How to heat up leftovers

Whether dining out or at home, we usually encounter leftovers, which is also a rather annoying thing. If we eat it next time, it won’t be fresh enough, and it’s a pity to throw it away. Eating leftovers for a long time will have a certain impact on our health. At the same time, leftovers will also affect the nutrition of the dishes. If eaten improperly, it may even cause poisoning. Therefore, the storage and re-cooking of leftovers requires certain methods. So how do you heat up leftovers?

Basics

1. Fish, meat, and soy products - beware of toxic microorganisms

Fish, meat and soy products only have the problem of microbial reproduction, and the problem of nitrite basically does not need to be considered.

Compared with fish, meat and soy products, soy products are more susceptible to spoilage. Their common trouble is that they can breed dangerous pathogens, such as the dreaded Clostridium botulinum. This bacterium can produce the world's most poisonous toxin, "botulinum toxin", which is 10,000 times more toxic than potassium cyanide. The toxins can be destroyed by heating them over 100 degrees for a few minutes, but if they are not heated thoroughly, they are very dangerous.

2. Vegetables - beware of nitrites

People often say that harmful substances may be produced when food is left overnight, but this actually refers to vegetables. Because vegetables contain high levels of nitrite, they may gradually turn into toxic nitrite due to bacterial activity during storage.

However, if it is only left in the refrigerator overnight, the increase in nitrite is far from enough to cause a food safety accident. But in any case, it is not recommended to leave vegetables for more than 24 hours, and you should be even more careful with cold dishes. But the truth is, if you know how to preserve food scientifically and know the cooking tips for a second meal, you can also eat leftovers safely. If you don’t want to waste leftovers, why not learn from me?

Steps/Methods

Tips for eating leftovers safely:

Once you know these basics, you can come up with strategies for preserving leftovers.

1. Pre-packaging

If you know that you cannot finish the meal, you should divide it into different plates when it comes out of the pot. One portion should be put in the refrigerator after it has cooled down a little. This way the "base number" of bacteria in the dish will be very low, and there will be no problem eating it again on the second day or even the day after that if you heat it up.

If it has been left outside for two or three hours and people have actively turned it over with chopsticks, the shelf life will be shortened. At this time, you should pay attention to spread it flat and place it at the innermost part of the bottom layer of the refrigerator, so that it can cool to the temperature of the refrigerator as quickly as possible.

2. Heating thoroughly

It is okay to have leftovers for a second meal, but make sure they are thoroughly heated. The so-called thorough heating means heating the entire dish to 100 degrees and keeping it boiling for more than 3 minutes.

Heating meat:

If the meat is large, you must cook or steam it longer, or cut it into small pieces before reheating.

Microwaving is a great way to reheat leftover food as it allows the food to be fully heated from the inside out. However, in households, it is often difficult to control the microwave heating time, and it is easy for food to splash into the inside of the microwave oven. You can consider heating the food in the microwave for a minute or two to raise the internal temperature of the food, and then reheat it in a pot, or steam it in a steamer so that it will be easier to heat through. For leftovers that you don't want to have too much soup, you can reheat them by steaming or frying.

Special reminder: It is important to note that dishes should never be heated repeatedly. If you know you won't finish the fish for your second meal, heat only half of it and put the rest back in the refrigerator. Even some cooked foods and soy products can be directly divided into small boxes and frozen in the freezer.

How to transform leftovers

People are very enthusiastic when eating new dishes, but eating the same dishes again and again is obviously unpleasant. In many families, housewives gain weight and lose their slim figure because of eating leftovers, because their husbands and children disdain the leftovers. In fact, in addition to vegetables, it is not difficult to renovate leftover fish and meat dishes. It only requires three techniques: changing the cut, adding ingredients, and changing the seasoning.

For example, if there are some large pieces of meat left over and it is too little for one dish, you can cut it into small slices and add some fragrant vegetables to make stir-fried meat and vegetables. For example, adding coriander, onion, celery and the like can make the fried meat slices fragrant and appetizing, and your family will definitely welcome it as a new dish. For example, if the meat originally had a braised flavor, you can now consider adding some curry powder and pairing it with potatoes and carrots to transform it into a curry flavor. You can also turn leftovers into soup, for example, add leftover pork ribs to vegetables and noodles to make vegetable pork rib noodle soup; add leftover tomato scrambled eggs to tomatoes, fungus and noodles to make tomato-flavored noodle dumplings soup.

In this way, leftovers will not be wasted, and they will be cooked thoroughly enough when reheated, so safety is guaranteed and the family will enjoy eating them.

In short, although having no leftovers is our ideal goal, for animal foods, especially meat, it is common to cook once and eat it for two or three meals. As long as you package and store the leftovers immediately after cooking, and then reheat and reuse them in the second meal, you can live in peace and safety with leftovers.