a relative slob in the kitchen. I've also a BA in bacteriology with a lot of emphasis in those classes re pathogens. I became a lab tech, for fifteen years, and was not a slob in the lab. Only a small part of that was in a bacti lab, but I also used good technique in the later labs I worked in or ran; that's just plain mandatory good practice. But, in my own kitchen, not a big deal about kitchen hygiene, aside from some obvious stuff. Haven't knocked anyone dead yet, including myself. I suppose there is still time....

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@Mame,

My mom and grandmother have been doing it wrong for even longer. Can't decide if I should warn them or let 'em continue down the dark side of playing with fire. I'll have to think on it.

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@ossobuco,

I'll add that I picked bacteriology as a major just about the time I had missed running for classes (no clue on that) and reading Arrowsmith in the summer.

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@Mame,

Quote:

how long before cooking a cornish game hen can you safely stuff it?

Hard to say...I think it is definitely dangerous to stuff it before killing it...it should be safe after that.....

Can we agree it should be stuffed sometime AFTER killing it but BEFORE eating it ?

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how long before cooking a cornish game hen can you safely stuff it?

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