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 regularly use potatoes that have sprouted. Not just little sprouting bits either but great long ones!

I once used a box of eggs a month past their Best Before .... just put them in a bowl of water and don't use the ones that float!

As for all the 'teeth marks' comments, do people not use knives and forks when they eat in restaurants these days?

Would you want a stranger’s plate scrapings to take home? If not why not? Because plate scrapings are gross, that’s why not.

Why would I want a "stranger's scrapings"? It's not like I can point to the next table and the the waiter "Could you put that duck in a doggie bag for me, sir?", it doesn't work this way.

What happens is I order steak, of half a chicken in Nando's, and after having a go at it with my knife and fork give up, because I remember I want some pudding as well, and wouldn't mind taking what's left on my plate home.

No teeth marks, no stranger scrapings, no angst. Just some lunch for next day, unless one of the teenagers scoffs the lot when feeling peckish in the night.

Why are we talking about 'strangers scrapings'? I'm not taking those, I'm taking my own.

If we buy mince (rare as I can't eat it) we split the pack down into the right portions for a meal. I'd rather do that than reheat food. I completely understand what everyone is saying, but there's no way I'm reheating!

also try to get the reduced ones from the supermarket. They really do last if you keep them dry and dark and don't squash them

I find potatoes keep best in the fridge. I tried them in a dark cupboard and was shocked at how quickly they went manky.

USE BY - these dates refer to safety. Food can be eaten up to the end of this date but not after even if it looks and smells fine. Always follow the storage instructions on packs.

That might be the official guidance but would anyone here really not use something a day or two past its use by date if they could see and smell that it wasn't off?

would anyone here really not use something a day or two past its use by date if they could see and smell that it wasn't off?

Clearly, but sadly, the answer to that question is “yes, quite a lot of people”. The people who throw food out at midnight of the appointed day are out in force.

I wouldn’t eat out of date fish, meat or dairy products

The block of Parmesan in the fridge is marked 15th of March. Are you saying, Pink, that on the 16th of March you would throw it out? Even though it was probably a couple of years old at the point it was sold?

Do you think that tinned Sardines, dated September 2023 (yes, twenty twenty three) will become mysteriously dangerous in October 2023?

Use by dates can be misleading. If you bought it from a reputable store or known source and stored it perfectly it will probably be ok after sell by date. Prawns and fish a day or so, chicken and pork a couple of days, other meat at least a couple of days. Dairy and veg I don't even look, I can tell by looking and smell, often ages after date.
If the food, or bottled water is left out in heat or not put away promptly it may not even last till sell by date. Shop near us has faulty freezer and food is clearly defrosted and refrozen. Wouldn't risk that

A poster mentioned earlier that a waiter had been very resistant to giving her a doggy bag of her own food. That made me wonder if the restaurant scraped leftovers from customers' plates into their own recycling pot. Far grosser than eating leavings from your own plate or someone you swap spit with.

onight I asked for a doggy bag of chicken and potatoes with rosemary from a restaurant near me. They do Italian small dishes. It's delicious and was all I was looking forward to but last time I ate too much and couldn't eat it when it came at the end.

At the start I said to my husband not to order too much stuff. We did it again, but this time I asked to take it home to have it cold. Next time my eyes will not be bigger than my belly.

Honey found in the pyramids of ancient Egypt is still safe to eat bit if you buy a jar in the supermarket it has a best before date 😂

Daft!

Honey found in the pyramids of ancient Egypt is still safe to eat bit if you buy a jar in the supermarket it has a best before date 😂

If that were true, why is it unsafe to give babies honey?

If that were true, why is it unsafe to give babies honey?

Thats got nothing to do with use by dates baby's guts are not developed enough to fend off clostridium botulinum, which bees can sometimes pick up from soil. Zero difference if its a honey you picked up from an ancient Egyptian tomb or from the supermarket and its in date or the supermarket and its out of date.
Honey doesn't go off in the sense of other food as the sugar content is too high for mould etc, it may crystallise and lose colour but still perfectly fine to eat.

Dates on eggs really gets me. I use eggs way after the date and it is fine. If an egg is off, you can smell it straight away. Unless you have no sense of smell, you don't need a date on it.

I've just eaten my breakfast; Moroccan chickpea and carrot stew (cooked on Thursday) with a side of Moroccan cauliflower and preserved lemons (cooked yesterday). Both delicious, been stored correctly, heated through thoroughly AND, both taste a lot better than when first made.
I live on "leftovers" as I cook for my husbands dinner but I like to eat in the morning, not nighttime.

Pink, I don't eat meat or fish but if I did would be careful with dates on those.

With dairy products I don't even look at dates. You can smell if milk is off. Cheese I eat until it is gone. I cut any mould off. Yoghurts I regularly eat out of date, by over a month sometimes

Use by dates on jam or preserve entertain me too. I mean the point of making jam is to preserve the fruit long term.

I know! DP pays attention to dates and knows I don't. So when I get the jam out he says what date is on it? I tell him it doesn't matter, but he won't eat past the dates.

So when I get the jam out he says what date is on it? I tell him it doesn't matter, but he won't eat past the dates.

I make a lot of jam. I recently found a jar of 2005 marmalade. It was thick, dark and tasty, although the peel had gone a bit soft. I doubt my jam is any more sterile than commercial jam, although I probably use slightly more sugar than fancy Bonne Mamman type jam/conserves.

The word for people who won’t eat jam past the “Best Before” date (it’s not a “Use By” date, obviously) is “wasteful”.

He eats lots of out of date food especially eggs, he just doesn't know it.

Doesn't everyone just cook the right amount of food required for their family?

However much or little I cook OH always leaves some in the bowl, never enough for a lunch, it may be a tablespoon of chilli and a dozen grains of rice. If we have a cooked breakfast we usually have a rasher of bacon, a sausage, mushrooms and an egg, he leaves the sausage for lunch but moans of I don't cook one for him to leave!
Jilly Cooper once described someone as a 'conspicuous leaver', the Scottish MIL in Polo I think, describes him to a T.
We had the last sprout of Christmas last night!

He eats lots of out of date food especially eggs, he just doesn't know it.

So did my dad abacucat. I have inherited the thriftiness from my mum. My husband does know because he's not as precious as my dad but he was when we first met. He lived with his brother and their friend. The money they would waste - not knowing how to put meals together; earning quite a lot and so not having to bother about budgeting; forgetting about food until it really did go bad in the back of the fridge; panicking about dates and having a needless clear out or buying fruit and veg on a health kick and not bothering to eat it - his brother once bought a small white cabbage thinking it was an iceberg lettuce and was going to throw it out when I went in the fridge and asked whose it was.

I rescued it and did some braised, buttered cabbage as a side to some roast meat for one meal and a bubble and squeak which none of them could believe was (a) cabbage and (b) leftovers that they actually enjoyed.

I used to cook for them sometimes because DH's brother and mate never once complained about me being round their flat all the time. It seemed churlish not to include them and they didn't intrude on too many romantic nights in

Having said all that, DH is still not as cavalier as me and my mum though.