I don’t do “batch cooking” per se, but often cook something larger on saturday/sunday so I have leftover, either for Monday/thuesday lunch or for when coming back from sport, keeping food 2-3 in the fridge doesn’t worry me (Obviously, I am not gonna keep a tartare so long in the frige, and don’t even cook meat). Things start to be more worrysome when I still have leftover on Wednesday/Thursday. yesterday night I threw away some beans from Saturday I started to have a doubt.
So my question is basically
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How to optimize food preservation in the fridge (I have a small fridge with a very small freezer compartment, in winter when the temperature doesn’t get above 5 degree I can use my balcony for extra space, but it’s already over)
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Is there a guideline on how long which kind of food can last in a regular fridge ?
Prepared food typically lasts seven days before it can start to go bad in the fridge.
I usually just cook a batch of something on my days off and it lasts me all week till I can cook again. As long as you cool it properly and stick it in the fridge immediately, youre pretty much set.
Define cool properly, please.
Like don’t leave it out at room temperature for hours - bacteria die above 60C and go dormant below 4C, so you need to minimise the amount of time the food spends in the “danger zone”
As the others have said, dont put hot food in the fridge. If you got something big and heavy, like a casserole dish, put the container in an ice bath to speed the cooling. If its a liquid, like a pot of soup, spreading it thinly cools it quicker and more evenly. Like pouring it out into a casserole dish or high baking pan and putting the dish in an ice bath. The even cooling is the important part, as what happens if you put something dense like these kinds of foods in the fridge, the outside will cool while the inside reaches temperatures between 40F-140F. That temperature range also known as the “danger zone”, where bacteria can thrive and multiply very quickly.
Alternately, you don’t want to leave stuff out of refrigeration for too long. Cooked rice is a big one, as it can very quickly go bad and get you sick if left out for longer than a couple hours.
The thing to bear in mind is that the bacteria in the food isnt the issue. You can kill bacteria very easily just by cooking/heating food. The problem comes from the waste the bacteria makes, which is what gives you food poisoning. The waste cant be cooked off. When food is allowed to linger in the “danger zone”, the bacteria can easily multiply exponentially, producing more waste. So long as youre careful when cooking and chilling food, it can last a good week in the fridge.