re: Left a pot of tomato meat sauce out overnight. It's still good, right?

i left out a pot of gumbo overnight and ate it for breakfast the next morning and was fine. you'll live

All the “by the book” stuff is true, yes it will grow bacteria, but guess what the human digestive system does? Kills bacteria.

Just watch "The Last of Us" on HBO and you will be throwing that away with the quickness.

There are many folks who unwittingly effectively do this all the time and escape safely.

When you put a hot (150°F) gallon of anything you’ve cooked in the refrigerator, it takes hours and hours for the center of it to cool down to the 39°F or so a refrigerator is set at.

So a portion of many folks’ leftovers the next day from are usually exactly like what you’ve accidentally done yesterday.

As others have said here, get it good and hot before eating it today and it’ll be fine.

We never put a hot pot in the fridge. Always wait until it reaches room temperature first. But leaving soups and chilis and stuff on the stove overnight has never been a problem.

Whenever something like this happens in my home, I'll roll the dice and eat the food because I cant' bear to waste it.

I won't let my wife and children eat it, though.

Anyone who has had food poisoning (legit, not just the shits. I’m talking vomiting, dry heaving every couple hours) will tel you it isn’t worth the risk. Now if it was Great Depression era and you’re out of food, that’s different lol

Only one way to find out. Eat some and see if you get the bubble gut

A big question is what you used for the tomato sauce portion. Lots of commercial sauces have tons of sugar and that would concern me.

I’ve eaten Taco Bell left out overnight and reheated in the microwave. Also used to do it with pizza all the time. So yes, I would eat it.