Leftovers

[freeazabird]

What leftovers do you cook/eat that can be stored in the fridge for a while? How many days does it stay good?

[lutorm]

Define "a while". We probably keep our leftovers for a week and never have an issue. If you want them to last longer than that, freeze them.

[Morning Glory]

Soup, pasta, rice, beans, anything really. Just make a double batch and heat up the rest a few days later. Saves time because you don't have to wash pans as often. And cooking, but I don't mind cooking, just pan washing. I'm guessing a week for most things but less if you live in a hot climate. I've had things longer than that but I give them a few extra seconds in the microwave just to be safe.

[Zikoris]

I make all our food on the weekend for the coming week, and have never had any trouble with stuff going bad in that time frame. Lack of animal products may be a factor as well - I've been vegan since before I could even cook at all, let alone bulk meal prep.

[terran]

We don't really do leftovers because we make extensive use of the freezer. About half our meals in a week (maybe more like 3/4) are cooked in large batches and then frozen in meal sized portions, so each batch lasts a month or more depending how much we make.

[Blue Skies]

I keep anything we don't finish at dinner, with the exception of fully dressed salads and nachos.  Those two don't go bad per se, they just get soggy and don't save well.  Everything else goes in the refrigerator and someone will finish it eventually.  I try to finish everything within a week, but sometimes go a bit longer and have not had issues.

The popular recommendation seems to be to eat things within 3 days, but I don't know where that comes from.  I've never had anything go bad that quickly.

There was a viral story about a kid who died from eating leftovers.  Turns out it was true, but the kid left them sitting on the counter for several days before deciding to eat them.  Not even refrigerated.  Yeah, that was a bad idea. 

[TheFrenchCat]

We do lots of leftovers or repurposed food.  For example I'll bake a value pack of chicken all at once and eat it over the next few days.  Sometimes we'll just microwave it and eat it as whole breasts.  Sometimes I'll cut them up and stir fry them.  I'll also make pasta or rice and lentils and keep them for as long as it takes to eat them, or a week.  Or we'll have leftovers from dinner for lunch the next day.

[Metalcat]

I make all our food on the weekend for the coming week, and have never had any trouble with stuff going bad in that time frame. Lack of animal products may be a factor as well - I've been vegan since before I could even cook at all, let alone bulk meal prep.

Same, I cook for the week and have never had an issue.

I worked in restaurants long enough to learn the limits of storing each type of food. I don't cook meat, so that makes it very easy. I have an EXTREMELY sensitive stomach and can very easily get food poisoning, and have from many restaurants, but never from keeping my own cooking in the fridge for a week.

I make a lot of soups, stews, curries, Chilis, noodles, casseroles, potato dishes, rice and beans dishes, etc, etc. I have a collection of about 150 recipes that I cycle through. All of which are suitable for bulk cooking.

[partgypsy]

I want to point out it's not safe to reheat rice multiple times. That is, only heat the rice you are going to eat, say on your plate, and leave the rest in the fridge. As I've gotten older I am more conservative about eating leftovers (after 2 bouts of bad food poisoning). Both bouts ironically from eating leftover restaurant food. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322775. (and in case you are curious to hear about the student who got food poisoning from pasta that was left out of the fridge for 2 days) https://youtu.be/5ujTYLV2Qo4

[Linea_Norway]

I want to point out it's not safe to reheat rice multiple times. That is, only heat the rice you are going to eat, say on your plate, and leave the rest in the fridge. As I've gotten older I am more conservative about eating leftovers (after 2 bouts of bad food poisoning). Both bouts ironically from eating leftover restaurant food. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322775. (and in case you are curious to hear about the student who got food poisoning from pasta that was left out of the fridge for 2 days) https://youtu.be/5ujTYLV2Qo4

Yes, be careful with rice. In the past, we would often freeze a leftover portion of rice with sauce and reheat it in the microwave before eating, straight out of the freezer. This went well.
But one day I took a portion out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge, to eat the next day. Then something came in between and I ate it the next day, so two days in the fridge. I got a very upset digestive system and I think it was caused by this rice bacteria. It won't be killed by heating the rice.
So I am sceptic to keeping rice in the fridge. I read in wiki that pasta contains the same bacteria.

[Loretta]

About 3 days for pizza.  I have the best results reheating food in the oven at 425 or 450--the hotter the better and the faster cooking time seems to keep things from drying out too bad. 

[Metalcat]

I want to point out it's not safe to reheat rice multiple times. That is, only heat the rice you are going to eat, say on your plate, and leave the rest in the fridge. As I've gotten older I am more conservative about eating leftovers (after 2 bouts of bad food poisoning). Both bouts ironically from eating leftover restaurant food. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322775. (and in case you are curious to hear about the student who got food poisoning from pasta that was left out of the fridge for 2 days) https://youtu.be/5ujTYLV2Qo4

Yeah, I always make fresh rice.

[ender]

We normally freeze things if they aren't eaten after a few days.

We have a ton of pyrex we bought a few years ago, so we can freeze 2cup or 4cup or 6cup portions.

My wife is really good about paying attention to this type of thing. I'm not, so I'm glad she is.

[Anon-E-Mouze]

For the two of us, I often batch cook to yield three meals for two people. We eat one meal, we refrigerate one meal for later in the week, and we freeze one meal.

[GreenToTheCore]

You might find the FDA Bad Bug Book as an interesting resource.
Add us to the camp of cooking in bulk/eats leftovers throughout the week. For salads we keep the "wet" ingredients (tomatoes, cucumbers) in containers separate from the main big container (lettuce, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, etc).


https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/UCM297627.pdf

[GuitarStv]

My rule of thumb is 1 week.  Pretty much anything that's refrigerated soon after it's cooked is fine in the fridge for 1 week.

Beyond that, I very carefully smell and cautiously taste things in the fridge to determine if they're OK.  Except yogurt.  Yogurt is 100% fine as long as there's no mold on it.

We freeze anything that we're not going to eat that week.  Stuff is typically fine in the freezer for a couple years.

[jsap819]

I cook 3 main dishes every Sunday and make about 6 servings each that we rotate between lunch and dinner throughout the week. We try to eat them all by weeks end and each serving is refrigerated and in separate containers. So far we've had no issues with food going bad and have been pretty good with zero waste the past few years we've implemented this approach. As for rice, I make 4 cups (we are asian) for a family of 3 twice a week and refrigerate them to be fully consumed throughout the week as well. If we can't consume all of it, I use the remaining for fried rice at the end of the week.

[robartsd]

I want to point out it's not safe to reheat rice multiple times.

I did not know that rice has particular reason for concern. It is generally not a good idea to reheat anything multiple times. If you reheat anything, it is generally best not to save leftovers from it unless your reheat process has brought the food all the way up to the full cooking temperature.

Beyond that, I very carefully smell and cautiously taste things in the fridge to determine if they're OK.

Generally bacteria that causes bad smell or taste grows faster than harmful bacteria at refrigerator temperatures. Dangerous bacteria grows faster at room (body) temperature. Smell/taste is not a safe way to check food that has not been properly handled.

[GuitarStv]

Beyond that, I very carefully smell and cautiously taste things in the fridge to determine if they're OK.

Generally bacteria that causes bad smell or taste grows faster than harmful bacteria at refrigerator temperatures. Dangerous bacteria grows faster at room (body) temperature. Smell/taste is not a safe way to check food that has not been properly handled.

40 years of regular experimentation have led me to have zero concerns about food poisoning from food that has been in the fridge for a week or less.  Dangerous bacteria simply isn't a concern in that scenario.  My primary worry is that the food doesn't taste and/or smell yucky.

[Metalcat]

I want to point out it's not safe to reheat rice multiple times.

I did not know that rice has particular reason for concern. It is generally not a good idea to reheat anything multiple times. If you reheat anything, it is generally best not to save leftovers from it unless your reheat process has brought the food all the way up to the full cooking temperature.

Beyond that, I very carefully smell and cautiously taste things in the fridge to determine if they're OK.

Generally bacteria that causes bad smell or taste grows faster than harmful bacteria at refrigerator temperatures. Dangerous bacteria grows faster at room (body) temperature. Smell/taste is not a safe way to check food that has not been properly handled.

From what I recall rice has particular bacteria that don't die in the cooking process, so it's really easy to get food poisoning from cooked rice. Also, I find reheated rice kind of gross, so I just make fresh rice when needed.

[the_fixer]

I want to point out it's not safe to reheat rice multiple times. That is, only heat the rice you are going to eat, say on your plate, and leave the rest in the fridge. As I've gotten older I am more conservative about eating leftovers (after 2 bouts of bad food poisoning). Both bouts ironically from eating leftover restaurant food. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322775. (and in case you are curious to hear about the student who got food poisoning from pasta that was left out of the fridge for 2 days) https://youtu.be/5ujTYLV2Qo4

I was just heading down to heat up my lunch.

Spaghetti noodles from last week, I was really looking forward to their noodly goodness but tossed them after watching that video I am sure they were good but I would have been thinking about it for the rest of the day.

So I had ramen instead


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[Cool Friend]

Leftover rice should be put in an airtight container in the fridge immediately for the aforementioned reasons. The cold temperature won't kill bacteria that may/may not be present, but it does slow its growth significantly. Stir fried rice is actually better with leftover rice than fresh, which is often too moist and clumpy for that application. If you don't want to stir fry, reheat in the microwave or stovetop with added water. The water will rehydrate the rice, though of course it won't be quite as good as fresh rice.

I've heard fridge rice can last for 3 days, but for caution's sake I throw it out if I don't use it the very next day.

My personal cutoff for other foods is 5 days. Most things are still edible by that point, but the taste and texture can often suffer. Workarounds for that include re-purposing the dish into a new recipe, or generous applications of acid (citrus, vinegar, and especially hot sauce), olive oil or butter, and herbs to reinvigorate it.

Always do the smell test first and always taste a little morsel after that just to make sure it's something you still want to eat.

[elaine amj]

I want to point out it's not safe to reheat rice multiple times.

I did not know that rice has particular reason for concern. It is generally not a good idea to reheat anything multiple times. If you reheat anything, it is generally best not to save leftovers from it unless your reheat process has brought the food all the way up to the full cooking temperature.

Beyond that, I very carefully smell and cautiously taste things in the fridge to determine if they're OK.

Generally bacteria that causes bad smell or taste grows faster than harmful bacteria at refrigerator temperatures. Dangerous bacteria grows faster at room (body) temperature. Smell/taste is not a safe way to check food that has not been properly handled.

From what I recall rice has particular bacteria that don't die in the cooking process, so it's really easy to get food poisoning from cooked rice. Also, I find reheated rice kind of gross, so I just make fresh rice when needed.

We are a Chinese family and rice is a staple. We have leftover rice in our fridge very frequently. We mostly use it within a week, but sometimes it sits a bit longer than we like and it is still fine. I can't even fathom plain rice going bad in under a week. You need rice to be at least a day old to make good fried rice :)

Sometimes we reheat it more than once although we actively try to avoid it. Never noticed any problems from reheating it twice. But I wouldn't reheat 4-5 times.

Mind you, this is plain steamed rice with no additional sauces or seasonings.

As for everything else, I like leftovers so we have had extensive experimentation lol. I find a week is a good gauge for leftovers but we try to eat within 4-5 days. Any longer and if we are keeping track, we move it to the freezer.

That said, I have to admit that my mother and I do sometimes let food go bad. We try, but with a stuffed fridge and vast quantities of fresh produce cycling in and out of the fridge, we do sometimes miss things. My DH is way, way better and is extremely good at tracking what's in the fridge at all times. But he has been ill so I've had to take over and I am definitely nowhere near as good.

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[Linea_Norway]

My rule of thumb is 1 week.  Pretty much anything that's refrigerated soon after it's cooked is fine in the fridge for 1 week.

Beyond that, I very carefully smell and cautiously taste things in the fridge to determine if they're OK.  Except yogurt.  Yogurt is 100% fine as long as there's no mold on it.

We freeze anything that we're not going to eat that week.  Stuff is typically fine in the freezer for a couple years.

Not all stuff is fine after years in the fridge. Fatty meat and fatty fish should preferably be eaten within half a year or so. Although I think it is more a tasting issue than a safety issue.
Low fat meat, like reindeer, can typically be frozen for years and taste fine.

[cupcakery]

I don't eat anything after 3 days as a rule.  If I have anything that can't be eaten in that timeframe, I freeze it. 

[Channel-Z]

Living alone, almost anything I cook results in leftovers. I try to eat the leftovers within three or four days.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

Beyond that, I very carefully smell and cautiously taste things in the fridge to determine if they're OK.

Generally bacteria that causes bad smell or taste grows faster than harmful bacteria at refrigerator temperatures. Dangerous bacteria grows faster at room (body) temperature. Smell/taste is not a safe way to check food that has not been properly handled.

40 years of regular experimentation have led me to have zero concerns about food poisoning from food that has been in the fridge for a week or less.  Dangerous bacteria simply isn't a concern in that scenario.  My primary worry is that the food doesn't taste and/or smell yucky.

+1 This. I've eaten a fairly large variety of food made on Sunday through at least Friday to Saturday timeframe. It's an anecdote and all that, I know, but I mean, I've never had any issues with properly refrigerated food, and although it's just me, it's a crap ton of a lot of meals for me, my family, the family I was raised in, etc - year after year.