Just got off the phone with the wife of a friend of mine...
Seems he’s doing better but not fully recovered. What?!
This is the first I’ve heard of anything! What the heck is going on?!
Seems Frank has spent the better part of the last two weeks in hospital getting pumped full of antibiotics. O_o
Wait what?
They thought he had the flu, but as it worsened they felt he needed to see a doctor. Said doctor checked him out but wasn’t convinced it was the flu...and suggested that they run some more tests...and stay in hospital for observation. He disagreed but SWMBO won out...so he stayed.
Turned out he was much worse off than originally suspected. Much worse.
He managed to damn near kill himself.
Flash back a couple months ago...
Frank went on a "once in a lifetime" fishing trip...and brought back bunches of salmon.
He decided that he wanted to smoke some of it. Reasonable enough.
But he decided that he wanted it "cold smoked" rather than hot smoked...which is how I first became involved. I suggested that he hot smoke it instead, after keeping it in a decent brine for a few hours.
Nope, that would "alter the flavour" and he already found a recipe online that he wanted to try.
Let the games begin!
He took his now thawed salmon and proceeded to smoke it according to the directions he found.
For the record, listeria is NOT killed by freezing...it’s reproduction is only slowed down.
And so it went...he cold smoked it.
Pam wasn’t keen on trying it, not being much of a fan in the first place and my having scared her years ago with my tales of food borne pathogens. LOL She declined to eat it, and the kids were also prevented from from having any. They’re not big on fish anyway so that wasn’t a hard sell. As for Frank...his attitude was, "Cool, more for me."
At what point this all went pear shaped is hard to say.
The bug could have arrived riding along inside the salmon...it could have occurred sometime in the cutting/processing...improper storage...or been due to cross contamination somewhere along the way.
Regardless, it happened. And cold smoking didn’t stop the pathogen. And nearly killed him.
I shudder to think what might have happened if one of his kids ate it...or if he served it to his or her parents.
I seem to recall that Meathead is not an advocate of cold smoking, regardless...it is fraught with problems...any of which can ruin your day.
Turns out he’ll be in the 80% that makes a full recovery. But even that’s a scary statistic...that means that 20% won’t.
For the record, I’ll "cold smoke" cheese, but thats where that ends. And starting out with a properly processed hunk o’ cheese makes it relatively low risk. There’s just too many things that can go wrong cold smoking meats at home. Perhaps it’s because I do have a degree in culinary arts that I understand the risks...and have deemed it not worth the same.
Anyway, he got lucky...and I’ve sent them a copy of Meathead’s book to learn from...seeing as my warnings fell on a couple of deaf ears. With that I hope to convince him to learn more AND to start cooking more than the occasional burger...or sketchy salmon recipe.
My apologies for the incredibly long post. I was shocked and irritated and needed to get it off my chest.
Seems he’s doing better but not fully recovered. What?!
This is the first I’ve heard of anything! What the heck is going on?!
Seems Frank has spent the better part of the last two weeks in hospital getting pumped full of antibiotics. O_o
Wait what?
They thought he had the flu, but as it worsened they felt he needed to see a doctor. Said doctor checked him out but wasn’t convinced it was the flu...and suggested that they run some more tests...and stay in hospital for observation. He disagreed but SWMBO won out...so he stayed.
Turned out he was much worse off than originally suspected. Much worse.
He managed to damn near kill himself.
Flash back a couple months ago...
Frank went on a "once in a lifetime" fishing trip...and brought back bunches of salmon.
He decided that he wanted to smoke some of it. Reasonable enough.
But he decided that he wanted it "cold smoked" rather than hot smoked...which is how I first became involved. I suggested that he hot smoke it instead, after keeping it in a decent brine for a few hours.
Nope, that would "alter the flavour" and he already found a recipe online that he wanted to try.
Let the games begin!
He took his now thawed salmon and proceeded to smoke it according to the directions he found.
For the record, listeria is NOT killed by freezing...it’s reproduction is only slowed down.
And so it went...he cold smoked it.
Pam wasn’t keen on trying it, not being much of a fan in the first place and my having scared her years ago with my tales of food borne pathogens. LOL She declined to eat it, and the kids were also prevented from from having any. They’re not big on fish anyway so that wasn’t a hard sell. As for Frank...his attitude was, "Cool, more for me."
At what point this all went pear shaped is hard to say.
The bug could have arrived riding along inside the salmon...it could have occurred sometime in the cutting/processing...improper storage...or been due to cross contamination somewhere along the way.
Regardless, it happened. And cold smoking didn’t stop the pathogen. And nearly killed him.
I shudder to think what might have happened if one of his kids ate it...or if he served it to his or her parents.
I seem to recall that Meathead is not an advocate of cold smoking, regardless...it is fraught with problems...any of which can ruin your day.
Turns out he’ll be in the 80% that makes a full recovery. But even that’s a scary statistic...that means that 20% won’t.
For the record, I’ll "cold smoke" cheese, but thats where that ends. And starting out with a properly processed hunk o’ cheese makes it relatively low risk. There’s just too many things that can go wrong cold smoking meats at home. Perhaps it’s because I do have a degree in culinary arts that I understand the risks...and have deemed it not worth the same.
Anyway, he got lucky...and I’ve sent them a copy of Meathead’s book to learn from...seeing as my warnings fell on a couple of deaf ears. With that I hope to convince him to learn more AND to start cooking more than the occasional burger...or sketchy salmon recipe.
My apologies for the incredibly long post. I was shocked and irritated and needed to get it off my chest.
Thanks. Never have and now, never will.
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