Throwing food away

[tommy]

the holier-than-though philosophy of saving and reusing everything is wonderful on paper.  i have to wonder how big these people's freezers are.

Just barely big enough.

just perfect?

[Fat Guy]

We throw out some food, though not all that much. For example, I really do make fried rice with leftover Chinese-food rice -- it's part of the ritual for me and it's something I look forward to as part of the process. And quite a lot of leftover stuff can go into that fried rice. Recent example: I was talking about London broil on a recent thread, and saving the breast meat from a stock-making project on another. Both of those items wound up in fried rice recently.

We also have an actual food chain in our house because we have a dog. Now that he understands about not begging at the table, we've been giving him a few ounces of non-dog-food mixed in with one of his meals each day. So any leftover meat and even some vegetables get portioned into small Zip-Loc baggies and used up even after they've ceased to be appetizing by human standards. And anything that isn't good enough for the dog we can always give to the two people in our lives who eat anything, namely a brother-in-law and an old friend from law school.

Of course there are some situations where it's necessary to throw stuff out. We eat a lot of meals out, sometimes unexpectedly, and when you dine out often and you're only two people in the household it's pretty hard to make the grocery shopping come together in a flawlessly efficient manner. Also, in my line of "work" I'm constantly getting samples of awful tasting products, or products that I only want to taste a few bites of but they send me a case. This doesn't bother me all that much. My objection to wasting food is not an emotionally based one; it's just a desire not to waste any more money than I already do. But on any given day it all depends on how much I care.

[Peter B Wolf]

Someone on this post says their husband would not eat leftover, and it had something to do with growing up poor. This is exactly the reason why I will not throw out food, because I grew up poor (and still am). Besides, during my growing up in Communist East Germany, I learned to know hunger, even starvation.

In later years working as a chef in restaurants, one of my bosses' policy was "Use Tomorrow's Leftovers Today" ( Plan, plan, plan !)

Another way out of this dilemma of leftovers is to buy the smallest refrigerator available, teaching you to not overprepare nor overbuy!!

[helenas]

And anyway, right now I'm consulting to a "gourmet pet food" company, so if anyone might eat what I make, it would be Momo.  

Suzanne, you're completely wrong! there is a dog in my house named Cherry who badly needs your advice! She absolutely refuses to eat high-end (read healthy) brands i buy in pet store, and adores all this Purina junk (fast food of the pet's world?). Does healthy and tasty dog food even exist?

[stefanyb]

right now I'm consulting to a "gourmet pet food" company, so if anyone might eat what I make, it would be Momo.

Suzanne, I'd love to know your take on high-end dog food too. What about Canadae?

[stefanyb]

As to the original question on this thread, I'll just quote my mother "You are not a garbage pail."

The notion of the so-called starving children in Europe is specious, at best. Its preferable to not waste food in general as an ethical matter, but beyond that, throw out the rotting contents of your refrigerator! sheesh.

[Suzanne F]

Sorry, guys -- I am DEFINITELY not an expert on pet food; the reason they hired me is because I know how to cook in big batches, cost out recipes, set up cooking procedures and train kitchen staff. (No one else they have knows much about cooking ANYTHING; mostly they are marketing people and nutritionists for animals.) So I don't know anything about other pet foods at any socio-economic level. Sorry I can't help.

[Cheffie3]

I live for leftovers!!! Working and going to school is tough, and I promised myself that I would not give in to fast food places. So I try to cook twice during the week and two meals on Sundays. Let me tell you, after a 15 hour day, it is absolutely heavenly to heat up a homemade meal in 2.2 minutes!!! However, bad food is bad food and I refuse to eat it. I bought a big bag of frozen shrimp on sale last week. They were pretty awful so I tossed them, and had no qualms doing so. But I admit I do hate it when I let perfectly good lettuce or celery go to waste. But I'm not going to attempt eating them.

[Fat Guy]

For pet food inquiries I highly recommend the message boards at:

http://www.greatpets.com

[Suzanne F]

Thanks! I'll have to check that out myself.

[phaelon56]

I rarely throw out food but when I do it's most often something like a half-bunch of lettuce or some carrots or potatoes that have gotten too far along. I live alone and cook intermittently but when I do so it's just for myself. I was raised by depression era parents who were not poor by the standards of that era but wasting food was tantamount to sin (that's satying something a Catholic family!). I routinely freeze leftovers by putting various portions together in one small container as a meal sized unit. ON the many days when I dont' feel like cooking ro going out, it gets thawed in the microwave and heated up as a meal.

Also.... apart from trips to ethnic restaurants where portion size may be small enough that I can eat the whole dinner.... I make a practice of bringing home half of my entree and some of the side dish. I freeze it immediately when getting home and a few weeks or a month later it makes a great impromptu lunch or dinner.

[bigbear]

I was raised by depression era parents who were not poor by the standards of that era but wasting food was tantamount to sin...

This sounds familiar. I remember "the clean-plate club" and "children are starving in China." To this day, I feel guilty when throwing out food. It's amazing what life-long feelings and values can be programmed into a child during his or her formative years.

[=Mark]

Reminds me of a Doonsbury cartoon from the late 70s when Uncle Duke was ambassador to China. While at a state dinner he witnessed one of the Chinese diplomats admonishing his son to finish his Jellied Ducks Web because there were "starving children in Appalachia."

[StephenT]

My husband absolutely refuses to eat leftovers of any kind.  I think it has something to do with growing up poor

I thought that would work the other way round...

[Marlene]

My husband absolutely refuses to eat leftovers of any kind.  I think it has something to do with growing up poor

I thought that would work the other way round...

I think it's because they ate leftovers all the time. Now that he doesn't have to, he's not going to!

[StephenT]

I think it's because they ate leftovers all the time.  Now that he doesn't have to, he's not going to!

I ate lots of leftovers when I was younger. My mother managed to do great things with them. Now I feel guilty if I don't try to use my own leftovers even though I can afford not to. Of course, often they just live in the fridge for a week and then get thrown away but it's a token gesture at not subscribing to the "consume, consume and dispose" mentality.

[Marlene]

I think it's because they ate leftovers all the time.  Now that he doesn't have to, he's not going to!

I ate lots of leftovers when I was younger. My mother managed to do great things with them. Now I feel guilty if I don't try to use my own leftovers even though I can afford not to. Of course, often they just live in the fridge for a week and then get thrown away but it's a token gesture at not subscribing to the "consume, consume and dispose" mentality.

So did I and they don't bother me. Now, I just try to cook so that there aren't too many leftovers unless they are something I'll eat myself for lunches.

[=Mark]

To combine 2 threads, yesterday for lunch I ate the leftover Sloppy Joe that I had made for dinner the previous night, pronpted by eGullet...

[stellabella]

COMPOST PILE

i eat leftovers sometimes, but produce goes bad, cheese gets moldy, etc. all food that needs to be discarded goes right onto the compost pile. for a while my husband forbade this, until he was debunked by a biologist friend who assured him [i already knew this!] that:

--cheese mold is good for the decomposition process

--cooked food is already partially decomposed

--meat attracts critters, but if they don't bother you, don't worry about it

so i dump everything. for one thing, i feel a lot less guilty about waste. at least this way i feel like i am recycling the food, not just throwing it into a landfill. i realize that composting isn't a good alternative for city-dwellers.....