Not too long ago, my aunt was visiting and was watching us cook in the kitchen. We did something that she found amazingly odd and said, “In all my years, I have never heard of anybody doing that!”
So what did we do?
We took the large skillet (sort of a high-end Wolfgang Puck Teflon thing, but not Teflon) that we prepared the food in, and took the leftovers, already cooled, put the lid on it and placed the entire skillet into the refrigerator. That way, when we planned to re-heat it the next day, all we had to do was take the entire covered skillet out of the fridge, put it on the stove, turn on the gas and re-heat.
My aunt says that everyone she knows would have put the leftovers in a separate tupperware thingie and then put it in a new skillet to reheat it the next day.
We have always done this with “one dish” skillet meals that we know we will be re-heating the next day. Is putting the original skillet with the food into the fridge really such an odd thing to do?
In all my years, I have never of of that. Actually, I have. I have done it on occasion but only when my wife is not around. You see, there are some good sense ideas that women see as lazy because they seem unconventional and don’t don’t as much work as the old way. I run into that a lot. Our fridge is usually too full to do that but I always thought that it was a good idea.
I’ve done it occasionally, but I don’t like to. First, because yeah, it clutters up the fridge. Second because I’m always wondering just HOW non-reactive “non-reactive” pans are. I mean, I’d never do that with tomato sauce in aluminum pan, for obvious reasons. But what about telfon and/or stainless steel? I just don’t know. I’d rather use something designed for and definitely safe for food storage, as opposed to food cookage.
Mr. Neville does it, but only when there’s a large amount of something (usually soup). Fridge space is at a premium in our household, and a plastic container generally takes up less of it per unit volume than a pan would.
I guess the logic would depend upon how much is left over. If an amount that would easily fit into a smaller size storage container, I would opt for that method, which would also allow me the option of reheating in the microwave where the skillet would not. Frig space is usually more of a priority at our house.
Another issue might be what the food item was or consisted of as some acidic foods might not be well suited for overnight storage in the skillet.
I’ve definitely heard of it, but it only works if you remember to take it back out again in a timely fashion. Otherwise you end up with no clean pots and pans to use to cook dinner, and a fridge full of stinky pots and pans that you only realize you need to soak and scrub once your ingredients are all chopped up and your guests are on their way.
I’ve never done this with skillets just because there’s not that much horizontal room in the fridge for one and its long handle.
OTOH, the 8-quart stockpot gets chucked into the fridge now and then when it’s full of soup. I’ve even taken stuff out of the larger pots (I’ve got up to 20-quart pots) and put it into the 8-quart for chilling. (Soup’s better the next day, anyway!) It’s stainless steel, so I’m not worried about any reactivity with the contents. Actually, this time of year, the stockpots get parked in the garage, which is every bit as cold as outside, but without the rain and wind.
And if, for some strange reason, you don’t get around to reheating the leftovers within a reasonable amount of time–it’s more economical to toss a plastic container without opening it than to toss a perfectly good (if fungus-infested) skillet.
(In my experience–don’t mean to denigrate your housekeeping skills!)
I’d put it in a container. Partly because there’s rarely room in our fridge for a whole skillet and also because my pot lids do not make a tight seal. I’d be concerned about the food drying out and about any strong odors/tastes permeating previously bland and odorless foods nearby.
If however, you were kind enough to have me in your home and feed me home cooked food and stored the leftovers this way I wouldn’t say a word about it.
I only do it with pots. Stock pots, usually, as I just don’t have four gallons-worth of smaller storage containers.
But I’ve been known to be fairly lazy and throw my dutch oven in the fridge when there’s a lot of food in it, and I’m going to reheat it in the thing anyway.
No frying pans or skillets though; not enough room for the handle.
I would have never done that in my entire life. I don’t think I have ever had a refrigerator that had that much extra space (we keep ours pretty well stocked - saves energy - ya know).
In my house it would be leftovers in a tupperware container, then into the microwave to reheat the next day*. Come to think of it, I don’t think I have re-heated anything on the stove
*Okay, it would go into the fridge, then two weeks later I would throw it out…
I would never do that, and I don’t have a great reason other than my mom would never do it, because her mom never did it … because way back when their pots and pans were made of Ye Olde Fashioned metals that could be leeched into your food. Then you could get some sort of Ye Olde Fashioned Metal Poisoning!
I’m pretty sure I’m safe from my current pots and pans, but it’s such an ingrained habit it would never occur to me to switch at this point. Like shaking the milk carton even though modern homogenized milk doesn’t separate (or at least, it’s not supposed to – I wouldn’t know, because I always shake my milk).
Also, I have this vague sense that a pot/pan is easier to clean if you do it right after you cook in it. There might be a few little places with cooked on food, or food that sloshed over the side, and it always seems like less of a production to wash it if you do it right at the moment as opposed to letting it sit around in a fridge for a few hours or days.
