How long to keep cooked food?

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Y'all might want to read this...

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/meningococcal-legs-amputated-leftover-noodles-b2020157.html

 

[presta]

I don't cook/buy what I can't eat, so I don't really have leftovers. When I batch cook it goes straight in the freezer as soon as I've finished eating my dinner.

Bread will go stale after 3 or 4 days and when I was young it could have green mould on it sometimes.
In wartime it never did us any harm if we trimmed the fungus off.

There was a time when I did that, but these days the bread lives in the freezer. However......

A few years ago there was an interesting BBC program in which they showed time-lapse films of food rotting with advice and explanations from food scientists. Apparently, one of the moulds that live on bread is absolutely deadly.

 

[T4tomo]

The problem with asking living people for advice on this, is you don't get to hear the cautionary views of people who died from reheating 4 day old soup.....

most stuff a visual / sniff check will tell you enough and reheating to boiling will kill most things

like is too short to keep and reheat rice, its only about thru pence a portion anyway and some very nasty bacteria develop in cooked rice if you aren't careful

 

[Arrowfoot]

Except for curries all other cooked food max 36 hrs. If I cooked at lunch time, has to be consumed by dinner / supper the next day. Funny thing about curries is that they taste better the next day. Especially fish curry. Chinese food including noodles with the exception of fried rice, I seldom leave it overnight. Always taste better when are freshly cooked. Meat stuff tend to dry out after 24 hrs and drop in flavour. Stew with meat and vegetables are oak the next day.

Pork is one meat that does not do well overnight.

 

[Alex321]

Except for curries all other cooked food max 36 hrs. If I cooked at lunch time, has to be consumed by dinner / supper the next day. Funny thing about curries is that they taste better the next day. Especially fish curry. Chinese food including noodles with the exception of fried rice, I seldom leave it overnight. Always taste better when are freshly cooked. Meat stuff tend to dry out after 24 hrs and drop in flavour. Stew with meat and vegetables are oak the next day.

Pork is one meat that does not do well overnight.

We had roast pork for Sunday dinner.

There is still enough left for a sandwich in the fridge, which I'll probably have for lunch on Thursday.

It is by no means uncommon for us to keep the remains of the Sunday roast for 5-6 days, no matter what meat it is, and have never had an upset stomach from eating it. Main problem is if not wrapped in clingfilm, it dries out.

 

[oldwheels]

I don't cook/buy what I can't eat, so I don't really have leftovers. When I batch cook it goes straight in the freezer as soon as I've finished eating my dinner.

There was a time when I did that, but these days the bread lives in the freezer. However......

A few years ago there was an interesting BBC program in which they showed time-lapse films of food rotting with advice and explanations from food scientists. Apparently, one of the moulds that live on bread is absolutely deadly.

Where I live I have to stock up on food when I have an opportunity but I mainly get whatever can be frozen when I get home. It generally gets put into portion sizes before freezing but some things get cooked first and then frozen. I make my own bread so while I have some in the freezer I only make enough for a reasonable time scale. I do have a standby freezer in case of problems there.
Never heard about any problems with stale bread growing undesirable bacteria or fungi but it cannot be a widespread problem. In my childhood during war years there would have been a lot of deaths from this.
I have virtually no food waste as any leftovers either get frozen or recycled into soup. Even veg trimmings go into soup if not otherwise edible.

 

[oldwheels]

We keep hard cheese in the fridge until it gets too much of a chore to scrape off the colonising blue patches.
As regards seafood, bin it. Now!

When I did my own fishing for langoustine we froze them within hours of leaving the sea. Same when I dived for scallops and we also did line fishing for our own consumption. All frozen same day as caught.

 

[simongt]

Apparently, one of the moulds that live on bread is absolutely deadly.

Interesting point. If I do have bread with a bit of mould on it, I scrape it off, but as most of my bread gets toasted if I don't notice then toasted mould probably doesn't cause an issue - !