#except from spilling some portioned out broccoli

[gatheryepens]

So I thought I’d give an update on my job, since I’ve had my first week…

[kitchennoobfood]

Storing and Using Leftovers

Safety

Food should only be left out for 2 hours max. After that, you need to store it.

Everything you cook except for bread gets cold storage. You either need to freeze it or refrigerate it. You baked it, simmered it, sauteed it, or otherwise prepared it? Cold storage. No more of this leaving cake sitting out on the counter business, you hear me? Above 40F and below 140F is the sweet spot for bacterial and fungal growth. Bread is stable enough that putting it in the fridge actually does more harm than good because of the condensation, but any other cooked food leftovers get put in that fridge within 2 hours.

Storing warm/hot food will not cause it to spoil. It may warm up your fridge, though, so let it cool as much as you can, up to the 2 hour mark, before you put it in there. Otherwise, if you absolutely have to put it in there hot, move everything else away from it and leave nothing directly above or below it on the shelves.

If it gets refrigerated, it gets the sniff test, no matter how long it’s been in there. I don’t care if you put it in only yesterday, you sniff that pasta before you eat it. Smells off or weird or you’re not sure? Trash it; better safe than food poisoned.

Note that the sniff test is not perfectly accurate, as some things that can make you sick don’t actually smell bad. If it’s been in there over a week, get rid of it.

Reheating/Re-eating

Not everything needs reheating. You don’t have to rebake or microwave a piece of cake or pie or brownies. For meal foods, however, the further it gets from the day you made it, the better it is to heat it up. Eating cold spaghetti for breakfast the next morning? Probably nbd. Eating that same spaghetti cold 4 days later? Not the best idea.

Make a small well or hole in the center of your food before microwaving it. This helps it get heated a bit more evenly so you don’t have a cold center. This does not apply to whole-item foods like pieces of meat or something like lasagna.

If you had to boil it or reconstitute it when cooking--rice, pasta, beans, etc-- sprinkle a bit of water over it before reheating. This keeps it from drying out. Especially important with rice, but pasta absolutely benefits, too.

Put a cup of water in the microwave with your food if you want to reheat bread/pastry-based dishes. It helps the bread portion stay soft and not get rubbery.

Double check before you store food that needs reheating and make sure the container is microwave safe. Or else mark that container as not being safe somehow so you don’t accidentally melt your tupperware in the quest to get a quick lunch.

Making Sure You Actually Use Them

Keep an actual, physical list of what is in your fridge, and display it on the front of your fridge. I like to use those little magnetic whiteboards. Any time you put something in there, write it on the list. Any time you finish something off completely (and only when totally finished or tossed), take it off the list.

Keep track of the dates, too. Write them down, your memory is never quite as good as you think and you don’t want to play games with funky food. You can also put the throw-out-by date on there for added simplicity.

Shuffle your storage when you add something new. Put newer stuff behind the older ones, and scoot the older ones to the front so you don’t forget about your chicken-and-rice in your excitement over last night’s stew.

Organize your fridge so that only one shelf is allowed to have leftovers. Only put leftovers on this one shelf, and preferably in the same general spot. This way you don’t lose track of where they are and get one shoved to the back and forgotten about for a month.

Set a purge day once a week. Check your list and dates, and toss out anything that has hit the week mark. Sniff check everything else and toss out anything weird. This is also a good day to go through your fridge as a whole and get rid of that orange going squishy in the back behind the milk. Check the dang drawers, too, and wipe up any spills.

When cooking, consider taking some of the ingredients out for use later instead of having leftovers of that dish. What I mean by that is instead of making a huge 6-person dish and having leftovers for 5 days, take out some of it along the way-- scoop half your chicken into a separate bowl, cook all those noodles but store half of them plain, only use half of that sauce, etc. Then you have a smaller amount of the meal in question so you don’t get burnt out on it as quickly, and you also have stuff ready to go for a quick meal of a different kind later on.

Similarly, you can recombine your leftovers. Put that leftover steamed broccoli into your stir fry, or dump those leftover green beans into your ramen. You don’t have to have the same meal in the same configuration over and over. My mother-in-law loves to put leftover spaghetti sauce on toast and have it for breakfast. You can combine and re-cook in other dishes.

If you know you won’t want your leftovers soon, you can freeze them. There are freezer-safe containers, or you can put it in a normal lunch container and then slide that into a big freezer zipper storage bag.