To think everyone uses leftovers

[moogy1a]

Certain smug, lispy, fat tongued chefs make a living at the moment by telling people not to throw perfectly good food away if you've cooked too much.
Surely no one does anyway?
Would anyone really cook say a roast chicken, not eat it all, so bin it rather than keep for sarnies / stir fry/ nibbling at secretly in the kitchen?
Do you bin leftover food or use it later?

OP I would freeze the left over casarole and spud. Or whatever it is. Today out of a pack of mince there was a serving spoon of meat left. That's enough for my lunch when I deforst it, and the 2 spoons of rice will also make up a lunch. The broccoli will Go into an omlette or a salad Tomorrow. We had doggy bag salad, hence the left over broccoli, as we ate lunch out and between DH and I the was enough left over To make side salads for dinner.

I did used To waste vast amounts of food. That was because I felt obliged To buy all my food for the week at once because a rellie was kindly taking me shopping on a weekend because I didn't drive. I never asked for this favour and I was suffering depresión so I'd set out with the best intenciones of eating properly and then chuck most of the food by the end of the week. And then the ciclo would start again.

Disclaimer, I'm not implying that people who don't use left overs are depressed, that was just me.

Uh? It's not"leftovers" here they are"tomorrow's lunch/dinner"! I always cook plenty (legacy of there being 5 of us but only 4 at home I guess).

E.g.bag of small potatoes-no point in cooking just a few each, cook them all and re use them, cold/warm/in a curry or what ever!

Soup/stew always is a big vat to be eaten over a few days and frozen.

I don't use leftovers. Our fridge is too small and I tire easily of the same food.

Ah, so what I usually have is 'planned overs'! Trying to think of actual leftovers, then... I guess it would only be big holiday meals, pizza/takeaways then, but even then I'm usually thinking about how many meals we can make out of it. I expect to get at least 3 meals from Chinese takeaway, for example.

There's never enough on a plate to save -- unless people seriously mean things like the little bit of green bean with the stem still attached, or the slightly tough bit of onion that is half peel, that DH occasionally leaves behind. Stuff on the baby's plate is usually chewed up and spit out once already. I count that as eaten. I guess on days where someone feels ill/not up to eating/etc, whatever's left just gets put away specifically for that person to eat later.

I think more gets chucked than the responses on here suggest... but chuckers are less overt about it :) I think wasting food is almost immoral. Remember a friend once presenting her quite small children with a huge baked potato each. With just a few bites missing, both potatoes ended up in the bin. It bothers me still.....

What GinonTwoWheels said: Agree with other posters who say the leftover chucker outers are spoilt and lucky.

I also think far too many people are too fussy and squeamish about things like chicken legs and stripping the meat off a chicken. Its as if they don't want to consider that it was once alive, and want to distance themselves from this. If we are to kill and eat an animal, it deserves for as much of it as possible, not just the 'prime' cuts.

Why would you buy food you're not going to eat? You might as well just walk into the supermarket and stuff your money into the till without the bother of going round and putting the stuff in the trolley.

I don't like re-heated chicken and turkey as much, but I love them cold, so we have the leftover bits in sandwiches, with leftover re-heated gravy and veg, with salad, added at the last minute to soup or stirred into savoury rice. Lovely. If I didn't like leftover chicken/turkey in any form or if I didn't like the leg meat, I wouldn't buy whole ones, just the breasts. Why would you go to the effort and expense of buying, storing and cooking something you knew would end up in the bin?

we never use left overs, anything left after dishing up is instantly binned, I dont really like reheated food don't even own a microwave

people have chicken left over after roasting one?? not in this house!!

I put things in bowls and people help themselves and that way you don't get waste on plates. I can never understand dishing up, how can anyone know how much I want to eat? Children are more likely to eat well if they have some control.

I always buy a chicken big enough for 2days and then boil the bones for stock.

Curlew - But you mention specifically bolognaise and chilli. Both of which are always, and "proper chefs" say this too- better if left overnight and reheated

Sorry, only just seen this but that is a silly argument.

But they aren't 'always' better reheated. Just because 'proper' chef reheat the food, why do I have to if I don't like it? You say that like it must be the way it is done or it is wrong. I don't like it. My family don't like it. We like our bolognese made fresh so I only make what I need. Very occasionally I get it wrong or a child is out to dinner and there is a portion left over and I freeze it but it is much less wasteful to only make what we need. I don't really want to waste freezer space (and running costs - leftovers are not without their costs, they don't constitute a 'free' meal) on bits of left overs that don't stand a chance of getting eaten. A packet of mince (500g) is sufficient for us for one meal. If I make the same meal again for the whole family there is still no need for that one portion.

My mother never used to waste anything either. We had a roast every Sunday and cold roast meat on a Monday. (it was never put in the fridge by the way, just kept in the cold oven overnight) Fine if it was chicken, horrible if it was any other roast meat. No leftovers any other day as she only cooked what is needed. Since I am grown up, I don't have any left overs so I can avoid having to eat rank cold roasts myself. I can't see how that is wasteful.

Rice - read lots of stuff up thread about reheating rice - and kerosene has it right ...
The bacteria (from soil) in rice are spore formers -being dry and the heat from cooking makes them unhappy so they form spores... these are pretty resistant to high temperatures - the spore aren't killed
(unlike non-spore formers like salmonella - which heat does kill - 60 deg C for 12 mins)
If you then leave it hanging about warm - cooked - (so moist too) -the spores are happy - become bacteria again and start multiplying - and make toxins as they do - and that is the bit that makes you sick...
Cold doesn't kill bacteria but it stops them multiplying (or slows them down at least)...the bacteria are still unhappy so they remain as spores...(although there is the chance that they won't so best not to store in fridge for more than a day or so -freezer should be fine longer)

Don't leave cooked rice hanging around at room temp! - if you are saving boiled rice for left overs you can rinse it with cold water -then straight into fridge...other types of rice move to a a cold container to speed cooling - don't put in fridge hot (will make rest of fridge warm)!

Main rice poisoning bacteria (Bacillus Cereus)- spores are killed by heat (100 deg C-) but the toxins are very heat resistant - there is another spore former - (clostridium perfringens) - spores are heat resistant but toxins aren't... and clostridiums are happier in the absence of air (oxygen)
The bacteria that cause botulism is a clostridium (Clostridium botulinum)...(and tetanus is another...)

I demonstrated that pumpkin flesh isn't very nice to eat.

Oh, roast pumpkin is lovely.

people have chicken left over after roasting one?
I do, I live alone, and I expect to get many meals out of a chicken.

I hate wasting food and I agree about dishing up. I would rather people helped themselves. a bit more adult somehow.

I try not to waste food but I did throw away some home made pastry today as I couldn't roll it out and thank goodness had some just roll in the freezer.

Is everyone going to get really really annoyed with me if I ask why the anti left over people sound so cross about it?

I don't scrape gravy and chewed bones from people's plates but if someone has left a whole roast potato I'll pick it off and it might find its way into the fridge or it might fall into my mouth.

A half one would definitely not make it to the fridge, particularly if it was nice and crispy.

I've scraped untouched, ungravied veg from plates into a bowl for use in bubble and squeak but would prefer it to have been left in the serving bowl.

Quite often as here I fall happily into both camps. Try to cook what we need, not more, unless for planned overs -which are frequent. But the spare when there is some is always kept and usually eaten. Sometimes things get forgotten or the reuse/recycle plan gets shelved, or it doesn't look tasty enough 3 days later, and it goes in the bin - but not often. Many things end up in the dog too (but not unless/until too rank for human consumption)!

I have OCD so struggle to cook meat as it is; there is no way I could use Sunday roast chicken leftovers for a Monday evening curry etc. the thought of reheating cooked meat scares me and I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. If there is roast chicken leftover I will eat it cold the next day provided it has been chilled quickly after cooking.

unlucky83 thank you for explaining about rice! DH doesn't believe me when I tell him it can make you seriously ill. He will leave take away out in the kitchen all evening, put it in the fridge hours later then microwave the next day. I can't eat it.

Oh and bones off plates in the stock - chewed or not - but otherwise no eating the stuff off plates - that's a step too far
Dates are for putting things in a cooking order only - not used to throw anything away !

See I wouldn't put a gnawed bone in the stock. I'd be squeamish about that, even though, like I said, I kiss the person who's done the gnawing.

Mind you, I wouldn't use his toothbrush. I'd prefer to rub my teeth with my finger and toothpaste if I didn't have a brush. Don't know why. I just don't like the idea.

An untouched boiled pea or carrot from a family member's plate wouldn't bother me at all.

DH and I also share stuff from each other's plates, even in restaurants, particularly if I've finished eating and I've left something that he fancies.

I wouldn't pick from anyone else's plate, not because of hygiene but because I think it's rude and I get cross when people pick from mine - my sister was terrible for saying: 'I won't have any chips, I'll just have some of Limited's'. No you bloody well won't.

It's interesting how people view things. I don't get angry when people throw food away. I am sometimes a bit puzzled by it.

It's interesting that people who wouldn't make stock would buy a stock cube, which must have bits of the chicken in it that I wouldn't consider using.

My chicken is stripped and in the slow cooker in a stew & the bones are waiting to be made into stock. Dh won't touch either.

'I put things in bowls and people help themselves and that way you don't get waste on plates. I can never understand dishing up, how can anyone know how much I want to eat? Children are more likely to eat well if they have some control.'

I do this too, Satinsandals, and it caters for the fact that we have a vegetarian and two Aspies who are selective about food. It also encouraged them to try something if it could be a teaspoonful rather than a serving.
I think being able to choose seconds or not is a useful control on calories and overeating.

you cant re heat potatoes,unless possibly mashed,they are disusting.

Cant believe how judgy people are about those who dont use leftovers!

Whos business is it?If you dont need to and can afford not to then why,unless you want to of course?why does it matter?eating it isnt going to stop anyone else starving.

Here are a couple of article which explain the science behind why some foods are better on subsequent days

"Second Time's the Charm"
and
The Science of Leftovers: Why they taste SO good

At a baking level, you make things like gingerbread, parkin, christmas cake and christmas pudding in advance so that the flavours can meld and mature.

Of course you can reheat potatoes.
Chips are double fried.