Pressure cooked stock out overnight, still safe? I see a question here about stock out overnight, but in my case it's a bit different in that I used a pressure cooker.

My question is, is there anything that could possibly have survived an hour of high pressure cooking?  I've essentially gone far beyond what's done in pressure canning, and never opened the cooker.

Is it really possible that anything survived that inferno?  Pressure cookers by definition have an air tight seal, so I can't see how anything would crawl in after the deed.

Safe to eat?
No, it is not safe.  As soon as a pressure cooker loses pressure it is not hermetically sealed. Stock, in particular, is often used as a culture medium in petri dishes to GROW bacteria.  They love the stuff.

Pressure cooking or pressure cookers do not confer magical powers to food - once the pressure is gone all the regular food handling rules apply:


Always refrigerate perishable food within 2 hours (1 hour when the temperature is above 90 °F).
When in doubt, throw it out.


Here's a little story about Bending the Rules on Bacteria and Food Safety, wherein a cookbook author feeds lethal week-old stock to his family - and the expert opinion on why this is NOT ok.