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.

Mydog, I do bin dairy products if they are past their use by date (never best before though), I have a fear of being ill so I won't chance it. I don't drink milk and it always smells vile to me so better safe than sorry!

Someone else mentioned Parmesan. Yes, I would probably throw it out once it was out of date. It smells off to me anyway so I wouldn't know whether it was ok or not!

limitedperiod the cabbage would still have gone in the bin even if you'd cooked it, I wouldn't even have tried it!

PinkSparklyPussyCat I understand. There's no way I'd force you to eat any of it. I like threads like this but I also wade in on the so-called fussy eater threads. Some people just don't like eating things for myriad reasons and that is perfectly okay and none of my or anyone else's business.

There's very little I don't eat but there are some things where I draw the line. Oysters - they revolt me. I wouldn't say anything if someone was eating them but I find the texture and smell disgusting. Also, oysters do not make good leftovers .

I'm going to bore you with my cabbage facts now. You can look away if you like but you might learn that you have an undiscovered superpower [grin}

Cabbage is a bit sulphurous-smelling like sprouts but it's not as bitter as sprouts or kale. It because they have the same chemical compounds.There are people called Supertasters by chemistry and biology experts and anthropologists who genuinely cannot stand bitter tastes. The theory is that it's a prehistoric leftover where humans learned not to eat poisonous foods. In most people it's died out in varying degrees but in some people the force is strong , as they say in Star Wars. You might be one of them.

I really like all types of white or green cabbage, which to my palate are mild enough to eat raw or lightly cooked in a stir fry. My favourite is the dark green savoy, which is stronger.

I like very small sprouts - not the big ones which are stinky - and I really like soft stem broccoli which is the one you see sold in packs of spears.

But I don't like red cabbage much or calabrese broccoli, which is the one that looks like a tree.

I hate kale. You either cook it lightly and it's like eating thistles or you boil it to death and the smell is revolting.

Anyway, my rescued braised cabbage was an option with the roast lamb along with peas and carrots and they tentatively tried it and liked it. They also liked the bubble and squeak but if they hadn't I wouldn't have been offended if they'd got a KFC. KFC chips are shit, though.

I can't remember way back then but I probably got a stir fry out of my future BIL's undercover cabbage too.

I love cabbage. Cabbage and pea curry is gorgeous. I use white and red cabbage in coleslaw and braised red cabbage with raisins is delicious

I eat almost everything. But I would never eat old oysters. There are some things you don't mess about with, and knowing what dates you can ignore and what food you have to be very careful with, is important.

I love oysters, but they are increasingly risky even when fresh off the boat, because of contamination of the beds. These days I only eat them at specialised places which know their sources and turn over a good volume; I wouldn’t have them as a random starter in a random restaurant. Raw shellfish is about the only food that I give more than a morment’s thought to the safety of when eating out, and don’t have at home.

I have been ill from fresh oysters straight from the boat. Much as I love oysters, I wouldn’t want to repeat the experience if I could avoid it.

There are some things I wouldn't eat from the start: raw oysters and all raw fish - I don't like the texture, but no one would ever say they were suitable left overs.

I also loathe beetroot, hummus, halva and coleslaw, but again. they're not really left overs.

Some things I really like first time round are not suitable for eating cold or reheated and need to be chucked because not even the dog will have them - like liver or heart, for instance.

Some leftovers are unhealthy - rice - bacteria grow on that so fast... yuck

I don’t really like leftovers, but I suppose I can afford to not eat them without going into poverty. When I was at uni, I would buy a tub of fresh soup and have that for each meal at home for 2 days as I was broke lol. It was filing and nice though!

I ordered a dominos last night but they screwed up the pizza (they forgot to add cheese, amongst other toppings). So I received basically an over cooked, dry plain pizza with crispy burnt sauce. It looked like leftover pizza right out of the box. Was contemplating adding cheese to it and eat it today, but instead just threw it out and had something else as the pizza was that bad. I suppose if I was back at uni I would have eaten it though.

Some leftovers are unhealthy - rice - bacteria grow on that so fast... yuck

Boulty, you are confusing things that if not stored properly - rice- pose a possible health risk, with things that are unhealthy - cigarettes and heroin. If you can't tell the difference I can't be bothered to point it out.

I batch cook every weekend, portion it out and put it into Tupperwares to take into work for lunch, so I essentially only eat leftovers!

Batch cooking is not leftovers. Leftovers are served up, messed round with, then scraped back off plates and put into tupperware

Yummy, gorgeous, scrumptious leftovers

limitedperiodonly that's really interesting. Cabbage is a bit of a joke here due to my Uncle sometimes having a whole one for dinner - he can't understand why I wouldn't! I'll eat it in coleslaw but that's it. I do think my dislike is because of the the smell and the texture as much as anything. I won't eat tomatoes for the same reason, although I will eat tomato sauce - the food of the Gods!

(I also think it could be due to my Mum boiling all vegetables to mush with half a bag of salt but that's another story!)

Pasta though - apparently that is healthier if cooled and reheated

Not necessary to push it round your plate then scrape it off for later though

Just batch cook.it

I must admit I've always reheated rice (particularly as egg fried - yum) and never come to any harm.

PinkSparklyPussyCat I like cabbage but unlike your uncle, I couldn't eat a whole one Parmesan does smell a bit sicky.

My Uncle does have some strange ways bless him!

I've eaten rice dishes that have been left uncovered on the side all night without even reheating it and been fine.

Not saying I'd recommend it but it doesn't automatically turn to poison.

rice - bacteria grow on that so fast..

It’s more complex than that. Some rice has spores on it from the outset, which is not completely destroyed by cooking. Your body can cope with that, but if it’s then kept warm or allowed to cool gently to room temperature then it can form bacteria which are nasty.

Even the NHS advice, which is pretty conservative, says that reheating rice is OK provided you take pretty minimal precautions.

www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/

I do eat leftovers for lunch etc but not always for follow up dinners for the family as I like to see what I'm in the mood to eat rather than having it all rigidly planned out. Some leftovers languish in the fridge because I forget about them - and sometimes that's because people aren't home for meals because they've gone out last minute.

The rice thing is Bacillus cereus.
It's a spore forming g bacteria. Think of it as a seed, when you add moisture and warmth it "hatches" or " germinates". The bacteria itself isn't harmful, but it is heat stable in spore form, so survives boiling, as the warm, moist, cooked rice cools, the spores " germinate" and produce a toxin, which is heat stable.
Normal reheating doesn't destroy the toxin, although it destroys the bacteria, and it's the toxin that makes you Ill.
Not all rice will have bacillus cereus spores present, but you should cool and refrigerate cooked rice asap so that any spores cannot reach toxin producing levels of bacteria.
Low temperatures retard the spores from multiplying into bacteria.

ISDads, you misunderstand what most of us mean by leftovers - not food left on someone's plate at the end of a meal, food that was cooked and never made it onto someone's plate or bowl. That's what I mean, anyway.

E.g.:
Shepherd's pie, lasagne, fish pie, any sort of pie - still in the baking dish or on baking sheet
Joint of roast meat or a roast fowl - a chunk of it or some slices still on the serving dish
Stew, chilli, soup - still at least one portion in the pot or casserole
Leftover cooked vegetables, rice, pasta, other grains, sauces

And so on. Those are leftovers to me and to most people posting on this thread. Perfectly good food which can be used for another meal.

Yes, Bittermints. Not plate scrapings but just food that was cooked in slightly too large a quantity but not served.

I am reminded of a plated-up vs helping-yourself-from-dishes thread before Christmas. If you are of a plated-up persuasion I can see how you might be put off by leftovers because you would assume they were “plate scrapings”. I can’t think of any of the leftovers we have that have ever touched someone’s plate

That's why people are a bit bleurgh about it though - leftovers as a term means different things. Doggy bags from restaurants can also come either from the main serving bowl (eg curries) or from individual plates (see some posts on here). I don't really see the logic in calling things leftovers when it is actually batch cooking eg cook double amounts of bolognese, freeze half = batch cooking, surely? Otherwise, that makes bread and cheese leftovers (put on table, cut off what you need, leave the rest for later ... ). For me, leftovers definitely has an element of being initially served up then 'left .... over'