Don't Refrigerate These Foods

[Shel_B]

Do you refrigerate these items?  Do you disagree with this list?  What foods don't you refrigerate?

 

http://refrigerators.reviewed.com/features/seriously-stop-refrigerating-these-foods?utm_source=TB_paid&utm_medium=cpc

[Shelby]

I never, ever, never, ever, never, never never put tomatoes in the fridge.  Never.  I don't care what anyone says, they taste funny if you do--funny as in ICKY.

 

I don't put honey in the fridge because it makes it too hard.

 

Let's see.....what else.....

 

avocados

onions

zukes 

taters

soy sauce

fish sauce

bread (if I can help it...but I do put it in sometimes)

apples

bananas

I personally hate watermelon if it's cold

 

That's all I can think of for now

[Shel_B]

 

I personally hate watermelon if it's cold

 

 

I love it cold - only way I care to eat it.  The colder the better!

[ElsieD]

I keep fish sauce in the fridge and also cucumbers. Maybe that's not necessary?

[Shelby]

Well, I've never had my fish sauce in there and I'm not dead yet 

 

I don't like my garden cukes cold.....but we eat the heck out of them so they don't last too long.  I rarely buy them in the store.

[Martin Fisher]

The only thing on that list that I keep in the fridge is cukes.

Fish Sauce, or most fish sauce, is right at the the saturation point so salt crystals can easily form when it's in the fridge.

[Darienne]

Butter:  Some in a covered dish in the cupboard for easy spreading; some in the fridge for making baked goods which call for cold butter and also cold butter for crackers, new fresh breads and suchlike because we just like it better that way.

[Shel_B]

I don't like my garden cukes cold.....but we eat the heck out of them so they don't last too long.  I rarely buy them in the store.

 

I love them cold - only way I care to eat it.  The colder the better!  Toots brought some to dinner last week, straight from the garden, and they were warm, and I really didn't enjoy eating them.

[mgaretz]

I used to keep apples out of the fridge, but now I refrigerate them. They last significantly longer. After all, apples don't get harvested year round, just once a year, and they have to keep them stored somehow.

[Porthos]

In our home apples go into the fridge. We are not very good about eating them up quickly when we buy them.

 

Butter, bought in 4-lb Costco packages, goes into the freezer, then a one pound box gets pulled from there and put into the fridge, and the butter we are using sits on the counter in a butter dish.

 

Tomatoes never see the inside of the fridge. I have changed my buying habits and only buy what I can use in a day or two.

[Robenco15]

Read this a few weeks about putting tomatoes in the fridge. - http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/why-you-should-refrigerate-tomatoes.html

I recently stopped putting garlic in the fridge, but besides that I basically put everything in the fridge. No negative side effects yet and everything lasts.

Edit: I don't refrigerate canola, olive, or peanut oil, but I do grapeseed and safflower. That doesn't last as long at room temperature and I don't use it all of the time. Sure it gets cloudy, but Ingive it a shake and then out it in a hot pan. Goes back to normal and works perfectly.

Edited October 9, 2014 by Robenco15 (log)

[janeer]

I don't refrigerate anything on the list except cules and melon, and those only because I like them a little cold. I also don't refrigerate a fair number of cooked foods, unless I have leftovers.

[patrickamory]

I try not to refrigerate cheese - it's almost always better outside the fridge.

 

However it generally wants to be cooler than NYC room temp. Before my wine fridge broke, that was the perfect place for it. About 55F.

[FauxPas]

I thought that article at Serious Eats on refrigerating tomatoes was very interesting, also. Currently, I only refrigerate a tomato if I have part of a whole one left over. 

 

The Serious Eats writers did a follow-up article on the topic, with more testing. They came up with the same results - in some cases, the refrigerated ones were preferred in the taste tests. 

[Norm Matthews]

Don't refrigerate olive oil or salad dressings with it in it, but I seldom make enough salad dressing to have to refrigerate it.  I never heard of keeping fish sauce out of the fridge but I just bought my first bottle of it. It is ginger flavored Viet Nam sauce.  When I grow tomatoes and I have more than I can eat before they go bad and not enough to can, when they are perfectly ripe, they go straight in the refrigerator so they last a little longer. I don't like cukes unless they are pickled so they aren't even around my house most of the time.  Melons are something I like cold. They always go in the fridge.  It is nice to keep butter in a butter keeper but to be honest, it is easier to keep it chilled. If I want it softened, I wash the butter dish, bottom and top in very hot water, wipe it dry and set it out. It softens in half an hour.

Edited October 9, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[dcarch]

I thought that article at Serious Eats on refrigerating tomatoes was very interesting, also. Currently, I only refrigerate a tomato if I have part of a whole one left over. 

 

The Serious Eats writers did a follow-up article on the topic, with more testing. They came up with the same results - in some cases, the refrigerated ones were preferred in the taste tests. 

 

I have also done blind taste tests. No problems found refrigerating tomatoes.

 

dcarch

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I never, ever, never, ever, never, never never put tomatoes in the fridge.  Never.  I don't care what anyone says, they taste funny if you do--funny as in ICKY.

 

I don't put honey in the fridge because it makes it too hard.

 

Let's see.....what else.....

 

avocados

onions

zukes 

taters

soy sauce

fish sauce

bread (if I can help it...but I do put it in sometimes)

apples

bananas

I personally hate watermelon if it's cold

 

That's all I can think of for now

 

What is the rational for not refrigerating soy sauce?  Shizuo Tsuji in Japanese Cooking a Simple Art says of soy sauce:  "Best stored in the refrigerator to maintain freshness."  (p 92)

 

What is/are "zukes"?

[Smithy]

 

 

What is/are "zukes"?

 

Zucchini

[Edward J]

chocolate

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I refrigerate my chocolate.  I used to have a wine refrigerator to hold chocolate at about 68 deg F, but that broke.  Now it is the regular refrigerator.  A lot better than the alternative.

[CatPoet]

I been told by a barista to keep my  coffee jar  in the freezer and use from frozen   since we dont use so much  coffee to preserve the flavour.  Maybe it goes only for Swedish  coffee. So far  the coffee taste great from the first cup to the last according to those who can  drink it

[liuzhou]

I keep fish sauce in the fridge after the last bottle developed a fungal infection after being stored on a shelf. Soy sauce, never. Despite us having 35ºC+ most of the year.

 

Apart from that, I pretty much agree with the list (although I do, unusually, have some apples in the fridge now. A gift.

 

If I put all that stuff in the fridge, there would be no room for the beer. I've got my priorities to think about.

Edited October 9, 2014 by liuzhou (log)

[gulfporter]

I keep coffee beans in freezer, removing as needed.  I also freeze butter until needed; when I remove it, I keep it in a pottery dish on the counter (other than in the hottest months).  

 

I stopped refrigerating eggs when we moved to Mexico; on my first grocery trip there, I hunted and hunted for eggs, until I found them on pallets, stacked in the bakery department.   However, if they're out on my counter for a week, I move them to the fridge.  

 

I've never refrigerated onions or potatoes; growing up they were always kept in a dark cupboard so I do the same.  

 

My DH insists on refrigerating ketchup, mustard, jelly/jam because that's the way he was raised; I think a lot of what we chill is what our mothers did and it's a carryover from childhood.  

Edited October 9, 2014 by gulfporter (log)

[Robenco15]

I think a lot of what we chill is what our mothers did and it's a carryover from childhood. 

 

 

I think that is basically the answer. I could probably take out most of the things on my fridge door, but I don't and won't. I also wouldn't know where to put the newly unrefrigerated things! Everything has a place in my kitchen. All of a sudden the ketchup doesn't go on the fridge door? I wouldn't know what to do...

[Shel_B]

I don't put honey in the fridge because it makes it too hard.

 

 

I don't put honey in the fridge for the same reason, but even when stored in my large kitchen cabinet it doesn't flow freely.  Often it needs to be warmed a bit in the microwave before it's useable for certain things, such as in my honey-lemon-poppy seed salad dressing.  Does heating honey in the microwave have any deleterious effects?