I'm scared of "fridge food"!

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canadacatman
canadacatman Posts: 224 Member
in Food and Nutrition
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 meat in the fridge for.

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

Thanks
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Replies

  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,518 Member
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    Meat, cooked then refrigerated, I eat for a good 4-5 days. It in no way goes bad overnight.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,017 Member
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    Well, more than 1 day I'm afraid.:smile:
  • canadacatman
    canadacatman Posts: 224 Member
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    4 or 5 days really wow.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Meat, cooked then refrigerated, I eat for a good 4-5 days. It in no way goes bad overnight.

    Same.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
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    You can also freeze things to keep them longer.

    Here's some info that might help you make reasoned decisions: http://www.foodsafety.gov/blog/meatinrefrig.html
  • JazzFischer1989
    JazzFischer1989 Posts: 531 Member
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    Do you cook for anyone other than yourself? If not, what's the point of cooking in bulk if you won't eat it past a day? I guess you could get used to preparing meals everyday.
  • canadacatman
    canadacatman Posts: 224 Member
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    I cook for 3 people. thx
  • alfiedn
    alfiedn Posts: 425 Member
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    I eat mostly veggies, but I will cook everything over the weekend and eat it all week. I find that food doesn't go bad quickly most if the time. If it does, you know it!

    If you are as nervous as you seem to be, you can definitely freeze a bunch of meals in individual or family portions and eat them over a very long period of time. Chili keeps great in the freezer. I've also heard you can freeze rice easily, but if haven't tried that.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    3-4 days here. But I don't understand how people can cook for a week... there's no way it would still be fresh on Friday, IMO. But you could look into making 'freezer meals' or something.
  • chadya07
    chadya07 Posts: 627 Member
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    you do realize, that meat can sit in a grocers fridge for a couple weeks before you even buy it. i bought a package of chicken the other day with a sell by date of a week from the day i bought it...

    once you cook meat it kills a lot of germs, then you just have to properly store it. wait until it cools before you store it in an air tight container.

    but if you are really worried freeze your meals, deforst and reheat.

    or cook all but the meat in advance.

    beef tastes best aged, and you will find at the best steakhouses aged beef is the best and most expensive.

    you may be afraid of it, but its unfounded fear if you properly store your food.

    i do tend to freeze more than refridgerate advance meals though, because i never know when they will get used.
  • IrisFlute
    IrisFlute Posts: 88 Member
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    I lived with zero refrigeration for 8 years, and even now I live far enough from stores that I can only shop every couple weeks. Food doesn't go bad nearly as fast as you're led to believe.

    Uncooked meat can be frozen, of course. Depending on its "sell by" date, it can also be kept for a time in the fridge: raw fish needs to be cooked in about 24 hours, raw chicken in about three days, and raw beef in about five days. Raw eggs don't generally need refrigeration at all unless they're really old when you get them or the weather is very hot. The mainstream advice would have you believe that eggs become poison bombs within hours, but I've been a poultry farmer and can attest to the fact that eggs don't actually spoil very quickly. In much of Europe, fresh eggs aren't refrigerated at all.

    Cooked meat lasts for a long time -- easily 5 days, refrigerated -- but starts to lose flavor and be kind of droopy toward the end of that time. It can also be kept by putting it in a broth and bringing it to a hard boil for 10 minutes a day. That's how you keep it when you don't have refrigeration at all.

    Food paranoia has reached extreme proportions. I raised and fed a family using these very minimum precautions -- basically just avoiding foods that looked or smelled nasty. None of us ever got food poisoning.
  • ekat120
    ekat120 Posts: 407 Member
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    Meat, cooked then refrigerated, I eat for a good 4-5 days. It in no way goes bad overnight.

    Same.

    Me, too. I've found 5 days to be a safe upper ceiling. Uncooked, I go by the package date.

    I also think that people are pretty good at telling something's bad when they pay attention. If we couldn't, we probably wouldn't have made it very far as a species. I usually trust my nose. Does it smell bad or "off"?
  • SomeNights246
    SomeNights246 Posts: 807 Member
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    UNcooked meat, not very long in the fridge. A day or two until I cook it.
    Cooked meat, yeah 4-5 days to a week, as long as it's in a sealed container.
    Honestly I think a lot of people are pretty paranoid for no reason about food going bad.

    Me, too.

    I don't think about it much. If it looks or smells bad, I won't touch it.

    I have been known to drink milk up to a week past the date on the jug.. because it smelled and looked perfectly fine.

    I refrigerate cooked meat for about 4-5 days before I toss it. As long as it's sealed.

    Uncooked, not as long. But that's why I keep it frozen.
  • SomeNights246
    SomeNights246 Posts: 807 Member
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    I lived with zero refrigeration for 8 years, and even now I live far enough from stores that I can only shop every couple weeks. Food doesn't go bad nearly as fast as you're led to believe.

    Uncooked meat can be frozen, of course. Depending on its "sell by" date, it can also be kept for a time in the fridge: raw fish needs to be cooked in about 24 hours, raw chicken in about three days, and raw beef in about five days. Raw eggs don't generally need refrigeration at all unless they're really old when you get them or the weather is very hot. The mainstream advice would have you believe that eggs become poison bombs within hours, but I've been a poultry farmer and can attest to the fact that eggs don't actually spoil very quickly. In much of Europe, fresh eggs aren't refrigerated at all.

    Cooked meat lasts for a long time -- easily 5 days, refrigerated -- but starts to lose flavor and be kind of droopy toward the end of that time. It can also be kept by putting it in a broth and bringing it to a hard boil for 10 minutes a day. That's how you keep it when you don't have refrigeration at all.

    Food paranoia has reached extreme proportions. I raised and fed a family using these very minimum precautions -- basically just avoiding foods that looked or smelled nasty. None of us ever got food poisoning.

    My sister recently started keeping chickens. She did a lot of research, too. She told me about the egg thing. I had always known they could be kept out of the fridge for some time. I never realized how long. Pretty interesting.

    Most of the worry about things being ticking time bombs.. is just paranoia, I think.
  • Velum_cado
    Velum_cado Posts: 1,608 Member
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    Raw eggs don't generally need refrigeration at all unless they're really old when you get them or the weather is very hot. The mainstream advice would have you believe that eggs become poison bombs within hours, but I've been a poultry farmer and can attest to the fact that eggs don't actually spoil very quickly. In much of Europe, fresh eggs aren't refrigerated at all.


    Fresh eggs in Europe aren't produced and treated the same way American eggs are. If your eggs are chilled when you buy them, you need to keep them in the fridge.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/should-you-refrigerate-eggs-2014-7

    "After an egg is refrigerated egg, it must be kept at that temperature. "A cold egg left out at room temperature can sweat, facilitating the growth of bacteria that could contaminate the egg," according to the United Egg Producers association. "Refrigerated eggs should not be left out more than two hours."
  • 2essie
    2essie Posts: 2,867 Member
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    Just use your nose and your eyes.
  • Hammybone
    Hammybone Posts: 36 Member
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    Just use your nose and your eyes.

    I eat things until they look/smell spoiled.
    Which depends on the item.

    I can't recall ever having food poisoning.
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
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    This is quite good if you eat rice. 2 hours at room temperature before it's not safe!

    http://www.stilltasty.com/articles/view/71
  • JenniDaisy
    JenniDaisy Posts: 526 Member
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    I've been ill from eating stuff twice in my entire life, both times they items smelled/tasted funny and I ate them anyway.

    If it helps, ACTUAL food poisoning cases are rare and mostly caused by dirty vegetables, not meat or eggs.

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