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dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.


So. There was a lot of words about how tomatoes should never go in the fridge. And apparently not bananas either. The bananas thing I knew, because I did it exactly once, and saw them turn from golden yellow skin to pasty and black in one freaking day. Vowed not to make that mistake again.

But there are other things that are a little less obvious. Butter goes in the fridge, right? Eggs too. But when I was in Ecuador, nobody put their eggs in the fridge. They left them on the counter, and used them up. Peanut butter goes in the pantry. I've seen folk put extra virgin olive oil in the fridge. It ends up a clump which you have to wait to melt. Hrm. I put my onions and potatoes in the fridge, because I'm in loving Florida, where there are roaches no matter how many times you seal up the cracks and spray the little fucks. Same goes for bread, which will mold as you look at it on your counter. If you don't put it in the fridge, the humidity will create a moldy conga line of grossness within one day.

I was told by a friend to keep soy sauce in the fridge, and I've done so. I don't know why I do so, but I do. The thing is so loaded with salt that I doubt that anything would happen if it were in the pantry. Ketchup always goes in the fridge after opening. But again, ketchup is loaded with sugar, vinegar, and salt, so it's not going to go bad on me, is it? Same question applies to American pickles. I have to keep them in the fridge if I want to eat them more than a day after buying them. Is it because Indian pickles have exponentially more salt?

What do you ALWAYS put in the fridge, what do you NEVER put in the fridge, and what's negotiable, depending on the situation?

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GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

dino. posted:



So. There was a lot of words about how tomatoes should never go in the fridge. And apparently not bananas either. The bananas thing I knew, because I did it exactly once, and saw them turn from golden yellow skin to pasty and black in one freaking day. Vowed not to make that mistake again.

But there are other things that are a little less obvious. Butter goes in the fridge, right? Eggs too. But when I was in Ecuador, nobody put their eggs in the fridge. They left them on the counter, and used them up. Peanut butter goes in the pantry. I've seen folk put extra virgin olive oil in the fridge. It ends up a clump which you have to wait to melt. Hrm. I put my onions and potatoes in the fridge, because I'm in loving Florida, where there are roaches no matter how many times you seal up the cracks and spray the little fucks. Same goes for bread, which will mold as you look at it on your counter. If you don't put it in the fridge, the humidity will create a moldy conga line of grossness within one day.

I was told by a friend to keep soy sauce in the fridge, and I've done so. I don't know why I do so, but I do. The thing is so loaded with salt that I doubt that anything would happen if it were in the pantry. Ketchup always goes in the fridge after opening. But again, ketchup is loaded with sugar, vinegar, and salt, so it's not going to go bad on me, is it? Same question applies to American pickles. I have to keep them in the fridge if I want to eat them more than a day after buying them. Is it because Indian pickles have exponentially more salt?

What do you ALWAYS put in the fridge, what do you NEVER put in the fridge, and what's negotiable, depending on the situation?

butter goes in fridge for long time storage. For daily use, counter top butter supremacy. Spreads better, tastes better.

only store bought eggs need to be fridged. Fresh eggs are coated in bacteria that protect them from spoiling. These are washed off and irradiated to kill off at the distributor before they are shipped to stores and leave these eggs susceptible to other pathogens.

Nut butters have saturated fats in them. in the fridge they get hard and gross.

Onions and potatoes never fridge.

Bread is best at room temperature, unwrapped (which is how it is stored in bakeries, mind you).

A lot of these come from that American notion to buy groceries for like, 2 weeks worth of food, and hope that none of it goes bad. The compromise is that you end up consuming a lot of this food way past its peak.

Edit: do you not have AC in florida. AC dries the hell out of the air.

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

GrAviTy84 posted:

butter goes in fridge for long time storage. For daily use, counter top butter supremacy. Spreads better, tastes better.
You can store butter at room temperature for longer than it'll take to consume it if you use a butter bell.

Croatoan
Jun 24, 2005

I am inevitable.
ROBBLE GROBBLE
Butter - Leave a stick out but the rest of the box in the fridge. Reason? Room temp butter spreads better
Eggs - If you get eggs from someone who has a roost then you can keep them out for weeks. There's a membrane on the egg that keeps them fresh. Store bought eggs in the US have the membrane washed off.
Rotted sauces like Worcestershire, soy sauce and what have you can stay in the cabinet for ages. Fish sauce and Oyster sauce? Depends on the manufacturer. Check the bottle. Some are rotted and some are force-fermented and can get all nastified.
Olive oil in the fridge? Might as well put vinegar in the fridge. That's weird.
I put most all of my condiments in the fridge. While they don't all need it, they keep longer and it doesn't affect the flavor.
I do put peanut butter in the fridge because my kids go in phases. Sometimes they love PB&Js sometimes they don't want them at all. Keeping it in the fridge keeps it from going rancid in the month that they may not want any. If they are in the mood, I move it to the cabinet.
Onions go in the fridge just because well, why not.
Potatoes don't because why in the gently caress would I want a 10lb sack taking up half a shelf.
One thing I will do that may be weird is that I keep my fermented foods like my pickle medley and sauerkraut in the fridge because well, they're home grown and I want to halt the fermentation and think scraping mother off pickles is one of the grossest things in the world.
As I mentioned in the chat thread, fruits go in multi-level hanging fruit baskets. You don't want everything in one basket because all of your fruit over-ripen super fast but if they're left with some breathing room it's all good. Bananas on bottom along with maybe apples, then you have your tomatoes on the second level and then you have basically nothing on the top because I never could figure out what to put on a 3" circle. Fruits give off a gas which sets off other fruits to ripen super fast so the air helps prevent that.

Mr. Wiggles
Dec 1, 2003

We are all drinking from the highball glass of ideology.
Onions, garlic, shallots, etc. all go in a bowl on the kitchen counter. They store fine.
Potatoes go in a little wicker basket thing I have. Again, not in the fridge.
All fruits store on the dining room table in a fancy silver fruit bowl.
Tomatoes no never what is wrong with you.


...

Really, I think we can better define this list by deciding what goes in the fridge:

Salad greens and such I pick and use the same day but if for some reason I needed to store them I would do that in the fridge.
Butter, cheese, milk, and other dairy products all go in the fridge of course.
Kimchee and other home fermented things go in there too so as to stop the home fermentation process.
Beer certainly goes in the fridge to get nice and cold.
Other drinks that I would like to have cold.
Meats.
Bread because if you keep bread on the counter here it turns into a dessicated crouton husk in roughly 12 hours due to our utter lack of humidity.
That's it, pretty much.

electricmonk500
May 6, 2007
The info about eggs so far is correct, let me just add that if you want to keep your washed eggs on the counter for some reason you can coat them with mineral oil, which mimics the protective effects of the natural egg coating (known as the "bloom").

As for ketchup, I've tried both ways and it should be kept in the fridge. After a month or so of keeping an opened (as in seal broken) ketchup bottle at room temp it seems to go a bit rancid, probably it loses some acidity and/or becomes oxidized. In the fridge this never seems to happen.

EVG
Dec 17, 2005

If I Saw It, Here's How It Happened.
Onions and Taters go in the pantry (repurposed glass-door bookcase) in separate paper grocery bags.

Bananas go on the counter in a bowl, along with any citrus, fuzzy stone fruits and mangoes when I have them.

Tomatoes never go in the fridge.

All other eatin' fruits go in the fridge, because they are delicious cold.

Milk goes in the fridge.

Butter goes in the fridge because I only use it for baking and almost never have buttered toast or bread at home.

Vinegar, Ketchup, and sauces all go in the fridge because I have a galley kitchen and storage space is at a premium, and they
are much easier to get to in the door of the fridge than buried in the cabinet stacked 4-deep with all other staples

Bread goes in the fridge because otherwise the little cat rips open the plastic, takes a bite out of it, and then drops the bite next to the bread as if to say "gently caress you". That goes for buns, rolls, and all bread products.

Bob Morales
Aug 18, 2006


Just wear the fucking mask, Bob

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Mr. Wiggles posted:

Bread because if you keep bread on the counter here it turns into a dessicated crouton husk in roughly 12 hours due to our utter lack of humidity.

Refrigerated bread collects moisture in random spots. Ew. And don't freeze it, either.

Rule of thumb is if it's not in a can or a box, and you're not going to eat it in 3 days, don't buy it.

dino.
Mar 28, 2010

Yip Yip, bitch.
I have a/c but it never gets set at a reasonably cold level to keep the house cool enough to live in. The bedrooms are nice and cold. But it's not just for me, gravi, it's for anyone reading the thread.

I've kept the expensive organic freerange apple cider viengar in the fridge, because the bottle said so. The fakey stuff that's pretty much tinted distilled white goes on the shelf in the pantry. I can't quite afford the expensive peanut butter, so I buy the cheap poo poo with the least sugar possible. I've kept my jar in the pantry since I moved here back in January, and it's been fine so far. It's one of those giant jars of peanut butter. Not sure how it'd work for other nut butters.

Very expensive spices (saffron, cardamom pods) go in the freezer, because when they come on sale (in the rare occasions that they do), you buy them, and store them for later use.

OtherworldlyInvader
Feb 10, 2005

The X-COM project did not deliver the universe's ultimate cup of coffee. You have failed to save the Earth.


Ketchup doesn't belong in the refrigerator, it belongs in the garbage. :colbert:

As far as supermarket pickles go, the refrigerated ones taste are way better than the shelf-stable ones. I don't think they go through the heating process most canned/jarred goods do, and taste much better as a result, but need to stay cold.

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

Croatoan posted:

Eggs - If you get eggs from someone who has a roost then you can keep them out for weeks. There's a membrane on the egg that keeps them fresh. Store bought eggs in the US have the membrane washed off.
Eggs with the cuticle still on them will keep for literally months. A washed egg will still easily keep for around a month even unrefrigerated.

That being said, there's really no way of knowing how old an individual egg is by the time you get it from the store. Typically battery farmed eggs will already be several weeks old by the time of purchase, so I wouldn't expect to store them at room temperature for more than a week or so. Refrigerated for a month, month and a half; the general rule of thumb is that for eggs a day on the counter is about the same as a week in the fridge.

Croatoan posted:

Onions go in the fridge just because well, why not.
What.

Like if you've just diced up a shitload of onions and you've done more than you need you can throw some cut onion in a baggie or delitainer or whatever the gently caress and it'll keep overnight until you need more. But this business of storing things like garlic and onions in the fridge is the goddamnedest thing. Food plants that are cured after harvest---like alliums---want it cool and dry. You can keep them literally months at room temperature---that's how you keep allium starts for the next growing season, for example. By putting them in the fridge I'd guess that you're reducing their shelf life by inviting condensation.

Croatoan
Jun 24, 2005

I am inevitable.
ROBBLE GROBBLE

SubG posted:

By putting them in the fridge I'd guess that you're reducing their shelf life by inviting condensation.

But I use a bunch of onions and they get used in a week or two. No need.

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

Croatoan posted:

But I use a bunch of onions and they get used in a week or two. No need.

why even put them in there at all then? lol

esperantinc
May 5, 2003

JERRY! HELLO!

I put ketchup in the cupboard because cold ketchup is gross to me. Everyone I tell this to thinks I'm a weirdo.

The Midniter
Jul 9, 2001

Bob Morales posted:

Refrigerated bread collects moisture in random spots. Ew. And don't freeze it, either.

Rule of thumb is if it's not in a can or a box, and you're not going to eat it in 3 days, don't buy it.

Check this out. Absolutely, do not refrigerate bread, but freezing it and reheating it in the oven gives you the best results after fresh-baked.


I don't use a lot of butter, really just for bread, so I keep a (salted) stick in a covered butter dish on my counter and the rest in the freezer. I'd be wary of storing unsalted butter at room temp.

I don't use ketchup like ever but I grew up with it refrigerated and if I'm dipping french fries into it, I want it to be cold.

Eggs go in the fridge because why the gently caress not, I don't have any other place to store them.

Peanut butter goes in the pantry. Cold peanut butter is weird and gross.

Whole onions are stores in a cool dry cabinet. Peeled and sliced/chopped onions go in tupperware in the fridge. Maybe I don't need to do this but I like eating them cold.

Same with fruits aside from bananas, I prefer a cold pear or cold grapes. I do like peaches at room temperature. The juice dripping down your chin just isn't the same if it's cold.

Fish and soy sauce hang out in the pantry, along my various oils that aren't flaxseed (which I bought solely to season my cast iron and haven't figured out what else to do with it, but I hear it goes rancid rather easily if not refrigerated).

If you put tomatoes in your fridge, gently caress you.

Steve Yun
Aug 7, 2003
I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.
Soiled Meat

The Midniter posted:

Check this out. Absolutely, do not refrigerate bread, but freezing it and reheating it in the oven gives you the best results after fresh-baked.

If you're just going to toast every single slice that comes out of your loaf, I guess it doesn't really matter where you store it?

Mr. Wiggles
Dec 1, 2003

We are all drinking from the highball glass of ideology.

Bob Morales posted:

Refrigerated bread collects moisture in random spots. Ew. And don't freeze it, either.

Not here. It keeps perfectly dry on the crust and moist on the inside, even after slicing. But out on the counter, nope, it turns into a cracker overnight.

indoflaven
Dec 10, 2009
Scallions I put in the fridge. Once I clean them I stick the root end in a drinking glass filled with some water and put them back in the fridge.

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

The Midniter posted:

I don't use a lot of butter, really just for bread, so I keep a (salted) stick in a covered butter dish on my counter and the rest in the freezer. I'd be wary of storing unsalted butter at room temp.
Butter. Bell. Really. Butter goes bad predominately by having poo poo grow on it, so if you prevent that from happening then it'll keep fine at room temperature. Salted or unsalted.

Steve Yun posted:

If you're just going to toast every single slice that comes out of your loaf, I guess it doesn't really matter where you store it?
Lightly toasting bread that isn't just-out-of-the-oven fresh enhances the freshness even if you don't toast it enough for it to brown or get crisp; bread staling is primarily due to crystalisation of proteins in the bread which binds up a lot of the moisture in the crumb leading to a drier mouthfeel, and gentle reheating will mostly reverse this process. The mechanics of this staling process is one of the reasons why you should avoid storing bread in the refrigerator as well---the crystalisation process occurs across a wide range of temperatures, but it increases as the temperature gets lower. It also stops pretty close to the freezing point of water, so you can generally store bread in the freezer and thaw in a warm oven without substantial staling.

esperantinc
May 5, 2003

JERRY! HELLO!

SubG posted:

Butter. Bell. Really. Butter goes bad predominately by having poo poo grow on it, so if you prevent that from happening then it'll keep fine at room temperature. Salted or unsalted.

What's the difference between a bell and a covered dish?

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

esperantinc posted:

What's the difference between a bell and a covered dish?
The butter in a butter bell is exposed to essentially no air.

Steve Yun
Aug 7, 2003
I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.
Soiled Meat

esperantinc posted:

What's the difference between a bell and a covered dish?

You have water in a butter bell, which displaces the air.

Appl
Feb 4, 2002

where da white womens at?

Steve Yun posted:

You have water in a butter bell, which displaces the air.



This just blew my mind

Hopper
Dec 28, 2004

BOOING! BOOING!
Grimey Drawer
Potatoes in the fridge may help against them sprouting but the moisture is bad.

Also it is advisable to keep your bananas away from other fruit, as bananas are packaged with ripening accelerating gases which then are exsuded by the bananas and speed up the process for some other fruit if they are nearby.
I can't remember which ones specifically right now... I think apples are one

dino. posted:

Very expensive spices (saffron, cardamom pods) go in the freezer, because when they come on sale (in the rare occasions that they do), you buy them, and store them for later use.

I put saffron (proper not powdered) in the fridge, it stays good for ages if properly sealed.
Cardamom pods, cumin, gara masala etc. I all store in repurposed smoothie bottles in a kitchen cupboard. As long as they are sealed airtight they last a long time.

you ate my cat
Jul 1, 2007

Steve Yun posted:

You have water in a butter bell, which displaces the air.



I've always wondered about butter bells. Doesn't stuff grow in the water? Also, aren't you just trapping a bubble of air in there once you use some of the butter? Doesn't it get all wet?

Am I overthinking this?

Casu Marzu
Oct 20, 2008

you ate my cat posted:

I've always wondered about butter bells. Doesn't stuff grow in the water? Also, aren't you just trapping a bubble of air in there once you use some of the butter? Doesn't it get all wet?

Am I overthinking this?

You are over thinking this. Also, change the water.

esperantinc
May 5, 2003

JERRY! HELLO!

Steve Yun posted:

You have water in a butter bell, which displaces the air.



WOAH. Gonna buy one of these. Does this solve the issue with butter on a dish getting too melty in warmer months?

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


dino. posted:

What do you ALWAYS put in the fridge, what do you NEVER put in the fridge, and what's negotiable, depending on the situation?
How is this even a question? Things that will go bad if left out of the fridge should go in the fridge. Things that don't need to be stored in a cold environment don't need to go in the fridge. :shrug:

Going bad depends on the thing. I put tomatoes in the fridge because they go mouldy if I leave them out. I don't want them to get mouldy. I put butter in the fridge because it will melt if I leave it out.

I put bread in the fridge too, because after the first day I'm going to toast it anyway, and if I leave it out it tends to go mouldy before I finish the loaf. I don't understand why anyone eats day-old bread untoasted, regardless of how it's stored.

Croatoan posted:

I do put peanut butter in the fridge because my kids go in phases. Sometimes they love PB&Js sometimes they don't want them at all. Keeping it in the fridge keeps it from going rancid in the month that they may not want any. If they are in the mood, I move it to the cabinet.
What is in the peanut butter you're buying? I've never known anyone to keep peanut butter in the fridge, it lasts perfectly fine in a cupboard.

Bob Morales posted:

Rule of thumb is if it's not in a can or a box, and you're not going to eat it in 3 days, don't buy it.
That's utterly ridiculous.

Che Delilas
Nov 23, 2009
FREE TIBET WEED

Tiggum posted:

What is in the peanut butter you're buying? I've never known anyone to keep peanut butter in the fridge, it lasts perfectly fine in a cupboard.

The question is, what's NOT in it? Natural peanut butters like Adams like to go in the fridge because they don't have any preservatives and will develop mold or the oils will go rancid eventually if left at room temp. Jif or Skippy is fine with the pantry for a long time.

Mr. Wiggles
Dec 1, 2003

We are all drinking from the highball glass of ideology.

Tiggum posted:


Going bad depends on the thing. I put tomatoes in the fridge because they go mouldy if I leave them out. I don't want them to get mouldy



Tomatoes do not go on the fridge you nonce. Fridging makes tomatoes terrible and makes you unworthy of them.

Disco Salmon
Jun 19, 2004
In our house:

onions: not in fridge

potatoes = not in fridge

tomatoes = not in fridge

greens: in fridge

eggs = from my hens? countertop

eggs = from store? fridge

Worcestershire = fridge (Why? No idea but my husband freaks if it isn't)

bananas = countertop

REAL butter = 1 stick on countertop in covered butter dish till gone, and rest in fridge

bread = pantry

peanut butter = depends on type. Skippy/Jif on the shelf, if I know I can't eat the good fresh ground stuff from Central Market fast enough it lives in the fridge. Needless to say, this does not happen often.

spices = mason jarred and vacuum sealed

yeast = in fridge

apples = countertop

grapes = fridge

berries = fridge

oils = pantry

flaxseed/flaxseed oil = fridge

Bob Morales
Aug 18, 2006


Just wear the fucking mask, Bob

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Mom keeps a sack of potatoes on the basement steps so I trip on them when I go downstairs.

Onions under the cupboard.

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


Che Delilas posted:

The question is, what's NOT in it? Natural peanut butters like Adams like to go in the fridge because they don't have any preservatives and will develop mold or the oils will go rancid eventually if left at room temp. Jif or Skippy is fine with the pantry for a long time.
I buy peanut butter that is literally just crushed peanuts. I've never had a problem storing it in the cupboard. :shrug:

Mr. Wiggles posted:

Tomatoes do not go on the fridge you nonce. Fridging makes tomatoes terrible and makes you unworthy of them.
Tomatoes that have been in the fridge are better than tomatoes that are covered in mould. This isn't even debatable. :psyduck:

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

clean your house you goon.

Even if I forget about tomatoes in my fruit basket they just shrivel up and dry out like sundried tomatoes. Ain't no molding.

poverty goat
Feb 15, 2004



If the bananas are going to turn to mush on your counter it's ok to refrigerate them if you're going to make a smoothie tomorrow :colbert:

KaiserSchnitzel
Feb 23, 2003

Hey baby I think we Havel lot in common

GrAviTy84 posted:

clean your house you goon.

Even if I forget about tomatoes in my fruit basket they just shrivel up and dry out like sundried tomatoes. Ain't no molding.

Not in Florida. They go from fresh and tasty to science experiment in about an hour when it's their time to go...definitely keep them out of the refrigerator, but they won't last forever.

For all food, I just go by how it's stored at the store...not refrigerated at the store = not refrigerated at home. Things in cans or bottles that say they should be refrigerated after opening get refrigerated, everything else does not.

It's pretty much that simple.

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

buzzsaw.gif posted:

Things in cans or bottles that say they should be refrigerated after opening get refrigerated, everything else does not.
I have no objection to this as a general rule, but it's worth noting that a lot of e.g. condiment sauces tell you to refrigerate them after opening purely out of a CYA business thing. Like if you live in a literal swamp, like there are lily pads and anafuckingcondas in your kitchen, then maybe you'll grow poo poo on your ketchup if you leave it out for as long as it takes you to use a bottle. But if ketchup, sriracha, fish sauce, soy sauce, and all that kind of thing actually needed refrigeration a huge swath of the restaurant-eating population would've been wiped out long ago.

FishBulb
Mar 29, 2003

Marge, I'd like to be alone with the sandwich for a moment.

Are you going to eat it?

...yes...
Well gently caress I could save so much space in my fridge knowing that.

Toast
Dec 7, 2002

GoonsWithSpoons.com :chef:Generalissimo:chef:

Tiggum posted:

Tomatoes that have been in the fridge are better than tomatoes that are covered in mould. This isn't even debatable. :psyduck:

Buy less tomatoes more often, fridge tomatoes are gross and might as well be mouldy.

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YoungSexualNorton
Aug 8, 2004
These are good for the children's brains.
I can see leaving out the more durable tomatoes like romas or something, but the juicier kinds like most heirlooms go to complete poo poo in like two days top if they're left out.

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