How long do you keep your leftovers in the refrigerator?

[Andy M.]

If I can't remember when I made the dish, I begin to think I should toss it.

 

[Mad Cook]

I tend to push the limits of length of storage, but I always go by my nose. I think I was a bloodhound in my previous life because I can detect the slightest smell of alcohol or pot on people; when there's something dead nearby (like in a mousetrap or something larger); the smell of body odor on a hiking trail, and - back on topic - when food has gone bad.
I often open the fridge to smell something "off" and dig through it to find the offender.

I try not to howl too much.

So far so good but, unfortunately, one of the most dangerous food poisoning organisms, Clostridium botulinum, doesn't always produce a bad smell.

I usually only store left-overs in the fridge overnight. If it's going to be any longer before I eat it I put it in the freezer. As I live alone I often make enough of a dish for at least two and often more meals, portion it out, pack it and freeze it as soon as it's cool enough.

 

[Just Cooking]

If I can't remember when I made the dish[/B], I begin to think I should toss it.

Problem is, at my age I could have made it this morning...

Ross

 

[GotGarlic]

Problem is, at my age I could have made it this morning...

Ross

Hee hee! This is one reason why I take photos of my dinner each night - so I can go back and see when I made it

 

[JoAnn L.]

I will never forget the day my dad told me he had found a jar of tomato relish in the basement that my mother had canned before she died four years earlier. I said did you throw it out and he said no that he had scraped off the black stuff and ate the relish. Oh my gosh, I said are you alright and he said sure, why not? Thank God he was but I told him never to do that again.

 

[Mad Cook]

I will never forget the day my dad told me he had found a jar of tomato relish in the basement that my mother had canned before she died four years earlier. I said did you throw it out and he said no that he had scraped off the black stuff and ate the relish. Oh my gosh, I said are you alright and he said sure, why not? Thank God he was but I told him never to do that again.

Oops, we always scraped the mould off the top of a jar of jam and ate the rest of the jam when I was a little girl. We still had post-war (WW2) rationing in the UK until 1954 and food couldn't be wasted.

 

[sparrowgrass]

3 or 4 days and then it goes to the chickens.

 

[GotGarlic]

3 or 4 days and then it goes to the chickens.

Wish I could keep chickens. I can't feed leftovers to the bees [emoji38]

 

[CraigC]

Until I decide the "Experiment" is over!

 

[larry_stewart]

Each week I go shopping. Before I go shopping, I go through the fridge see what I got, and also check anything that hasn't gotten eaten up from the previous week .

Rarely does anything make it past that 1 week mark. And nothing makes it past that 1 week mark, unchecked ( unless it gets pushed to the back, hiding behind something).

 

[JoAnn L.]

Oops, we always scraped the mould off the top of a jar of jam and ate the rest of the jam when I was a little girl. We still had post-war (WW2) rationing in the UK until 1954 and food couldn't be wasted.

I had no idea you could keep food that long. I guess we are never to old to learn.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Hee hee! This is one reason why I take photos of my dinner each night - so I can go back and see when I made it

It's what works for me! [emoji1]

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

I usually break mine down into individual meals and freeze them, which can be quite interesting if you don't mark them.

 

[Vinylhanger]

Too long usually.

 

[Just Cooking]

I usually break mine down into individual meals and freeze them, which can be quite interesting if you don't mark them.

Uh huh... With my lousy short term memory, I don't know why I continue to freeze things without marking them..

Ross

 

[BlueMoods]

For me it depends on what it is, some things keep longer than others. Fish and poultry leftovers 48 hours, then dog food. Vegetables with sauce and fruit already cut 4 days, then compost it, vegetables no sauce and uncut fruit (like berries) a week, then they go. Some non dairy, fat free sauces can keep up to a month.

 

[Katie H]

For some reason I've been able to manage leftovers the last several years to the extent that I rarely discover any UFOs (unidentified food objects). Part of why I've gotten better is that I have become more adept at cooking for two. Most of my cooking life was spent feeding a small army and reducing my cooking volume has taken me years to learn.

Our leftovers can be categorized two ways. First, a large enough quantity to provide a full evening meal one more time or, secondly, a much smaller portion that will be eaten as a shared lunch.

This plan has been working pretty well and I haven't had to resort to tossing things in the garbage or giving them to the dog.

 

[buckytom]

So far so good but, unfortunately, one of the most dangerous food poisoning organisms, Clostridium botulinum, doesn't always produce a bad smell..

I should have added that I also go by sight, texture, and taste. But my nose knows first. Then the rest.

I've never gotten sick, nor has my family, from my own home cooked and stored food, but I have gotten the runs from leftovers from a restaurant literally the next day. In fact, I've even sent dishes back in a restaurant that I could sense were starting to go bad as they were served to me.

I used to work with a guy that regularly left cheese in the office fridge until it becane a fuzzy experiment, and if you threw his hairy cheese out he'd get upset because he would still have cut off the funky parts and eaten what was underneath.

I often wonder how Americans would fare in countries with little refrigeration.

 

[Addie]

Pirate has suggested that he waits until it can get up and walk to the waste basket on its own. That idea has no appeal to me at all. I would hate to have tracks on my newly cleaned floor.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I try not to go beyond three days.

When they do go beyond three days I use my own judgement and so far I haven't had any problems.

If I'm not going to use leftovers within three days I freeze them, for short term storage, in my collection of redneck Tupperware.