Why does leftover couscous smell so bad?

Factual Questions
1

Admittedly, I’m not much of a housekeeper or a cook.

When making dinner, I usually have rice, noodles, or couscous. And there’s usually some left over, which I leave in the pot until I get aorund to cleaning it. A day or two later, I never notice anything wrong with the rice or noodles. I mean, you wouldn’t want to eat the stuff, but it doesn’t smell like anything in particular.

Couscous, on the other hand, smells downright toxic even 12 hours later. It gets full-on nasty, it has an almost chemical reek. Obviously some sort of fungus, mold or bacteria is proliferating in my leftover couscous.

What is it? Is it dangerous?

Am I eating its non-stank form when I eat the freshly made couscous? How could it survive the boiling water?

(Note: I always use the same pot for this sort of thing, which is old with scratches, so to be thorough, it might be contaminating my couscous with aluminum or iron or something else.)

2

Is the pot in the refrigerator for those twelve hours, or is it out at room temperature that whole time?

And do you add oil or butter to the water when you cook the couscous? How about the rice and/or noodles?

3

Room temperature. I notice the smell is far stronger if I leave the lid on the pot, so whatever it is must like the humidity trapped inside.

I use a tiny amount of oil in the preparation of all three.

4

Leaving the lid on would also hold in any residual warmth, which would tend to accelerate microbial growth.

I got nothing though on why it would happen with couscous and not the other two…I have never noticed it myself, and since all three consist basically of starch I don’t know why something would grow only in the couscous.

5

I hate to tell you how to live your life but dude you have to do a bit more cleaning seriously.

It takes all of about 10 minutes maximum to clean up after cooking and the health benefits are great. I have a real issue with cockroaches and other creepy crawly’s invaidng my kitchen (isue in the sense i dont like it) so i clean up almost as soon as i finish eating, I also clean as i cook.

Off topic but there were too young guys living in a unit in the same block of flats as me who lived in that sort of manor, they were booted out and one of them ended up in hospital due to their sub standard hygiene. I went into their flat to fix their computer and came out almost throwing up. Food everywhere sauspans with 3 or so days of left overs. Absouletly vile. Please for your own sake just clean it.
As for cous cous, i cant suggest why it would smell more, is it a particular kind of cous cous, flavoured etc?

6

The question about the type of cous cous is pertinent. If it is like most cc, however, it is made from semolina wheat; it is a type of pasta.

My guess about the increased stink is that, compared to other pastas or rice, cc has a greater surface area (smaller grains), thus giving the germs more places to invade. A WAG is that the proportion of water in it also favors germ growth.

7

I’ve noticed the couscous stench as well - if I make it, I have to clean it up RIGHT AWAY, I can’t leave it for the next morning even if I’m having a very late dinner. Yuck.