How Long Do You Keep Your Cooked Meat For? page 3

[QuirkyPixy]

I buy 2lbs of grass-fed ground beef each week and leave it in the fridge for up to five days, raw. It's never tasted funny or anything. But if I leave a lamb chop in there for more than a couple of days it starts getting really funky, cooked or raw.

[IvyBlue]

I'll go a week but I usually "recook" it like making a tomato sauce and chucking it in to simmer. Since PB it doesn't last anyway. I live alone and I find I'll polish off a 4 pound pot roast in 3 days easy.

As someone said, the smell test works for me.

[carlh]

Easily a week for (properly wrapped) red meat and poultry. I can't imagine throwing out meat...what a waste. If you think it's iffy, dice it up and sautee the crap out of it.

[aboutsaffron]

cooked - about a week; uncooked about three days. the thing with freezing, though, is that a lot of the meat we pick up at the store was already previously frozen, so i can't imagine it could be all that bad. i've only had to do it once or twice, & so long as it's been completely defrosted, it's been fine. i wouldn't do it on a regular basis, though. but once it's cooked, it's totally fair game to go back into the freezer.

[Bishop]

I feel gross now compared to some people's answers. I'll let uncooked sit in the fridge a week before deciding to freeze.

I don't keep fish leftovers since I hate the smell. I only make the exact amount we are going to eat that night.

As for cooked meat, if it smells fine, we eat it. We have been eating off the same turkey carcass for 10 days now. It's in an air tight Tupperware and the fridge is cold. My sensitive nose and stomach has been fine.
At my uncle's house, they cook up the week's meat and leave it on the table! All week, no refrigeration. They pick at the room temp meat all week until it is gone and they never get sick.

[runnergal]

I usually go about a week. I'm not that squeamish. Probably a little less for fish. Definitely less for shrimp. Medium rare steak is probably less also, but i have never had any be leftover after more than 2 days anyway.

I find that chicken pieces tend to last longer than whole roasted chicken.

For me it is all about the smell test. If it smells ok, I tend to eat it. If I think it is getting close timewise but it smells ok, I recook it.

[duckmama]

3 to 4 days is about my limit - less for seafood. If I'm going on my 3rd day and I think something won't get eaten, I'll toss it in the freezer for a quick heat-up at a later date. Little packages of things in the freezer are perfect to heat up for a quick lunch for one.

[Primal Toad]

I feel gross now compared to some people's answers. I'll let uncooked sit in the fridge a week before deciding to freeze.

I don't keep fish leftovers since I hate the smell. I only make the exact amount we are going to eat that night.

As for cooked meat, if it smells fine, we eat it. We have been eating off the same turkey carcass for 10 days now. It's in an air tight Tupperware and the fridge is cold. My sensitive nose and stomach has been fine.
At my uncle's house, they cook up the week's meat and leave it on the table! All week, no refrigeration. They pick at the room temp meat all week until it is gone and they never get sick.

Thats insane. But, grok never had refrigerators in his day! I think often about how we would kill say a deer and then we would have to store it somewhere and enjoy it for a few days...

[Hedonist]

Hmmm. Not sure. Doesn't last long. Hehe.

Seriously, the meat drawer in my refrig. is barely above freezing. Also, nearly all meat has a "use or freeze by ___" date. I sometimes go a day or two over that for red meat. Chicken, less so. Fish, use it same day I buy it.

For cooked meat, I have always heard one week. But I am not comfortable with that. I generally toss if I haven't eaten in about three days.

[mirow]

Isn't it best to not refreeze something that you thawed out before? This is what I had always thought...

If you make serving sizes right from the store and then freeze them it's fine. Just don't let the raw meat sit in the frig for more than a day or two before you freeze your portions. I buy huge steaks when on sale and cut them in half and pack in plastic wrap and then freeze. If you have leftover cooked chicken thighs for example, pop each one into plastic wrap and freeze. Other things I do to have ingredients handy are: I take a whole ginger root and process in chopper and pack in a freezer bag flattened out very thin. Then as you need a piece just snap it off and thaw for a few minutes. I do this with left over tomato paste. Store in freezer bag in a very thin flat packet. You can also do this with fresh garlic. Just chop, store flattened out in freezer bag, snap off a piece. It saves so much prep time. The ginger stays just as fresh after even a few months in the freezer. I also do this with fresh basil after the summer. I process with a little olive oil and store flattened out in freezer bags and snap some off for my marinara sauce all winter long and don't have to pay high prices for fresh. It really taste perfectly fresh if you use a little olive oil to process.