To not understand people that dont eat leftovers?

[Eliza9917]

I've seen a lot of people say this, and wondered why? What could eating leftovers possibly do to you? Is it a fear of poverty in some way?

My sister knew a girl that would roast a chicken for Sunday dinner and only eat the breasts and throw the rest away. To me, that's madness, I'd get at least 2-3 dinners and a soup out of a large chicken.

I generally just cook what we will eat. But I sometimes freeze leftover chilli etc. I love cold pizza but for some unknown reason it sets off my ibs even though fresh pizza doesn't. My favourite bit of Sunday lunch is the bits of roast potatoes stuck to the pan and leftover stuffing.

@hushhush89 How do you think humankind survived without packaged food until what, the 50's?

To anyone here who doesn't eat leftovers you've committed yourself to never eating out ever again. Restaurants are run on really tight profit margins and that often means shock horror that they'll be using leftovers. That delicious leftover carvery meat will be turned into pies, curries, casseroles, cold meat for sandwiches etc. Or is it the case that what you don't know can't hurt you?

A little bit on the science of why a lot of foods taste better the next day:

www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2011/11/23/the-science-of-leftovers-why-they-taste-so-good/

@Eliza9917 I don't think about that, I wasn't around then so why do I need to think about that stuff

@ChibiTotoro.... or in my case, if I go out, I only really order salads but then I'm the same if I eat around someone's. If I don't see that they've cooked the meat, I don't eat it....

We are fairly well off (joint income £120k ++) and we try to NEVER throw out food on a point of principle given the starvation in the world. We’ll have it for lunch at work or school next day, freeze anything left over and reuse or recruit later, make stock from carcasses etc. Throughout uni I witnessed hungover students in droves routinely consuming cold left over pizza, reheated Chinese and Indian take away and surprisingly all survived.

wrienka, I just read all that waste and then at the end you say you rent. Do you think the two might be connected? I mean, Yorkshire Puddings, why wouldn’t you just plan another meal that you could use them in? A Yorkshire pud filled with meat and veg and gravy is one of the easiest things you can do with leftovers.

hushhush89

Why do you have a freezer if you won’t eat the stuff that’s been frozen in it?

I didn’t even know not eating/ liking left overs was a thing! Does batch cooking count as leftovers? I’ll cook curries and have them for lunch the next day or freeze them and have them later in the week. I don’t think I could manage to cook from scratch every single day!

Ok so some people don’t like leftovers, I don’t understand that myself as if stored correctly they are fine and safe to eat. Maybe it’s because they feel it’s a poverty thing. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. We should all be aware of the resources we use and food waste is such a crime when there are people going hungry in the country (world). Some of the best recipes on my blog are made using leftovers. Like Arancini made from leftover risotto. Or pasta frittata from leftover cooked pasta. It’s a whole new meal. And to only eat the white breast meat. That’s ridiculous! The leg meat is the tastiest part of chicken. It’s where all the flavour is. White meat is pretty tasteless and needs flavours added to it. I use my chicken legs in hunter stews and Jambalaya. But if you don’t like bones just take the meat off before serving. I also save our chicken wings up in the freezer and make spicy wings with rice when we have a dozen or so. Don’t think of it as leftovers. Think of it as a whole new ingredient.

I just cook as much as we will eat so we don't have leftovers!

Just read a few of the above comments to my husband who thinks a lot of people who refuse to eat leftovers has obviously never been hungry and hopes you never are.

This post made me smile, as when I was young we were far too poor to have proper decent meals, let alone have leftovers.

Jump through the ensuing years to now and I enjoy making a lot of pasta dishes, macaroni cheese in a large casserole dish and numerous other enjoyable large casseroles, that result in the main meal for that day, plus at least two more portions, to then freeze for later in the month.

Over Christmas I bought a medium sized whole chicken which was nearly 3lb in weight and cost just under £3.
It did two meals on Christmas day for two adults, then on Boxing day, I cut it up and found that we had three good sized full plastic freezer boxes, of chicken pieces and strips and a further box containing wings and legs.

My Son went home with two boxes he could freeze for several meals in the coming weeks and I have several frozen meals for myself too.

So I think we did rather well out of the Christmas bird, this year.

@Nothisispatrick I didn't say I don't eat from it, I was talking about fresh meat that had been put in there months and months ago that are well past there use by dates so I wouldn't eat them

Hushhush89

But freezing is a form of food preservation. The use by dates have no meaning as the food is preserved and will not go off. Yes freezer burn happens but generally with food where the packaging is open.

So Hush what happens if you go to someone’s house for dinner? A friend invites you and has prepared the meal before you’ve arrived? You say you wouldn’t eat it - how would you get out of it?

And ‘use by’ dates are fine if you freeze on the day’

Usually take leftovers for lunch a day or two later and what we don’t eat the dog will wolf down .

Hush do you buy anything frozen with meat in it? That meat would have had a 'best buy' date that's likely long-since passed if it wasn't frozen.

was talking about fresh meat that had been put in there months and months ago that are well past there use by dates so I wouldn't eat them

So what do you think is going to happen to you if you do? I’ve had meat from the freezer that is five years old. It was fine in a curry. Prepared food goes a bit insipid if you leave it for years, but making a curry out of long-frozen meat is fine. People have eaten mammoth dug out Russian permafrost which is around ten thousand years old. There are preserved foods I would be careful about; for example, eating 19th century tinned meat found in Antarctica is risky because of lead solder, and I wouldn’t eat acidic fruit tinned decades ago unless I was confident about the tin being properly lined. But frozen meat? The worst thst’s Going to happen is it going tasteless, and anything palatable will be safe.

@Nothisispatrick, I do understand what your saying, but to me it doesn't feel right. The amount of times my kids have asked me for spaghetti Bolognese and I've gone to get the mince out but soon as I see it, I just throw it back in and then go out and buy fresh, and the same with sausages....

I can't bring myself to use something that I have thrown in the freezer for months, been opened for more than 2 days, cooked and shoved in the fridge.

My inlaws throw huge amounts of leftovers away.

They are both excellent and adventurous cooks, well educated and au fait with the science behind food spoilage and storage.

Pure and simple- they don't want to eat the same meal twice. They won't freeze it and don't have a microwave. They often over-cater to ensure everyone can have as much as they fancy. Then they simply chuck the rest in the bin, wash up and start again.

DH and I often hoover up remains for breakfast the following morning (it's usually even more fantastic the next day) and leave them clutching foil parcels. But the waste is genuinely distressing. I can only imagine what their food bills are.

@SinglePringle, if its severed up, I would leave the meat and anything touching it, if they hadn't served I would say no meat for me....

@Crudd... not for me I don't, I very rarely eat anything from freezers

Hush what do you think will happen if you eat it?