It's OK. Worms don't care whether the food is cooked raw or sauteed. Smelly doesn't matter, either. Just not too much salt, please, preferably unsalted.

Lynnette,
Cooked food scraps are just fine - I don't feed any scraps that have a lot of salt or spices. I would think the cooked scraps are well on their way to breaking down from the cooking process when you add them to the bin. The fresh/uncooked scraps take longer to "rot" and probably don't do it all at once.

Try this, continue to aerate the bedding to prevent an anaerobic situation. Don't feed anymore until your bin smells earthy. I ,personally, would remove as much of the smelly mat'l as possible to speed the bins' recovery up.

Then, when things smell ok, pull back a little of the bedding, add small amounts of scraps in a thin layer, 1/4" thick or so, and pull the bedding back over the scraps. I don't like to bury OM very deep and I keep the area small-6" or so. This way my worms can get away from the heat if they need to.

Remember the spot where you fed last and check it in a few days-3 or 4. When you find the worms are active in that spot, make another small feeding spot in the opposite corner. This will keep the feeding spots as far away as possible from each other if they begin to heat up.

I think what you are experiencing is the effects of deep pocket feeding of cooked (partially decomposed) scraps and possibly overfeeding too.

I would certainly like to read other opinions and I hope you get things under control.

bruce

I feed a combo of cooked and raw. The majority of what goes into the bin is food processed raw food. However after the cantaloupe incident i tend to pre-seed (and cook the seeds then process them) or cook the whole item, if it contains alot of seeds.

Cooked or frozen food helps with cell degeneration, and i have noticed these items tend to disappear more quickly. However i bought an old food processor on ebay for a few $ and use it on all food stuffs before they go in the bin. This is probably what speeds up the process the most. We use the processor bowl (with the blade already set in the bowl)as our scraps container ... once its full we just pop it on the processor and add it to the bin. Makes it really easy for my wife and I.

Cooking and/or freezing food will also help to keep fruit fly populations down.

Bryan