Science and psychology of "warmed-over flavor"

[glitchy]

The only thing I’ve ever reheated that way was pulled pork for my sons graduation, that way I wasn’t overheating it and drying it out, but could keep bags ready to go. It went from there into a roaster. I don’t think I’ll be trying to reheat a steak that way now =) I might try brisket sometime though.

[fzxdoc]

Oh, indeed I have, glitchy . I sous-vided a beautiful piece of leftover tri-tip. It was the worst I have ever had. What a waste of delicious meat!

Kathryn

[Spinaker]

I like to eat left overs. I eat them all the time, being that I live alone, it is pretty much all I eat.

I make a thing called, "The magic skillet". I grab what I can from the fridge throw it in my No12 Finex, heat it up on the stove and then slide it into the oven. I let it bake and then whatever comes out, I EAT! And there is only me around to complain about it. So it works well. Most of the time it is some kind of meat, a veggie and something like a cheese or something like that.

[glitchy]

You ever try Sous Vide for reheating left over meat? Just curious if it would still have the smell/flavor issues.

[JimLinebarger]

For me I find that left over fish is difficult to eat. That is really disappointing when it is fish tacos. It's one of my favorites (fried not grilled but haven't really done any grilled) and to have it rather bland the next day really disappoints. It gets mealy. We use our Breville toaster convection oven to reheat way more that our microwave and it still comes out almost nasty. But I will eat it just because of the memory of the first meal.

[klflowers]

I am not a fan of eating leftovers the next day. In fact, unless I am making something that needs brining, I like to shop that day and cook whatever looks good in the store. When I retire, I look forward to doing that. On the other hand, stuff like chili, pork butt, brisket - things that are cooked in large quantities - get vac sealed and frozen and eaten over time.

This really pisses my wife off, cause she is a big into leftovers cause she doesn't enjoy cooking as much as I do. She would rather make a big pot of something and eat it all week.

There is one big exception - Thanksgiving. I eat leftover turkey and dressing for days after Thanksgiving.

[fzxdoc]

I always cook for leftovers. My husband is a great leftover-eater. I love them because maybe I can get a night's respite from the cooking-every-day gig.

I never ever reheat cooked meat like steaks or chicken. Soups, chili, stews, etc are fine reheated, but not a pure 'n simple cut of meat. I cannot stand the leftover smell and flavor of reheated meats. They're always eaten cold, right out of the fridge, with more salt, or horseradish or hot sauce. In fact I'll be enjoying leftover ribeye tonight--cold and tasty with some horseradish sauce on the side.

Kathryn

[Razor]

Jfrosty27 turning the microwave down is the key. For our microwave 2 minutes at 50% is a magical formula. 😂

Longer warm time at a lower power makes all the difference in the world and I’ll bet you a large majority of people don’t realize there are power settings.

[FireMan]

Yup, a less than yummy meal in the freezer is a frozen less than yummy meal! What a gas of a story you told about granny. Sounds like somethin else is goin on there, or not goin on.

[FireMan]

A trick with "the don’t just nuke it & dry it out" is put a small cup or bowl of water in the nukelator. I know there was another post where I was harping on listening to Meatheads post of an interview with Doc Blonder. Just might get ya thinkin differnt. Ernest was impressed.

[Blues1]

Everything I cook gets eaten in it's entirety. Everything. If not tomorrow or the next day, it is vac sealed and saved for a rainy day.

[IowaGirl]

I think one of the ways to manage leftovers wisely is to be careful about what gets put in the freezer and what doesn't. It's tempting to stash a less-than-yummy meal in the freezer, but that results in a freezer full of food that doesn't get eaten.

It's gotta be tasty A or A+ stuff to be worthy of freezing. Food that gets a B or C grade needs to be consumed, not frozen.

The gal who works with me says her 80something mother in law has 3 freezers in her basement full of stale buns and other dribs and drabs of food. If she can't eat that last 1/2 cup of corn, it goes in the freezer. The second floor of her house is also full of staples that are going stale. If the kids try to slow down her buying or try to clean out the freezers, she gets real resistant and anxious. This is a case of "leftovers gone wild."

[USMCCrashCrew89]

Leftovers are key in our house. With fast food places charging 8-9 bucks, I’d rather tote in my lunch pail and make my office envious of whatever was for dinner the night before or whatever we prepped for lunches on Sunday.

[jfmorris]

We eat leftovers more at my house than not - we always cook enough to eat for 2-3 days when it comes to dinners. My kids grew up eating like that too. Recently we were cooking burgers for some of the kids, and I was requested by my wife to make sure I made enough for several days. We ate smash burgers and leftover smash burgers for a couple of days, and on the 3rd day I turned the last dozen into some pretty tasty chili that we ate for 2 days.

I have a sister in law who won’t touch ANYTHING leftover - and therefore neither will her two daughters. They throw it out or send it home with someone else. There is also an anti mayonnaise fetish where she hates mayo and gags at the smell (at age 62!), and her grown daughters hate it too because of it. Wierd. Oh, and don’t get me started on their inability to eat bone-in chicken or turkey.

My opinion is that most of this hating on leftovers is entirely mental. To me, if you preserve the food and reheat it properly, and don’t just nuke it and dry it out, it can taste quite good as leftovers.

I feel the main exceptions are fish/seafood, which doesn’t keep well, or fried foods. It’s hard to reheat fried stuff and have it crispy again. I’ve got one wing recipe that reheats well - some twice fried Korean style wings.

[IowaGirl]

I hear ya, FireMan. It's hard cooking for one, specially when you're used to a spouse or family being around. In the years after I was divorced, I got into some real bad habits around eating and cooking. One was not cooking at all -- just snacking or going hungry. I broke myself of that, but then I found myself cleaning up at the same time I was eating. I made myself stop, sit down, and pay attention to my food. Music helped. Or a good book. But I got to really hate eating alone.