A 'how long will this last for?' thread!

[TelephoneTree]

I am utterly hopeless and knowing how long I can keep various things. Please can we all add to this thread so that I can look at it - repeatedly?!

Chicken casserole in the fridge?
Fresh chicken in the fridge?
Beef stew in the fridge?
Cold cured meats?
Cake in an airtight container?
How many times can you reheat meat? ie cook a dish earlier in the day, reheat for later, freeze leftovers and then thaw and reheat again type thing...

Til it smells? Sorry unhelpful....we play fast and loose in this household....

Well personally I'd say cooked foods such as stew I'd leave no longer than 48 hrs.
Fresh, uncooked meat should have a use by date on and it's the one thing I'm careful about. I don't take much notice of dates for most things!
Cake I'd keep til it's stale. Don't think it really goes off.
Again cured meat will probably got a date on it unless you cured it yourself.
I'm quite careful with ham/chicken/beef. Less so with salami etc.
I would cook, reheat, freeze and then reheat as long as it was frozen on the same day.

I tend to work on three days for most things. On the fourth day I might give it a sniff and eat it but would t give it to the kids. Any longer and I bin it.

Do you find that left over roast chicken etc is fine to give to the kids on day 3? So stews would be fine on day 3 too??

I find this site useful for a rough guide, though it's aimed at US: www.stilltasty.com/searchitems/search_page

Don't eat meat so can't say for most of the list. Generally don't eat refrigerated leftovers after two days in fridge, or if they've sat around for longer than a couple of hours before refrigeration. Am also very careful with cooked rice, which can cause really evil food poisoning.

Cake depends on the type of cake: some are meant to sit around for a few days and get sticky (ginger cake for example), but if it's something like apple cake (i.e. chunks of wet fruit in it) it goes mouldy in a tin and would try to eat same day or refrigerate.

That's a great website, thanks!!

You should only freeze and defrost cooked food once I think. You can defrost raw meat/chicken, cook as stew etc, freeze and then defrost cook and eat. Then leftovers keep in the fridge for 2-3 days but can't be frozen again

I'm a sniffer too. if it looks, tastes and smells good it's good for me and mine