{"id":1000,"date":"2017-05-28T12:49:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T18:49:02","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-05-28T20:28:10","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T02:28:10","slug":"leftover-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/articles\/leftover-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Leftover Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the contents of your fridge look a bit like mine. \u00a0It’s Summer BBQ Season! \u00a0You have some leftover meat, some veggie or chip dip, a paper plate full of random dessert-bits and cookie crumbs, and whatever else left over from, well, who knows…\u00a0But here is both our tribute to–and a solution for–the leftovers filling the fridge. \u00a0Let’s make sure they’re getting used, but safely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Let me recommend that you take 5-10 minutes today and do a fridge check for leftover safety!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Step 1:\u00a0 Refrigerator Temperature<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

This knob occasionally gets bumped, and so do a quick visual to ensure that you have your fridge set for 40\u02daF or colder.\u00a0 You can pick up an appliance thermometer cheaply at many hardware stores, and this will give you a more accurate read than the older refrigerator\u2019s thermostat.\u00a0 If you have any questions as to the thermostat\u2019s accuracy, you will save time and money in the long-run by purchasing one of these.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"FridgeAnother important factor in helping maintain your refrigerator temperature (without requiring it to work harder) is to chill your food before putting it away.<\/strong>\u00a0 You can let it set out for a short while on a cool porch in the winter \u00a0or chill it in an ice bath until it is less than 100\u02daF.\u00a0 This will protect your dish, will be more energy efficient, and protects your food too.\u00a0 Covered food that has yet to cool will collect moisture. Just be sure you get your food to the fridge within 2 hours. \u00a0<\/strong>That 2 hours includes the time it was being served.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2:\u00a0 Check every container<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Open every container.<\/strong>\u00a0 Look at it and yes\u2014make grandma proud and even smell it.\u00a0 Do you faithfully use plastic storage containers, just place plastic wrap over the dish, or do you recycle the empty yogurt containers?\u00a0 Please make sure that whatever your method, you are using food-grade plastics<\/strong> (if you use plastics at all). I used to do the recycled container thing, but found that we forgot too many leftovers, not realizing they were in there!\u00a0 That\u2019s great for your third grader\u2019s science project, but not so good for the mashed potatoes.\u00a0 So just open each container, shelf by shelf, to verify.\u00a0 Pull out the sharpie if you need to, and know what you have.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"Fridge\"<\/span><\/p>\n

How long has that been in there?<\/strong>\u00a0 If you have to guess, it\u2019s probably longer than you think.\u00a0 If you have more food after that meal than what you think you\u2019ll eat within four days, you need to immediately freeze it (or some things, dehydrate, like leftover vegetables, for instance).<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 3: Create a menu featuring leftovers<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

This is gourmet leftover cuisine at its\u2019 finest!\u00a0 Get unconventional\u2014a breakfast burrito from the mexican\u00a0casserole.<\/a>\u00a0 Try making pancakes out of leftover oatmeal<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Possibilities abound. If you plan a menu, you avoid that one random item that nobody wants to eat by itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another adventurous option would be to find your favorite internet recipe website (such as: www.allrecipes.com<\/a> for example) and punch in the list of leftover candidates in the search bar for a potentially never-before-conceived dinner option.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 4:\u00a0 Cook and serve<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

We had the unfortunate habit in years past to just pop the whole container into the microwave<\/a> for a snack or side dish.\u00a0 A few problems (and I\u2019d prefer to avoid the microwave controversy altogether, if I may):<\/span><\/p>\n

1) Is the container you are using\u2014even if considered food safe\u2014is it microwave safe?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Are you simply heating the whole container without consuming all of it? If so, you now will have multiple re-heats for that same food item.\u00a0 This further diminishes the quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

3) The centers of microwaved foods do not reach the same temperature as the surface area, so when you feel the food as warm or hot to the touch, you\u00a0 might be surprised with a cold bite in the middle.\u00a0 To safely eat reheated foods, though, it must<\/span> reach a temperature of 165\u02da F in the center<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is my suggestion: if you\u2019ve created meal menus based on those leftovers<\/a>, it will be more convenient in most cases to use your oven or stove top, which will result in more even temperatures in the food.\u00a0 If you do choose to use the microwave, please use a thermometer in the center of the food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Leftover<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the contents of your fridge look a bit like mine. \u00a0It’s Summer BBQ Season! \u00a0You have some leftover meat, some veggie or chip dip, a paper plate full of random dessert-bits and cookie crumbs, and whatever else left over from, well, who knows…\u00a0But here is both our tribute to–and a solution for–the leftovers filling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[53,229],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Leftover-Safety.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fvks-g8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}