You dine in a fancy restaurant once a year, or maybe on a special occasion like your birthday or Thanksgiving and end up ordering so many dishes. Since you feel extremely guilty to throw away the leftovers, you decide to bring them home.
Of course, you can re-heat them one by one if you have a variety of dishes. The challenge is how to keep your leftover safe to eat and still tasty.
Some Tips for Keeping Your Leftovers Safe and Edible:
1. Some food can simply stand the test of time.
There are food that can last forever like honey, sugar, rice, hard liquor, maple syrup, distilled white vinegar, cornstarch and salt. Most of these foods though are ingredients to the dishes that you probably ordered.
2. Put all food in the fridge. Can you put them in the fridge even if the food's still hot?
So you're tired after the dinner party and you just want to put all the food in the fridge. Your worry is the food's still hot. Your food will be fine even if hot. You can put it while it's hot. According to he U.S. Department of Agriculture, the refrigerator's thermostat will keep it running to maintain a safe temperature of 40° F or below. You have to use shallow containers for hot food items in order for it to chill quickly. Do not use deep containers in hot food.
3. Once you started storing your leftovers in the fridge, be wary of obvious signs of mold, texture changes, or unpleasant smells.
Remember time and temperature plays a major role in ensuring food safety. All food has a shelf life. Bacteria growth is slowed in the cold temperatures of your fridge, but there is a 25 percent chance for refrigerators in the U.S. when kept at unsafe temperatures (above 40 degrees F). Checking your fridge temperature can prevent food spoilage.
4. Use an ice bath without the risk of raising the temperature of your fridge or freezer with hot food.
You can quick-chill the food in an ice water bath before refrigerating it. Make sure that you refrigerate the food within 2 hours of cooking it.
5. Different foods, different expiration.
Each food has different lifespan maybe last longer than the others, which is why you have to break them down on how long you can safely eat these leftovers.
6. Trust your instinct.
If you can't seem to know by simply looking at the food, then you can try smelling it. Still, if you are not able to tell if it's no longer safe to eat it but you have doubts, it's better to let go of your leftovers. This will protect you from food poisoning or foodborne diseases.
Now, you can finally say that you're over with your leftovers.
