It’s true, and I want to know why! Take a good pot of chili, for example – delicious, spicy and savory when you dish up the first bowl from a batch, but it’s just about always *even more scrumptious *when you heat it up again the next day.
Same thing goes for a decent pot of beans, at least in my experience – the leftovers are invariably richer and more flavorful.
Then there’s pork. At our house, the practice is to get the biggest roast we can afford, with the full knowledge and intent of having it around for the next two or three days, because while roast pork right from the pan is very fine indeed (especially with mashed taters on the side), *skillet-refried *roast pork is so tasty it could convert one to porcolatry. As a matter of fact, I’m just about to have some!
Why, then, are some foods really at their best as leftovers?
when I make my chili I try to put everything together in a crock pot the night before if not 2 nights, its really really good when you can let a pot full of ingredients sit in the fridge for 48 hours then cook it in the crock pot for another 10…yer making me hungry here
I had reheated chili tonight and I agree that it tasted a little better than yesterday.
One of my favorite foods is pizza reheated in an oven. I like a crunchy crust and crisp pepperoni though, so that may be why. I sometimes buy an extra pizza and put it straight in the fridge to reheat later. I love those brooklyn-style pizza joints that reheat the slice you pick out, especially if they serve it on a paper plate.
When food is cooked, a variety of reactions take place - protein denaturing, caramelization and Maillard reactions chief among them. All these reactions contribute to the odour/flavour of the food, by generation of volatile chemicals.
Refrigeration/storage and reheating allows time for many volatiles to evaporate out of the food, and reheating does not generally subject the food to as much heat for as long. So the mix of flavour elements is different in the reheated food - giving that warmed-over flavour (particularly with high-carbohydrate foods like pasta).
Also, cold temperatures and the setting of starches and fats changes the mouth feel as food is eaten cold, contributing to that cold pasta/cold pizza goodness.
Lasagna is better the next day, especially when microwaved. I think the flavors have mixed and the ingredients have mushed some and it tastes great. That, and it is not piping hot anymore, which allows me to taste it better.
Am I the only person who thinks coffee tastes many magnitudes better cold? I make a full pot of hazelnut coffee on the weekend, pre-sweeten it while it’s hot, and then drink it in the morning before work during the week. Tastes soooo much better than hot coffee IMO. I put a lot less sugar in it too.
