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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

MIL DOESN'T REFRIGERATE ANYTHING - AIBU?

60 replies

TooManyDustyCandles · 02/10/2013 15:26

Was staying with my (very lovely) MIL last week
She is great but doesn't refrigerate cooked food! She will cook a Sunday roast, make a couple of extra dinners for the next day, and leave the whole lot (beef, potatoes, gravy, veg) with a bit of foil loosely over the top, just sitting on the side, to have the next day.

Or she will do a food shop at lunchtime for dinner that evening, say a pizza, and not put it in the fridge, as she's just going to heat it up later!

Is it a generational thing. DP says she's always done it and none of them ever got sick!

OP posts:

finncotta · 02/10/2013 15:49

My mum also does this, despite having a big fancy fridge and kitchen which she hardly cooks in. As a kid I remember there was always a bowl of veggies and a chicken carcass sitting on the side after Sunday lunch, which would be fried up for Monday's dinner.

Due to living in the tropics these days, I have to restrain myself from sealing refrigerating in sight in tupperwares when I go to stay at my mum's. I can't leave anything out - ants (and other worse beasties) find a chopping board within minutes. I even have to keep nuts in tupperwares in the fridge so they don't get invaded. I would keep the flour in there if there was space.

Makqueen2 · 02/10/2013 15:49

My MIL is the same.

Cooks a huge chicken pasta sauce thing (shes italian) on a saturday and there is stay on the hob for five days, being re heated everyday.

I can't eat it.

They don't refrigerate anything at all, even milk.

NoComet · 02/10/2013 15:50

Another one who's grandmother didn't have a fridge, but had a cold cellar.

Me I have a lean to breeze block pantry that's cold enough most of the year for stew, spagbol sauce etc. for a day or two.

Food poisoning bugs are optimised to grow at 37oC

I've had food poisoning off prawn soup that I suspect had never been reheated properly and left at the half warm temp it was served at for hours.

Likewise DSIS was ill having bought a hot sausage roll and keeping it warm on a radiator for hours as a teen.

Left overs at cool room temp that are then reheated have never been a problem, and I'm very scatty and have done it plenary of times.

finncotta · 02/10/2013 15:52

everything in sight, that was supposed to say

Gatekeeper · 02/10/2013 15:53

ohhh Silverapples ...a "pantry with slate shelves"- I can't tell how envious I am of you reading that!

SorrelForbes · 02/10/2013 15:53

I don't refrigerate eggs or butter and will happily leave leftovers out overnight.

When we move I want a house with a proper pantry/larder and a meat safe.

ISolemnlySwearThatIAmUptoNoGoo · 02/10/2013 15:59

I do it too except on very hot summer days as my kitchen is quite cold. We're rarely sick and I was born in the 90's.
I hate cold butter too.

My parents did it too.

JRmumma · 02/10/2013 16:00

As long as food is covered properly and not left in sunlight etc them it should ne fine overnight if its cooked properly to begin with.

Personally i would stick it in the fridge in the summer, but in winter my kitchen is colder than the fridge anyway!

spatchcock · 02/10/2013 16:01

Do we have the same MIL, OP?

Over summer we stayed with the ILs. The temperature was 30 degrees most days. One night we had a barbecue and MIL put the leftover meat into the oven (which was off). The following night she reheated it and served it up. I'm really not precious about food but the thought of that meat sat in the hot kitchen all day was gross!

Oblomov · 02/10/2013 16:01

I do this. And am never ill.

LemonLies · 02/10/2013 16:12

Does your MIL still do that in a heatwave OP?

SilverApples · 02/10/2013 16:29

'ohhh Silverapples ...a "pantry with slate shelves"- I can't tell how envious I am of you reading that!'

It's not modern posh, it's the same age as the house. Edwardian.
Think walk in cupboard, with my grandma's wire egg basket and my mum's bread bin.

Pawprint · 02/10/2013 16:42

My parents do refrigerate but pay no attention AT ALL to sell by dates. To be fair, they are from the pre-sell by date generation. However, my mum thought nothing of eating a yoghurt that had a sell by date that had expired by over five months. Last year, I found a jar of jam that expired in 2004.

When I was pregnant, my dad drove me mad by insisting that advice on what to avoid eating during pregnancy was just a lot of rubbish. Luckily, a midwife friend put him right on this. This was after dad gave me undercooked (and bleeding) roast chicken and I refused it.

stinkingbishop · 02/10/2013 16:50

I think it depends what temperature your house is. And previous generations (well, DM and DMIL) like to live in what is practically a fridge to all intents and purpose.

By the way, learning not to keep tomatoes in the fridge has revolutionised my life. Almost literally . Even nasty pre packed supermarket ones just have bags more flavour.

SilverApples · 02/10/2013 16:53

Long ago, when OH and I first got together, I found that despite his PhD his practical knowledge was small in matters of food and nutrition.
He understood a use by date, but didn't realised that it changed depending on whether you had opened the packet or not.
So if the ham had a UBD of 14 October, it was edible up to and including that date. Whatever had happened to it in the mean time.

friday16 · 02/10/2013 16:54

Last year, I found a jar of jam that expired in 2004.

And? I make most of my own jam, and I occasionally turn up ten year old jars at the back of the larder. They sometimes have lost a certain amount of flavour, but usually they're fine. And home made jam almost certain won't have as good a seal on the jar as manufactured jam (unless you do all that weird stuff with paraffin wax, which I don't). What do you think would happen to a jar of jam to make it dangerous? That's why it has a "best before" date (ie, "it might taste a bit shit") rather than a sell by date (ie, "might be harmful").

In the case of yoghurt, provided the lid isn't swelling upwards, what could be the harm? Five months sounds quite a long time, but I've certainly eaten them six weeks over date.

my dad drove me mad by insisting that advice on what to avoid eating during pregnancy was just a lot of rubbish.

Some of it is, of course. Some of it isn't. The trick is knowing which is which.

Pigsmummy · 02/10/2013 16:56

If I cook a stew I will leave it in pot for a day before separating the remainder into dishes to put in freezer or fridge. Is that ok? We have never been ill.

pixiepotter · 02/10/2013 18:17

Household fridges only really took off in the 1940s , how do you think mankind survived for 200 000 years before that.

GoldenGytha · 02/10/2013 18:55

My gran had a "press" she never had a fridge til I was about 20 or so, she never got ill.

I don't put any kind of juice/drink in the fridge either, can't abide very cold juice, and I hate butter so never buy it, when DD2 buys margarine she does put it in the fridge. I'm not eating it so makes no difference to me what she does with it,

Same with milk, I buy it for the DC 9(I hate all things dairy) and that goes in the fridge, I never eat leftovers so that doesn't apply but my fridge is pretty empty most of the time.

Gatekeeper · 02/10/2013 19:02

Silverapples...your pantry is sounding even better!

pantry is one of my favourite words

Gatekeeper · 02/10/2013 19:06

my aged Aunt didn't have a fridge either, but kept milk in a bucket of cold water and bacon and stuff in a meat safe. I remember going to stay with her back in the 90's and gagging at the sterilised milk she used. She had a cast iron constitution though and decided when she was 95 that that was a good enough age to die...and did! She was a right game old bird

chrome100 · 02/10/2013 19:11

I only refrigerate milk, yogurts and meat. everything else just stays out. I have never even heard of people refridgerating butter or eggs! You just don't need to.

gobbynorthernbird · 02/10/2013 19:24

What I have learnt from this thread is that I am probably a bit skanky/reckless, and that I really want a pantry.

jamdonut · 02/10/2013 19:43

Definitely a generational thing.

My mother used to do this,and her mother. Can't ever remember getting a bad stomach! My grandmother used to have a pantry in her council house, and all sorts used to be stored in there! It was quite efficient actually.

I am not a slave to best before dates or use by dates, depending on what it is.
I also don't follow the instructions on jam or ketchup about refrigerating etc.

whatsonyourplate · 02/10/2013 19:51

My Mil is the opposite. She's hyper aware of use by/ sell by dates and refrigerates everything including dried fruit . Mind you she's had a couple of really bad bouts of food poisoning (from eating out) so she's a bit over anxious about stuff like that.

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