[canadacatman]

I need someone to help me get over "fridge food". I mean cooking in bulk for 2 days at a time. I will not eat meat past 1 day in fridge. I find it too hard cooking for 3 of us our 3 meals every night. Would be much easier if I could cook for 2 days. But for some reason I will not eat meat after in fridge in one day. I see people cook for the week on Sunday and the first think I think is meat will be bad way before that. How long do you all keep cooked meat in the fridge for.

Also how long do you all keep uncooked meat in your fridge.

Thanks

[mars735]

How about cooking some things ahead like stews or chili, etc and storing in the refrig or freezer in airtight containers? You can get a rhythm of when to defrost, or use a microwave.

Re how long you can store meat:
I'd suggest asking someone in the meat dept. where you shop, preferably a butcher. Have you googled this question? It's a great question and I imagine there is good info on the web, maybe from an official govt food safety website.

Personally, I do not keep uncooked meat longer than 24 hrs. Chain grocery stores have been known to change dates on outdated packages--I recall something on 60 Minutes a while back. I buy chicken from a source that I trust but even so, I just don't have a good feeling about it after ~24 hrs. I also make sure to use my nose. Fresh meat doesn't have much of an odor at all.

Cooked meat lasts longer, at least 2 days.

[nelie]

I don't eat meat but I definitely cook things for the week. Why would you be afraid of leftovers? You know people used to cook beans and eat them for 7 days (cold on the last day) and that was without a fridge!

[nonameslob]

Take a look at this chart: http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/storagetimes.html

It's information from the U.S. government on how long food lasts in the fridge. Raw meat is usually 1-2 days (depending on the type), and then after it is cooked it's 3-4 days. I understand your anxiety, but something tells me that there is a deeper reason for your anxiety and reading this chart won't make a difference. Did you have a bad experience in the past?

Regardless of the chart, I will keep most foods (cooked) in my fridge for up to a week. If I don't think I will finish it within a week, I try to put it in the freezer within a few days of cooking it. You may benefit from large batch cooking and then freezing, since it will keep better in the freezer. Maybe that will reduce your anxiety about leftovers while also giving you more freedom to cook ahead of time!

[Mrs Snark]

For some reason I though you were vegan (?), which would erase the problems with fearing old fridge meat (which does sound very yuck!). If you make some lovely bulk vegan casseroles and dishes you won't have to worry about this problem at all.

[IanG]

I definitely advocate the freezer. Preparing some foods ahead of time in bulk, freezing them, defrosting them the night before and reheating has really opened up new possibilities with my diet and saved so much time.

I use a sharpie to mark my frozen foods with the date so I don't eat stuff that is months old. But I have no problem with weeks old.

Anyone opening my freezer would be greeted with a wide selection of crab cakes. Yum.

[kelleyb]

Raw meat 2 days. Cooked meat about 5 days. Fish 3. Veggies closer to 7. I have never been sick from "fridge food" from my own home. I promise.

[izzyboomama]

Smell your meat. Know what bad meat smells like. No one can give a good answer to this because it depends on what your fridge is set at and how often you are opening it. If you and your family are snackers that are always in the fridge, than 24 hours may be enough time for meat to start to spoil. If you are only opening the fridge to take out what you need all at once and then put it away all at once, you can probably get away with a little longer.
In my house, cooked meat is eaten up to a week after it has been cooked. I've also cooked raw meats that sat after 5 days (we had been gone for a weekend though, so it was in a cold fridge that was never opened).
No one has ever been sick from what I have cooked.
If you can't get over fridge meats, consider once a month cooking and freeze it instead.

[faiora]

The freezer is an awesome tool, and if you have space for a deep freeze in your house, use it!

One thing you can do is freeze sauces, soups, and other liquids/purees in ice cube trays, which you can then tumble into lunch containers, where they should thaw by lunchtime.

I like to buy frozen chicken breast fillets which cook up very quickly from frozen, in a nonstick pan with no oil in the morning.

Some people prepare lunches for the whole week. I planned to, but recently I actually did that but I got sick that weekend and didn't eat any of them that week. Then when I opened one I realized that 1-2 items had gone bad in all of them (I had put in little silicone liners containing shrimp and ricotta cheese), and even though nothing was touching anything else I had to throw them all out. So now I will keep everything separate and compile lunches in the morning.

Cooked meat (except seafood) actually keeps pretty long in the fridge. I guess I should be embarrassed to say I frequently have cooked meat in the fridge for up to around two weeks before I get around to eating it. It's not that big a deal, just reheat it fully if it's been in there a while.

If you look into the research, salad is actually more likely to give you food poisoning than meat is, by quite a long shot. Actually, last I heard more than half of food related illnesses are caused by produce items, not by meat or dairy. Of particular concern are "ready to eat" salads. Lettuce can hold onto a lot of bacteria. Probably the reason more people get sick from produce is that we eat a lot of those items raw. But also, they grow right in the dirt where bacteria often lives, and it can be hard to fully wash some items off.

So if you've gotten food-sick before, it's entirely possible it wasn't from meat if you thought it was. And if you haven't gotten sick before, think of all the raw veggies you've eaten.

I eat meat as long as it doesn't smell off or questionable. If there's any question in my mind about the smell I throw it out. If it has any slimy texture on it, I throw it out. The expiry dates are guidelines; it's not like every package of meat will spoil at the same rate, so the estimates are designed to include various circumstances. And on top of that, the cooking guidelines are designed to make contaminated meat safe - and not all meat is contaminated.

I'm not saying don't follow the guidelines - by all means, do. But I don't think there's any reason to be stricter than the guidelines.

Another note: Go to a real butcher if you're really concerned about meat in particular. A good butcher shop will have fresher meat than the supermarket, kept under more sanitary conditions (not just because of sanitation practices, but also because of fewer people handling each item, more appropriate equipment, and more experience). They will also have more knowledge about the animals and where your meat is coming from, and how it has traveled through the supply chain. And they'll be able to make you feel more comfortable about the freshness of the meat, and give you very good (experienced) guidelines about how long their products will keep (raw and cooked) in your fridge.

[jeminijad]

If you have a real hangup or phobia, we can't help you here. If you literally won't eat Monday's leftovers on Tuesday then that is probably pathological.

Maybe you need to make large portions of veg sides which you aren't afraid of reheating, and just pan saute single servings of meat every night.

[clairelv]

Originally Posted by canadacatman

I need someone to help me get over "fridge food". I mean cooking in bulk for 2 days at a time. I will not eat meat past 1 day in fridge. I find it too hard cooking for 3 of us our 3 meals every night. Would be much easier if I could cook for 2 days. But for some reason I will not eat meat after in fridge in one day. I see people cook for the week on Sunday and the first think I think is meat will be bad way before that. How long do you all keep cooked meat in the fridge for.

Also how long do you all keep uncooked meat in your fridge.

Thanks

i keep cooked meat in fridge at most 2 days and nucooked meat at most 3-4 weeks . i am also not sure if it is safety or healthy .

[Palestrina]

Originally Posted by jeminijad

If you have a real hangup or phobia, we can't help you here. If you literally won't eat Monday's leftovers on Tuesday then that is probably pathological.

Maybe you need to make large portions of veg sides which you aren't afraid of reheating, and just pan saute single servings of meat every night.

Agreed, all the facts about food safety probably won't help you get over your fear of left over meat because your fear is not about facts, it's just psychological. I imagine this is something that immersion therapy will help with and I'd suggest that you see someone to help you deal with it. In my experience fear begets fear so it tends to get worse over time and you may end up developing a bunch of other fears too.

[FluffyFat]

I'm not crazy about the cook ahead plans myself. With me it's not a fear so much as just not wanting to make a huge, hot mess in the first place and the fact that leftovers just never strike me as very appetizing. I've been cooking for my family for about fifty years and never cooked more than one meal at a time.

We have simple meals: Spaghetti and tomato sauce with either a package of cooked frozen spinach or a salad. Tortillas filled with refried beans and grated cheese, along with Spanish rice and salad. Grilled salmon, steamed vegetables and baked white or sweet potatoes.

See? Nothing takes more than about fifteen minutes prep time, can be easily measured for calories, is adaptable for meat eating husband or vegetarian son.

Now that summer is here we have lots of meals with corn-on-the-cob, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, and veggie dogs. Again, no fuss, just enough for one meal and no worry about storing leftovers, because we have none!