Leftovers are wonderful. Cook once, get multiple meals. What could be better? But there’s nothing as disappointing as being excited to eat your leftovers and realizing that they’ve gone bad in the fridge. To prevent this bummer, here’s what you need to know about safely storing leftovers.
Don’t Wait
A lot of people think that you need to put your leftovers in the fridge only after they’ve cooled down, but that’s actually not true. Ideally, you’ll want to refrigerate or freeze your leftovers within two hours of cooking so they don’t have time to start growing bacteria.
How to Contain
You want to let your leftovers cool down as fast as possible in the fridge, so store them in shallow containers and split them up into multiple if you have to instead of overstuffing one. Each container should have some air left in it.
How Long
For most things, you’ll have to eat them within four days of refrigerating. If you won’t be able to get to it by then, go ahead and pop it in the freezer. Things can last in there for pretty much forever since bacteria won’t grow in frozen temperatures. It might even be helpful to label your leftovers with the date you cooked them so you don’t forget.
