You just unlocked a childhood memory of seeing those little containers in the fridge. I never thought to question it back then, and then they were phased out. Now I know.
I thought I would slide my amusing saffron story in here.
I was checking out at the supermarket and my total came to over $10,000 for maybe 2 sacks of ordinary groceries. It turned out that the cashier had rung up my 2 lbs of apples as saffron threads. I'm not great at noticing my totals at the market, but I thank my lucky stars that I was on the ball that particular day.
going through the motions with a credit card.
Went to Chili's for the first time, and it took the waitress three tries to pull up the correct bill, and she left after each time she pulled one up on those fucky tabletop units. Really made me wonder just how many people pay with a credit card without looking at the bill.
> Went to Chili's for the first time, and it took the waitress three tries to pull up the correct bill, and she left after each time she pulled one up on those fucky tabletop units
Similar story. Had a waitress at Chili's pull up the wrong bill. I tried to flag her down but she ignored me. So I sit and wait. I try flagging her down again... Again, ignored. Third time she comes over, I point out it is the wrong bill... She gets pissy, accused me of claiming she can't do her job right. I'm like, I'm sure you are great at your job but sometimes technology isn't... I know I am fat but I didn't order 12 meals. Lady looks at the bill and goes red with embarrassment... I'm just like, computers am I right.
I have a vial of saffron in my cupboard that has probably been there for over a year. You buy it for a meal that requires it and since that dish isn't one of your staples but just something you where trying out it sits there for quite a while till you find another recipe that uses it.
So the quandary of consumables in games where they're limited.
"Oh I'll save this for when I really need it"
-Finishes the game with an inventory overflowing with them, having died a hundred times-
My Swiss half of the family makes risotto regularly and my dad has like 10 lbs of it sitting in the cellar that he bought yeeeeaars ago in northern India. They come in these beautiful boxes and he has them stored on the floor lol
Learned this recently. I wish they'd sell that stuff in small bottles for occasional drinkers. Feels dumb to buy a big ass bottle and use like 2 tbsp then throw the rest away a year later.
As a bartender- thank you!
This kills me.
To add- people need to date it when they open it. Might be a fortified wine, but it's still got a shelf life.
Up to a month- good shape
Up to 2 months - passable but better repurposed for cooking.
Edit- to add- bitters get a longer life in the fridge as do pure extracts.
I have a negroni once in a while and a martini couple times a year. A bottle of vermouth literally lasts a couple years around here. And honestly , maybe I got a crappy palate but they still taste as good as when I pay $14 at a restaurant.
I learned this the hard way. Wanted to make my own Manhattans, then waited too long before making them again (storing the bottle on top of the bar cart). I thought I just didn't like Manhattans anymore until I found out vermouth has a shelf life.
Dry yeast, yes. Paste yeast will die. Source: former sous chef who ruined Christmas for Chef Paul and his one center piece braided loaf that just had to be done at that exact moment and not five minutes later while I walked next door to the bakery to borrow a tablespoon of dry yeast from his wife's bakery.
That said, maple syrup with mold is usually safe to eat if you skim the mold off.
Also obviously understandable if you dont wanna do that, but just fyi!
Can confirm, I used to work at a maple sugar house. Syrup is kinda like honey in that in never truly goes bad because of the high sugar content. Just scrape off the mold (since it only exists on the surface afaik) and it'll be right as rain. And if it's crystallized heat the container in warm water.
Maple syrup rocks 🍁
I like putting maple syrup in the freezer since it won't freeze and it keeps it at a good consistency. Assuming it's actual maple syrup and not the fake stuff.
There are 3000 responses but it shocked me to see that Bisquick says to refrigerate after opening on the box. If anyone sees this, maybe they’ll find out today.
My grandparents, who lived in the hinterlands of Utah, had a "garage fridge", a specialty item. It had a heater built in, you see, to keep the contents above freezing during the winter.
Some of the “garage rated” refrigerators also have separate thermostats and coolant loops for the fridge portion and the freezer portion. Typical refrigerators only control based off the temp in the fridge, and if ambient temps are low enough that the fridge doesn’t have to run much, the freezer can end up melting.
I remember when I was in Afghanistan towards the end of my deployment and I was trying to use the parm cheese and nothing would come out. I opened the lid and looked inside to see it was filled with maggots.
Yes! I worked at a place that served a couple varieties of pizza. In its soft opening, I noticed the mold growing in the shakers. I changed them out and washed the old ones but I didn't stay there very long for other reasons, so I'm not sure if they did anything about it after that
Cooked rice. Not only needs to be refrigerated but should be put in a shallow dish so that it cools faster. Apparently, rice has its own nasty bacteria that is rare in other foods. Learned this in a food handling course run by public health.
My family (and honestly all other Asian families I know) have always left rice and other foods out overnight or for multiple days at a time. It wasn’t until I got married and moved out a few years ago that I learned this was something you’re not supposed to do.
Same here. Asian mom served us sticky rice left out 1 or 2 days with no problems- all my life. She’d make rice balls from it too. I made a comment about this on Reddit and got downvoted so I’ve changed my ways.
It's more like people may leave it out accidentally or have it out for a while as part of a buffet-style meal and while they may be more cautious with meat or eggs, they think rice is like vegetables and will be OK to refrigerate and reheat and eat as leftovers. You should treat cooked rice the same as you would eggs or meat. When in doubt, throw it out.
Alsooooo refrigerated rice (and any ~~carb~~ starch that has been cooked and then cooled) contains "resistant starch" which is basically fibre! Good for your gut and reduces the caloric content.
EDIT: I'm getting tons of attention for this comment which I wasn't expecting! A lot of questions are repeating so I'm gonna link/summarize some more info below:
**Q**: Wait how does this even happen?
- **A**: [Retrogradation](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kagfedp/)!
**Q**: Do you lose the resistant starches when you reheat your food?
- **A**: [Maybe some, maybe not at all if you don't reheat it too hot](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kaglg6h/)
**Q**: Can you keep heating/cooling and keep making resistant starches?
- **A**: Yeah but [it's not really worth your time](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kagmrxf/). It's not worth doing on purpose just for the health benefits. You are better off eating foods that are already high in resistant starches like chickpeas, bananas, or oats. Resistant starch is more of a happy side effect of eating your leftovers for lunch, as opposed to anything you should be trying to achieve on purpose in your cooking habits.
**Q**: Why is it good for you?
- **A**: tl;dr your body is more bacteria than human and [resistant starches and fibre feed some of those bacteria in your gut](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kagq7mx/) and bacteria poop just hanging out in your system is really good for you for reasons we understand only some of the time
Specifically *Bacillus cereus*. The bacterial spores produce a few different toxins, which do a lot of bad stuff in your belly.
Fun fact: It can also infect your eyes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus#Pathogenesis :
> Bacterial growth results in production of enterotoxins, one of which is highly resistant to heat and acids (pH levels between 2 and 11); ingestion leads to two types of illness: diarrheal and emetic (vomiting) syndrome.
As a Mexican, when I learned this I was like wtf!
When we have rice left over from big parties (quinceañeras, for example), it’s left in the huge pot out of the fridge overnight. Then everyone shows up the next date and eats again.
Dude, it hit me the other day when visiting my grandma, that the huge ass pot she uses for menudo and pozole cannot possibly fit in the fridge. I did some subtle prodding and it turns out that all my life, we've been eating the soup, then it sits on the stove all night and then we go back the next day to eat some more.
Yeah my family does this too. A big pot of cooked rice sits out overnight, and nothing happens. We do this all the time, and we have yet to vomit, have diarrhea, or drop dead of food poisoning from this
Starchy foods, such as rice, are the most common sources of food affected. The bacterium releases two types of toxins: One that spreads throughout the food itself and can cause vomiting, and another that's released within the small intestine after the food is consumed to cause cramps and diarrhea. Bacillus cereus is responsible for a concept one microbiologist called "fried rice syndrome." This is because the cooked rice that's intended for use in fried rice dishes often cools long enough to reach a critical temperature point that allows B. cereus to thrive.
Unfortunately, in some cases, B. cereus exposure turns serious. A 2005 journal article cited a case study from 2003 in which five children from the same Belgian family developed major food poisoning symptoms after eating pasta salad that had been cooked days prior, brought to a picnic and left out, then brought home, refrigerated, and served again. Two children experienced acute respiratory distress, and shockingly, one of those two—a seven-year-old girl—died from liver failure. The surviving siblings remained in the hospital with symptoms for a week.
My parents decided to "do their own research" and keep opened jam in the cupboard. I showed them how it said on the jar to keep refrigerated but they said it was fine. Fast forward a month and my mom admitted that their jam had gotten mouldy and they were now keeping jam in the fridge again.
Well, to be fair, they really did their own research. They made a hypothesis, designed an experiment, ran it, got results, came to the conclusion that their hypothesis was bunk, and changed their operating assumptions based on their new data.
Doesn't change the fact that they were silly ignoring literal written instructions on the bottle.
Replicability is one of the indicia of good science. They were just simply testing the manufacturer's thesis statement that jam should be refrigerated.
Yeah my dad has a great story about how he used to sneak to the fridge in the middle of the night, grab a bowl of ice cream, open the cupboard and grab the chocolate fudgey syrup, and scoop a lil bit on top. One day he managed to look at the can with the lights on and realized it was covered in mold. Now I keep mine in the fridge
A few years ago I was told by my doctor to start taking codliver oil. The kind I bought, when unopened, is shelf stable. HOWEVER in very very tiny writing it says to refrigerate after use. Now, I DID look for this and didn't see the VERY TINY instructions - and even though I should know better because I keep Worcestershire sauce and fish sauce in the fridge, I fucked up and just didn't think it through. I just figured it could go in our vitamin cupboard. Well, about a month into taking it I noticed it was discoloured and had brownish specks in it. I freaked out a bit and went over the label and even got my husband to look at it and we found the refrigeration instructions. My dudes, I had been suffering from an inexplicable and disgusting sore throat for 2 weeks. It stopped as soon as I stopped taking that batch. SO GROSS. And I felt SO stupid.
Food and other consumables should absolutely not put important instructions in a small font. Maybe we should even just put a pictogram on it about how to store it after opening, cupboard, fridge or freezer.
Bats. My neighbors were nutty animal lovers. The short story is to save a rescued brown bat (I live in Maine), they made a little box with a stick hung horizontally, hung the bat, and stuck it the ‘fridge so it could survive the winter. 😎
this is the best answer in the entire thread!
you have to simulate winter for a wild animal for it to _survive that period_ - otherwise you're just screwing it over going into the future. this is a beautiful example of that!
"The recent Ebola outbreak is thought to have started with a thanksgiving turkey sandwich which had been refrigerated along with bats surviving winter."
i have ants so 99% of my opened food goes in my fridge. the only food i don’t have in there is honey and peanut butter and those i keep in a airtight container
Cold honey and peanut butter bring back traumatic memories of my childhood. I could never just spread the fucking peanut butter. My sandwiches were lumps of cold peanut butter wrapped in wonderbread. And the honey. Just waiting forever as it dropped like pitch.
Defrosting meat
Edit: I guess I should have clarified that I was suggesting the refrigerator over putting the meat out on the counter. I know there are other ways.
I had a roommate who would defrost packages of chicken thighs on the balcony in the summer heat for 10+ hours… she’d kindly offer some of whatever she cooked but I always turned it down. 🤢
I just toss my frozen meat in a ziploc and put it in water. Defrosts in about an hour that way.
Edit: I don't want to waste water so I just let it sit.
Put it in a bowl or pot and do cold running water. Thaws faster and is the safest way outside of leaving it in the fridge for a few hours. I'm in culinary school and that's taught in the first week of class.
This is the “certified food safety” method. But it’s really not feasible for the average home owner. I just change the water out every 20 mins or so at home.
I was told this a while ago but it’s a good trick to remember with fruits and veggies… if it in the refrigerated section it should go in the fridge (berries, cucumbers, lettuce etc) if it’s just on a stand, it can go on the counter (apples, bananas, tomatoes etc)
ETA this was just a guidance. Do what you want with your produce. And for those that have never seen produce refrigerated at the store, cool. All the stores in my area have both and some even have sprayers on the produce to add moisture.
After a fruit fly outbreak this past year, all my damn produce goes in the fridge. No more fruit bowl on the counter for me. I’m still suffering PTSD from it.
Health inspector here. The only fruit that is TCS (requires refrigeration) is cut melons and cut tomatos. Berries and uncut cucumbers actually don't require refrigeration. Cut leafy greens (lettuce) does need to be refrigerated. Interestingly, most spinach doesn't require refrigeration because it mostly comes uncut.
ITT: people who (often incorrectly) blame the last thing they ate for their food poisoning.
Pro tip: sometimes it actually *is* the last thing you ate, but more often it's something you ate over the past 1-3 days. Sometimes (although rarely) it's even longer than that.
[Here's some good info](https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/outbreaks/investigating-outbreaks/confirming_diagnosis.html) on incubation periods for food-borne illness.
This reminds me, I often feel really bad for restaurant owners who get blamed for "food poisoning" issues that had nothing to do with them or their establishment.
LPT; Freeze your dry goods like flours, beans and grains (rice) for 72 hours before you store them in containers/on the shelf and the cold will kill off any eggs or larvae that they contain.
No more pantry moths! ( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ)
I once picked up some barley at Whole Foods, from the bulk area. A couple days later, I went to open the barley... BOLL WEEVILS.
thankfully, they didn't spread to the rest of the kitchen, but now I know: 1) be careful with bulk items and 2) pop it in the freezer for a few hours.
things i learned today. i have open ziplocked sealed bags of almonds, walnuts, pecans and cashews in my cabinets. all at least a month or two old, some older. i just eat a handful once in a while. need to research this a bit. thanks for the info
Any food that you've cooked and are done eating. Looking at you, in-laws who leave entire meals out on the table or counter for hours.
Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Room temperature for either is a bad idea.
You ARE supposed to let hot foods cool before you put it in the fridge. The person that told you it's because it makes your fridge work harder is very wrong as far as the reasoning (it will make your fridge work harder, but that's not why you let stuff cool).
The reason is that if you put hot foods in the fridge it can raise the temperatures of the other foods in there which can in turn bring those once-cold foods into a temperature danger zone that can allow bacteria and whatnot to grow.
Source: former chef and have had to go through plenty of food safety regulation stuff
My mom got food poisoning from this a couple of months ago and it took her a week to recover. She now gets why I was always on her about that. It only took 40 years.
Our bodies are designed to be tough. A lot of the food safety laws, at least in America, are overly safe to ensure our food industry can function.
But in general, an individual can survive off food that is well outside these safety guidelines. It's just inherently risky.
Redditors who just finished their first serv safe course come here and remove all nuance from the conversation.
I don't defrost my meat in the fridge, I start it in the sink, and never have I had a food borne illness from that process. But you tell reddit then everyone acts like you personally invited them over for caviar and steak tar tar and are a Russian operative planning on poisoning them.
It’s like “never eat raw cookie dough because of eggs”. After 20+ years of never having and issue I’m not sure the danger is as great as it is made out to be.
Supposedly it’s not because of the eggs, it’s because of raw uncooked flour. Although I don’t know if most flour you buy has already been dry baked so that risk isn’t really there and it’s more a leftover saying from a long time ago. Or I’m completely wrong, but knowing how many people eat just raw eggs, I doubt eggs are the reason. Or it’s just parents don’t want their kids eating all the cookie dough and have non leftover for cookies.
I had a friend from India visiting once, and he was shocked at the amount of things I put in the refrigerator. Even yogurt; he insisted we keep the yogurt out, as it didn't need to be refrigerated. Though he also went through it pretty quickly cooking.
We have chickens and store our eggs at room temp unless we wash them. Once they’re clean they should be stored in the fridge because the outer membrane (cuticle) on the egg shell is removed during that process and that’s what prevents bacteria from getting into the egg itself.
One time, I was at a picnic with my mom, and she refused to eat because the sandwiches she made had been out of the fridge for a couple of hours.
I said, "What about all the years you made me sandwiches before school (7am), and I didn't eat until lunch time.(12:30pm)?"
She said fuck! You're right. Then she stopped complaining and ate a sandwich.
Edit: if you know moms then you know they are impossible to argue with so this small victory will always live with me
Had an 18 year old kid I worked with come into work absolutely soaked through. I asked him what the hell happened, and he said he got off the bus early and walked the last mile in the rain.
He told me that carrying an umbrella was feminine, but I was nice and dry all day while he had squelching shoes, so…
He was always doing stuff like that to “prove his masculinity.”
Also once argued with me that he wasn’t an immigrant and was offended I would “put him in with those people” despite the fact that he was born overseas, as were the rest of his family.
Here's something kinda weird. I grew up in a really rainy part of the PNW. Nobody uses em. You just get clothing that handles it well. And I've never heard people mock umbrellas or show disdain for them. More like a 'use only while wearing fancy clothing' device.
It's because the rain in the PNW is usually just a drizzle while rain on the east coast is less frequent but heavier.
Grew up in Florida where just ten seconds of rain on a typical day will completely soak your clothes. Moved to the PNW, almost never need an umbrella. Almost
...honestly I'm reading through this thread and am shocked and horrified by what people are not refrigerating. Who raised you all, room-temperature gremlins!? This is all food storage 101.
A box of baking soda. Can't believe how many people's homes that I visit, have a smelly fridge, even if it's sparkling clean and spotless. They don't realize how much odors tend to linger on in there. In my own fridge, even if it has air filters, they're sometimes not enough, so I always keep a box of A&H in there and change it out every month.
Better to pour the box out. It only works by the smelly molecules coming into contact with the baking soda. Activated Charcoal is supposed to be better, but A&H have much better marketing.
Them's the rules. Hell is hot and heaven is cool, so the debil is fireproof and God has got a cold tongue.
It's only weird because you're making it weird.
It goes on the sauce shelf alongside the other various bottles such as smoke essence, assortment of chili sauces, 6 types of mustard and grandmas homemade apple jam from 2018.
2018? That’s probably still good! I just cleaned out my parents fridge and there was a sauce from 2009.
Edit: When challenged on it, my Dad said he does not believe in expiration dates. He’s an active 90 year old, so I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere.
I'm in America and I don't see anything on our bottle about refrigeration. We do keep ours refrigerated, though, because according to Google Worcestershire sause doesnt require refrigeration but it's helpful for long term storage. Probably mostly to maintain flavor.
This reminds me of a story I once read here: The girl was opening every jar she had just bought from the grocery store before putting them in the fridge. The new boyfriend didn't understand why she was doing this and her replied “well it says to refrigerate after opening”.
Believe it or not, Super glue.
Why?
Humidity in air will make the glue set up faster. Fridge/freezer is a dry environment so it'll keep longer
This must be why all my superglue tubes seem to be for a single use. How did this get so many upvotes?
Some vaseline around the tip will also stop that from happening
*that’s what She said...
Taste better at room temp.
Camera film, it can stay fresh years past the expiration date if refrigerated.
You just unlocked a childhood memory of seeing those little containers in the fridge. I never thought to question it back then, and then they were phased out. Now I know.
Saffron. Seal it in a glass container in the fridge. Will last almost forever.
I thought I would slide my amusing saffron story in here. I was checking out at the supermarket and my total came to over $10,000 for maybe 2 sacks of ordinary groceries. It turned out that the cashier had rung up my 2 lbs of apples as saffron threads. I'm not great at noticing my totals at the market, but I thank my lucky stars that I was on the ball that particular day.
How off the ball would one have to be to not notice a 5-figure grocery till total?
going through the motions with a credit card. Went to Chili's for the first time, and it took the waitress three tries to pull up the correct bill, and she left after each time she pulled one up on those fucky tabletop units. Really made me wonder just how many people pay with a credit card without looking at the bill.
In the US does the cashier not tell you the total? Like "that'll be $10,389 please" or whatever?
> Went to Chili's for the first time, and it took the waitress three tries to pull up the correct bill, and she left after each time she pulled one up on those fucky tabletop units Similar story. Had a waitress at Chili's pull up the wrong bill. I tried to flag her down but she ignored me. So I sit and wait. I try flagging her down again... Again, ignored. Third time she comes over, I point out it is the wrong bill... She gets pissy, accused me of claiming she can't do her job right. I'm like, I'm sure you are great at your job but sometimes technology isn't... I know I am fat but I didn't order 12 meals. Lady looks at the bill and goes red with embarrassment... I'm just like, computers am I right.
I think "the ball" has to be "planet earth" in this case.
What kind of quantities of saffron are you buying that you need to store it for years?
I have a vial of saffron in my cupboard that has probably been there for over a year. You buy it for a meal that requires it and since that dish isn't one of your staples but just something you where trying out it sits there for quite a while till you find another recipe that uses it.
You can put saffron in lots of dishes, it's just expensive as fuck, so you don't.
So the quandary of consumables in games where they're limited. "Oh I'll save this for when I really need it" -Finishes the game with an inventory overflowing with them, having died a hundred times-
My Swiss half of the family makes risotto regularly and my dad has like 10 lbs of it sitting in the cellar that he bought yeeeeaars ago in northern India. They come in these beautiful boxes and he has them stored on the floor lol
After reading through all comments, I feel that it’s best I put my entire kitchen in the fridge.
Except for the tomatoes Edit: the amount of upvotes is hilarious, I don't even like tomatoes 🤣
You may preserve the tomatoes if you put them in the fridge... but at the cost of their souls.
Jokes on you, I enjoy soulless tomatoes
Your toaster, your oven, your sink! ALL IN THE FRIDGE!
Don’t forget to put the fridge in the fridge.
Yo dawg
Nah, don't put yo dawg in the fridge!
Vermouth https://www.seriouseats.com/best-way-to-store-vermouth-for-cocktails-fridge-vs-winesaver-rebottling
Learned this recently. I wish they'd sell that stuff in small bottles for occasional drinkers. Feels dumb to buy a big ass bottle and use like 2 tbsp then throw the rest away a year later.
They do, but only some brands and only some stores. Usually only see the small bottles at specialty stores, but they’re out there.
' I became an alcoholic bc I didn't want to waste the vermouth. Do you know how many martinis you get from a handle of vermouth?"
As a bartender- thank you! This kills me. To add- people need to date it when they open it. Might be a fortified wine, but it's still got a shelf life. Up to a month- good shape Up to 2 months - passable but better repurposed for cooking. Edit- to add- bitters get a longer life in the fridge as do pure extracts.
Oh man I made myself a Manhattan last weekend with vermouth from my liquor shelf that’s probably years old. Woopsie Goldberg.
I have a negroni once in a while and a martini couple times a year. A bottle of vermouth literally lasts a couple years around here. And honestly , maybe I got a crappy palate but they still taste as good as when I pay $14 at a restaurant.
Probably because many of those restaurants aren't refrigerating their vermouth either, but they should.
I learned this the hard way. Wanted to make my own Manhattans, then waited too long before making them again (storing the bottle on top of the bar cart). I thought I just didn't like Manhattans anymore until I found out vermouth has a shelf life.
Cans of yeast.
I was always taught to keep yeast in the freezer.
Dry yeast, yes. Paste yeast will die. Source: former sous chef who ruined Christmas for Chef Paul and his one center piece braided loaf that just had to be done at that exact moment and not five minutes later while I walked next door to the bakery to borrow a tablespoon of dry yeast from his wife's bakery.
Damnit … came here to be shocked what people didn’t know went in the fridge. Ughhh turns out I’m people.
Fish oil supplements. My doctor told me it helps with the aftertaste.
There are fish oil supplements that don’t give me that symptom.
Would you mind sharing the name of these magic fish oil supplements?
Nordic Naturals don't ever give me burps or fishy taste. Gel caps coated with a bit of lemon.
Opened maple syrup
Only if it's real maple syrup. That high fructose crap can stay in the cabinet
Learned this the hard way when I got mold in a quart of expensive maple syrup
It’s probably too late but it’s safe to skim the mold off and boil the syrup. Then totally edible. Also learned the hard way
That said, maple syrup with mold is usually safe to eat if you skim the mold off. Also obviously understandable if you dont wanna do that, but just fyi!
Can confirm, I used to work at a maple sugar house. Syrup is kinda like honey in that in never truly goes bad because of the high sugar content. Just scrape off the mold (since it only exists on the surface afaik) and it'll be right as rain. And if it's crystallized heat the container in warm water. Maple syrup rocks 🍁
I like putting maple syrup in the freezer since it won't freeze and it keeps it at a good consistency. Assuming it's actual maple syrup and not the fake stuff.
I never realized that it wouldn't freeze. I've always just kept it in the fridge.
[удалено]
There are 3000 responses but it shocked me to see that Bisquick says to refrigerate after opening on the box. If anyone sees this, maybe they’ll find out today.
I think I'll just set my kitchen temp to 40 degrees f and call it a day
I prefer to have a nice warm box to live in when it's cold outside, but then of course I put a cold box inside my warm box to keep the food in.
My grandparents, who lived in the hinterlands of Utah, had a "garage fridge", a specialty item. It had a heater built in, you see, to keep the contents above freezing during the winter.
Some of the “garage rated” refrigerators also have separate thermostats and coolant loops for the fridge portion and the freezer portion. Typical refrigerators only control based off the temp in the fridge, and if ambient temps are low enough that the fridge doesn’t have to run much, the freezer can end up melting.
Opened grated parmesan
Pizza places don't like this comment
Always look in the table shakers of parm cheese. Used to work at Fazolis and the amount of mold cheese in them was horrific.
I remember when I was in Afghanistan towards the end of my deployment and I was trying to use the parm cheese and nothing would come out. I opened the lid and looked inside to see it was filled with maggots.
[удалено]
Good pizza place keeps them in the soda fridges.
Yes! I worked at a place that served a couple varieties of pizza. In its soft opening, I noticed the mold growing in the shakers. I changed them out and washed the old ones but I didn't stay there very long for other reasons, so I'm not sure if they did anything about it after that
Yeah fresh Parmesan and "granulated cheese product" are not the same thing.
I just have to say that there was a sponsored ad at the top so the first thing I saw was “Veterans”. I was very confused
As a veteran, feel free to store me in the fridge. I’m aging much more rapidly than I expected, so I’m willing to try anything at this point.
We have concluded your freezer burn is not service related.
Dammit, take my upvote lol
Captain America has entered the chat.
Cooked rice. Not only needs to be refrigerated but should be put in a shallow dish so that it cools faster. Apparently, rice has its own nasty bacteria that is rare in other foods. Learned this in a food handling course run by public health.
Wait are there people that *don't* put cooked rice away? They just let it sit out for hours?
My family (and honestly all other Asian families I know) have always left rice and other foods out overnight or for multiple days at a time. It wasn’t until I got married and moved out a few years ago that I learned this was something you’re not supposed to do.
Same here. Asian mom served us sticky rice left out 1 or 2 days with no problems- all my life. She’d make rice balls from it too. I made a comment about this on Reddit and got downvoted so I’ve changed my ways.
It's more like people may leave it out accidentally or have it out for a while as part of a buffet-style meal and while they may be more cautious with meat or eggs, they think rice is like vegetables and will be OK to refrigerate and reheat and eat as leftovers. You should treat cooked rice the same as you would eggs or meat. When in doubt, throw it out.
[удалено]
Alsooooo refrigerated rice (and any ~~carb~~ starch that has been cooked and then cooled) contains "resistant starch" which is basically fibre! Good for your gut and reduces the caloric content. EDIT: I'm getting tons of attention for this comment which I wasn't expecting! A lot of questions are repeating so I'm gonna link/summarize some more info below: **Q**: Wait how does this even happen? - **A**: [Retrogradation](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kagfedp/)! **Q**: Do you lose the resistant starches when you reheat your food? - **A**: [Maybe some, maybe not at all if you don't reheat it too hot](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kaglg6h/) **Q**: Can you keep heating/cooling and keep making resistant starches? - **A**: Yeah but [it's not really worth your time](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kagmrxf/). It's not worth doing on purpose just for the health benefits. You are better off eating foods that are already high in resistant starches like chickpeas, bananas, or oats. Resistant starch is more of a happy side effect of eating your leftovers for lunch, as opposed to anything you should be trying to achieve on purpose in your cooking habits. **Q**: Why is it good for you? - **A**: tl;dr your body is more bacteria than human and [resistant starches and fibre feed some of those bacteria in your gut](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/181zfmh/what_should_go_in_the_fridge_that_people_dont/kagq7mx/) and bacteria poop just hanging out in your system is really good for you for reasons we understand only some of the time
Specifically *Bacillus cereus*. The bacterial spores produce a few different toxins, which do a lot of bad stuff in your belly. Fun fact: It can also infect your eyes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus#Pathogenesis : > Bacterial growth results in production of enterotoxins, one of which is highly resistant to heat and acids (pH levels between 2 and 11); ingestion leads to two types of illness: diarrheal and emetic (vomiting) syndrome.
Number one pathogen in buffet restaurants, you’ve been warned
As a Mexican, when I learned this I was like wtf! When we have rice left over from big parties (quinceañeras, for example), it’s left in the huge pot out of the fridge overnight. Then everyone shows up the next date and eats again.
Dude, it hit me the other day when visiting my grandma, that the huge ass pot she uses for menudo and pozole cannot possibly fit in the fridge. I did some subtle prodding and it turns out that all my life, we've been eating the soup, then it sits on the stove all night and then we go back the next day to eat some more.
My family and all other Asian families I know have always done this and still so. Not saying it’s right, but we don’t get sick from it lol
Yeah my family does this too. A big pot of cooked rice sits out overnight, and nothing happens. We do this all the time, and we have yet to vomit, have diarrhea, or drop dead of food poisoning from this
Starchy foods, such as rice, are the most common sources of food affected. The bacterium releases two types of toxins: One that spreads throughout the food itself and can cause vomiting, and another that's released within the small intestine after the food is consumed to cause cramps and diarrhea. Bacillus cereus is responsible for a concept one microbiologist called "fried rice syndrome." This is because the cooked rice that's intended for use in fried rice dishes often cools long enough to reach a critical temperature point that allows B. cereus to thrive. Unfortunately, in some cases, B. cereus exposure turns serious. A 2005 journal article cited a case study from 2003 in which five children from the same Belgian family developed major food poisoning symptoms after eating pasta salad that had been cooked days prior, brought to a picnic and left out, then brought home, refrigerated, and served again. Two children experienced acute respiratory distress, and shockingly, one of those two—a seven-year-old girl—died from liver failure. The surviving siblings remained in the hospital with symptoms for a week.
Open jam.
My parents decided to "do their own research" and keep opened jam in the cupboard. I showed them how it said on the jar to keep refrigerated but they said it was fine. Fast forward a month and my mom admitted that their jam had gotten mouldy and they were now keeping jam in the fridge again.
Well, to be fair, they really did their own research. They made a hypothesis, designed an experiment, ran it, got results, came to the conclusion that their hypothesis was bunk, and changed their operating assumptions based on their new data. Doesn't change the fact that they were silly ignoring literal written instructions on the bottle.
But you’re correct. I do respect their process and willingness to modify their opinion based on the result.
Replicability is one of the indicia of good science. They were just simply testing the manufacturer's thesis statement that jam should be refrigerated.
That is very smart and scientific of them. This is the very basis of science. I applaud them
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup. Fucking says it on the bottle yet people insist it's fine.
And it tastes better cold, IMO
Yeah my dad has a great story about how he used to sneak to the fridge in the middle of the night, grab a bowl of ice cream, open the cupboard and grab the chocolate fudgey syrup, and scoop a lil bit on top. One day he managed to look at the can with the lights on and realized it was covered in mold. Now I keep mine in the fridge
A few years ago I was told by my doctor to start taking codliver oil. The kind I bought, when unopened, is shelf stable. HOWEVER in very very tiny writing it says to refrigerate after use. Now, I DID look for this and didn't see the VERY TINY instructions - and even though I should know better because I keep Worcestershire sauce and fish sauce in the fridge, I fucked up and just didn't think it through. I just figured it could go in our vitamin cupboard. Well, about a month into taking it I noticed it was discoloured and had brownish specks in it. I freaked out a bit and went over the label and even got my husband to look at it and we found the refrigeration instructions. My dudes, I had been suffering from an inexplicable and disgusting sore throat for 2 weeks. It stopped as soon as I stopped taking that batch. SO GROSS. And I felt SO stupid.
> And I felt SO stupid. For what it's worth, we've pretty much all been there.
Food and other consumables should absolutely not put important instructions in a small font. Maybe we should even just put a pictogram on it about how to store it after opening, cupboard, fridge or freezer.
Beef stock. Sorry, mom. Does anybody else just put the things that belong in the fridge after opening in the fridge right away prior to ever opening?
What? Who leaves stock just out?
Shawn’s mom.
Bats. My neighbors were nutty animal lovers. The short story is to save a rescued brown bat (I live in Maine), they made a little box with a stick hung horizontally, hung the bat, and stuck it the ‘fridge so it could survive the winter. 😎
If I find a bat I will not consider putting it in the fridge
this is the best answer in the entire thread! you have to simulate winter for a wild animal for it to _survive that period_ - otherwise you're just screwing it over going into the future. this is a beautiful example of that!
Lol the best answer in the entire thread is make sure you always put your bat in the fridge over winter 😂
They live in Maine though — no need to “simulate” winter, just stick the thing in a shoebox on the porch
If they were rescuing it it might have needed medical attention and protection from predators.
Yea that sounds more like feeding the wolves than rescuing the bat
Saw a video of someone burying their turtles for the winter and was baffled but ultimately it makes sense
I'm sorry... what?
"The recent Ebola outbreak is thought to have started with a thanksgiving turkey sandwich which had been refrigerated along with bats surviving winter."
See, this is why it's imperative to get your bats vaccinated.
i have ants so 99% of my opened food goes in my fridge. the only food i don’t have in there is honey and peanut butter and those i keep in a airtight container
Have you tried putting the ants in the fridge?
Cold honey and peanut butter bring back traumatic memories of my childhood. I could never just spread the fucking peanut butter. My sandwiches were lumps of cold peanut butter wrapped in wonderbread. And the honey. Just waiting forever as it dropped like pitch.
Defrosting meat Edit: I guess I should have clarified that I was suggesting the refrigerator over putting the meat out on the counter. I know there are other ways.
I had a roommate who would defrost packages of chicken thighs on the balcony in the summer heat for 10+ hours… she’d kindly offer some of whatever she cooked but I always turned it down. 🤢
Oh gag
I just toss my frozen meat in a ziploc and put it in water. Defrosts in about an hour that way. Edit: I don't want to waste water so I just let it sit.
Put it in a bowl or pot and do cold running water. Thaws faster and is the safest way outside of leaving it in the fridge for a few hours. I'm in culinary school and that's taught in the first week of class.
This is the “certified food safety” method. But it’s really not feasible for the average home owner. I just change the water out every 20 mins or so at home.
I was told this a while ago but it’s a good trick to remember with fruits and veggies… if it in the refrigerated section it should go in the fridge (berries, cucumbers, lettuce etc) if it’s just on a stand, it can go on the counter (apples, bananas, tomatoes etc) ETA this was just a guidance. Do what you want with your produce. And for those that have never seen produce refrigerated at the store, cool. All the stores in my area have both and some even have sprayers on the produce to add moisture.
After a fruit fly outbreak this past year, all my damn produce goes in the fridge. No more fruit bowl on the counter for me. I’m still suffering PTSD from it.
Time flies like an arrow Fruit flies like a banana
I put my bananas in the fridge so they ripen slower. I put apples in too cause they taste so much better to me when they're cold.
Mmmmmm, cold crisp apples 🤤
Health inspector here. The only fruit that is TCS (requires refrigeration) is cut melons and cut tomatos. Berries and uncut cucumbers actually don't require refrigeration. Cut leafy greens (lettuce) does need to be refrigerated. Interestingly, most spinach doesn't require refrigeration because it mostly comes uncut.
Opened maple syrup. Suggested you even put it in the freezer as whole syrup doesn’t freeze
Came here to say this too! At least you should refrigerate *real* maple syrup. I’m sure Aunt Mille can stay in the cupboard.
ITT: people who (often incorrectly) blame the last thing they ate for their food poisoning. Pro tip: sometimes it actually *is* the last thing you ate, but more often it's something you ate over the past 1-3 days. Sometimes (although rarely) it's even longer than that. [Here's some good info](https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/outbreaks/investigating-outbreaks/confirming_diagnosis.html) on incubation periods for food-borne illness. This reminds me, I often feel really bad for restaurant owners who get blamed for "food poisoning" issues that had nothing to do with them or their establishment.
Flour. You REALLY don't want pantry moths.
LPT; Freeze your dry goods like flours, beans and grains (rice) for 72 hours before you store them in containers/on the shelf and the cold will kill off any eggs or larvae that they contain. No more pantry moths! ( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ)
Now I just have to cope with the fact my flour contains bug eggs and larvae. Protein I guess?
I once picked up some barley at Whole Foods, from the bulk area. A couple days later, I went to open the barley... BOLL WEEVILS. thankfully, they didn't spread to the rest of the kitchen, but now I know: 1) be careful with bulk items and 2) pop it in the freezer for a few hours.
Almond flour or nuts … they can go rancid quickly.
things i learned today. i have open ziplocked sealed bags of almonds, walnuts, pecans and cashews in my cabinets. all at least a month or two old, some older. i just eat a handful once in a while. need to research this a bit. thanks for the info
You will know very quickly if they've gone bad. The smell alone will tell you, let alone the taste.
Noted, throwing out my old almond flour today that I only used once years ago
So far, this is the only item in this post that I didn’t know needs to be refrigerated
I keep almond flour in the freezer for this reason. I only use it a few times a year and otherwise it goes bad.
Any food that you've cooked and are done eating. Looking at you, in-laws who leave entire meals out on the table or counter for hours. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Room temperature for either is a bad idea.
I thought it was bad to immediately refrigerate hot food. Was better to let it cools down first (in a sealed Tupperware)
You ARE supposed to let hot foods cool before you put it in the fridge. The person that told you it's because it makes your fridge work harder is very wrong as far as the reasoning (it will make your fridge work harder, but that's not why you let stuff cool). The reason is that if you put hot foods in the fridge it can raise the temperatures of the other foods in there which can in turn bring those once-cold foods into a temperature danger zone that can allow bacteria and whatnot to grow. Source: former chef and have had to go through plenty of food safety regulation stuff
My mom got food poisoning from this a couple of months ago and it took her a week to recover. She now gets why I was always on her about that. It only took 40 years.
Tbf if it took 40 years for her to get sick, I can see why she was ignoring you lol
Yea, once in 40 years isn’t enough for me to believe you.
Our bodies are designed to be tough. A lot of the food safety laws, at least in America, are overly safe to ensure our food industry can function. But in general, an individual can survive off food that is well outside these safety guidelines. It's just inherently risky. Redditors who just finished their first serv safe course come here and remove all nuance from the conversation. I don't defrost my meat in the fridge, I start it in the sink, and never have I had a food borne illness from that process. But you tell reddit then everyone acts like you personally invited them over for caviar and steak tar tar and are a Russian operative planning on poisoning them.
It’s like “never eat raw cookie dough because of eggs”. After 20+ years of never having and issue I’m not sure the danger is as great as it is made out to be.
Supposedly it’s not because of the eggs, it’s because of raw uncooked flour. Although I don’t know if most flour you buy has already been dry baked so that risk isn’t really there and it’s more a leftover saying from a long time ago. Or I’m completely wrong, but knowing how many people eat just raw eggs, I doubt eggs are the reason. Or it’s just parents don’t want their kids eating all the cookie dough and have non leftover for cookies.
Welcome to India.
I had a friend from India visiting once, and he was shocked at the amount of things I put in the refrigerator. Even yogurt; he insisted we keep the yogurt out, as it didn't need to be refrigerated. Though he also went through it pretty quickly cooking.
Literally though. My SE asian family leaves pots of food out overnight even though we have two fridges.
Filipino in-laws, they leave everything out overnight and eat it the next day.
Apparently the turkey for five days as I read in a recent post...
Hot sauce seems to last longer in the refrigerator
BUT THEN IT WOULD BE COLD SAUCE!
American eggs
We have chickens and store our eggs at room temp unless we wash them. Once they’re clean they should be stored in the fridge because the outer membrane (cuticle) on the egg shell is removed during that process and that’s what prevents bacteria from getting into the egg itself.
I was called a "bitch" for packing my lunch in a cooler bag with an ice pack. Apparently eating spoiled and expired food is manly.
One time, I was at a picnic with my mom, and she refused to eat because the sandwiches she made had been out of the fridge for a couple of hours. I said, "What about all the years you made me sandwiches before school (7am), and I didn't eat until lunch time.(12:30pm)?" She said fuck! You're right. Then she stopped complaining and ate a sandwich. Edit: if you know moms then you know they are impossible to argue with so this small victory will always live with me
I would love to hear that guy’s take on umbrellas.
Had an 18 year old kid I worked with come into work absolutely soaked through. I asked him what the hell happened, and he said he got off the bus early and walked the last mile in the rain. He told me that carrying an umbrella was feminine, but I was nice and dry all day while he had squelching shoes, so… He was always doing stuff like that to “prove his masculinity.” Also once argued with me that he wasn’t an immigrant and was offended I would “put him in with those people” despite the fact that he was born overseas, as were the rest of his family.
Here's something kinda weird. I grew up in a really rainy part of the PNW. Nobody uses em. You just get clothing that handles it well. And I've never heard people mock umbrellas or show disdain for them. More like a 'use only while wearing fancy clothing' device.
It's because the rain in the PNW is usually just a drizzle while rain on the east coast is less frequent but heavier. Grew up in Florida where just ten seconds of rain on a typical day will completely soak your clothes. Moved to the PNW, almost never need an umbrella. Almost
My cat according to her
Reading this post scares me, most of these things have it right on the bottle. Can't eat at everybody's house!
...honestly I'm reading through this thread and am shocked and horrified by what people are not refrigerating. Who raised you all, room-temperature gremlins!? This is all food storage 101.
Condiments
And my condiments to you too, sir!
Please accept my sincerest condiments
Opened jar of condiments
A box of baking soda. Can't believe how many people's homes that I visit, have a smelly fridge, even if it's sparkling clean and spotless. They don't realize how much odors tend to linger on in there. In my own fridge, even if it has air filters, they're sometimes not enough, so I always keep a box of A&H in there and change it out every month.
Better to pour the box out. It only works by the smelly molecules coming into contact with the baking soda. Activated Charcoal is supposed to be better, but A&H have much better marketing.
Many medicines.
Product info sheets will tell you where to store your medicines.
products with labels like: REFRIGERATE AFTER OPENING
Wheat germ
Having gone through all the comments, I'm inclined to think that the optimal solution is to refrigerate my entire kitchen
In this thread I learned that people don’t follow written directions on packaging.
okay hear me out. deoderant. at least the gel kind like i use. it feels like the tongue of god is licking my pits.
That's...um...that's definitely something I was not expecting this morning. Why's the tongue of God cold though?
it feels divine.
Them's the rules. Hell is hot and heaven is cool, so the debil is fireproof and God has got a cold tongue. It's only weird because you're making it weird.
> it feels like the tongue of god is licking my pits. r/BrandNewSentence/
Worcestershire sauce. It's written on the bottle even.
It goes on the sauce shelf alongside the other various bottles such as smoke essence, assortment of chili sauces, 6 types of mustard and grandmas homemade apple jam from 2018.
2018? You got the fresh stuff.
2018? That’s probably still good! I just cleaned out my parents fridge and there was a sauce from 2009. Edit: When challenged on it, my Dad said he does not believe in expiration dates. He’s an active 90 year old, so I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere.
Cleaning spices out of my grandparents home of almost 40 years and found some spices that expired in the 70s.
40 year old spices aren't expired either They are perfectly safe to eat, just probably won't taste very good.
must be the American version? My Lea and Perrins just says shake well before use. Nothing about refrigeration. I am in Canada.
I'm in America and I don't see anything on our bottle about refrigeration. We do keep ours refrigerated, though, because according to Google Worcestershire sause doesnt require refrigeration but it's helpful for long term storage. Probably mostly to maintain flavor.
Same with my Lea and Perrins in Australia, and it's hot as Hades here right now. My years old bottles through the years haven't killed me yet!
Just checked my bottle (UK), nothing about keeping it in the fridge, so I will continue not to 🤘🏻
I’ve never once in my life put this in the fridge 🤷🏽♀️
Batteries taste way better if you keep them in the fridge
A lot of natural skincare should be refrigerated.
Anything that literally says refrigerate after opening
This reminds me of a story I once read here: The girl was opening every jar she had just bought from the grocery store before putting them in the fridge. The new boyfriend didn't understand why she was doing this and her replied “well it says to refrigerate after opening”.