LEFTOVERS USUALLY MEANS some uneaten or partially eaten food left on a plate after a meal. Before refrigeration, creating dishes from leftover food scraps was a common practice in every culture. But today, rather than being considered a creative frugality, leftovers get a bad rap: from the boredom of repetition to the stigma of serving them to anyone but yourself (certainly not guests) to the bother of having to figure out how to use them to concerns about freshness. (To learn more about safety and leftovers, see below.)
In this chapter you’ll find a host of strategies for creating inventive and delicious meals from what you already have in your refrigerator.
When in doubt, follow these recommendations from the USDA.
• Leftovers should be refrigerated within 2 hours of cooking. If the temperature is 90°F or over (as at a summer picnic), the food will safely keep for only 1 hour before it has to be refrigerated.
• Cold foods like deli platters should be kept at 40°F or below.
• When refrigerating or freezing leftover hot soup, it can be brought to a cooler temperature quickly by dividing it into smaller containers.
• Leftovers can be kept safely in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days, after which the risk of food poisoning increases. If there is a good chance the leftovers will not be used in that time, it is best to freeze them immediately, where they will keep 3 to 4 months. To prevent loss of moisture/freezer burn, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then foil.
• To thaw, keep in a leak-proof plastic bag and thaw in the refrigerator or, less preferably, immersed in cold water or zap in a microwave.
• Soups and stews can be directly heated from the freezer without first thawing.