At any given moment at America’s Test Kitchen, recipes are being developed for our television shows, magazines, websites and cookbooks. But, with all of these repeated tests, where does all the leftover food go?
While it may sound surprising, most of that food gets eaten up. Unlike a restaurant kitchen, most of the recipes made at America’s Test Kitchen serve only 4 to 6 people. Test cooks and editors will sample a recipe to provide feedback, and eventually a recipe will reach testing stage where everyone who works at the Test Kitchen is invited to try a sample and fill out surveys. But when there are leftovers, they don’t stay uneaten for long. I chatted with Assistant Kitchen Director Gina Nistico to find out about the fate of leftover foods.
1. The Take-Home Fridge
Prepared and perishable foods get boxed up into individual portions and placed in the “Take-Home Fridge.” There, hungry staffers can often find the answer to the question “What’s for dinner?” Depending on what testings are being done, the contents of the fridge can range from lots and lots of chili during a slow cooker testing, to carrot cake. Perishable ingredients like extra produce or uncooked meat also go into the fridge. Test Kitchen staff also know the best time to check the fridge is around 4 p.m., and news of a good take-home fridge find – like beignets or dacquoise – will spread quickly through the office.
2. Our Lucky Neighbors
Working near the Test Kitchen has its benefits. While our neighbors may occasionally be tormented by smells of barbeque during the winter (because of our 6-month publishing schedule, that’s when we develop our summer recipes), they are also occasionally rewarded when Gina Nistico drops by with some leftover cookies. Gina even admits to having taken leftovers to her spin class, where baked goods are often received with mixed emotions.
3. Local Charities
Unopened non-perishable food may not have an impending expiration date, but even extra dry goods can’t stay around the Test Kitchen for long– there simply isn’t the storage space. So Gina has set up a system that donates dry goods and non-perishables to a variety of Boston-Area charities and soup kitchens. One partnership Gina is particularly proud of is with Haley House, a Boston-area nonprofit that runs a soup kitchen and provides comprehensive social services to people in need. Gina also oversees donations of kitchen equipment like grills and ovens to Haley House, as well as another local nonprofit, Future Chefs.
4. Hungry Hungry Camera Crew
For the collective six weeks of filming for Cook’s Country and America’s Test Kitchen TV each season, a season’s worth of meals are made in just a few weeks. However, the food doesn’t stay around long– the crew is waiting in the wings to make sure no one has to worry about leftovers. In this behind-the-scenes clip, audio engineer Gilles Morin explains his tactics for making sure he doesn’t miss out once a recipe is done being shot.
What are your tricks to using up leftovers? Let us know in the comments for a chance to win a copy of Light and Healthy 2012. The winner will be notified by email on Tuesday, Aug. 28.
About the Author: Marshall Bright
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With only 2 people in the house we have lots of leftovers for compost. However my wife has been known (with her hands on her hips) to say “the worms need more food, cook something.”
General order of things: eat it, use it in something else, freeze it, give it away, compost it.
Most leftovers become lunch. Some things can be used in other dishes, the more plain the original dish the more likely it can be reused – CI’s French Braised Chicken gets reused a lot around here. Freeze it for future lunches, labeled of course. Giving away works better for baked goods than, say, half a chicken breast. Worst comes to worse, feed it to compost pile.
Tonight’s dinner is a frittata with last night’s roast brussels sprouts, hashed, then topped with the tomato sauce I didn’t use last week so I froze.
For leftovers, I usually use them for lunch the next day or cook them with something else. Sometimes, if it’s a surplus of baked goodies, I share them with my friends. They’re happy and my waistline is happy!
I cook with leftovers in mind most of the time. If I cook pasta or rice for the two of us, I usually cook the whole package and put some away to have over the next couple days. I’ll add veggies to the leftovers for a light lunch/dinner or make a side dish adding a little olive oil, sardo or parmesan cheese and fresh herbs.
I’ll use leftover marinated cooked chicken or beef in a quesadilla with green onion, roasted corn and fresh herbs from the garden.
Anything that’s been in the fridge for a few days will be combined into hash for breakfast.
I save all my veggie scraps for stock and anything not re-usable goes into the compost pile so we can enrich our garden beds.
If it’s just a little, it will often go into an omelet.
for me: Last night + tonight’s leftovers = tomorrow’s lunch!
I haven’t learned the art of making extra so I can have a dinner or lunch for the next day. When there is something left over I usually share my creations with a friend.
Most savory leftovers find their way into a frittata or tacos! Just add a little cheese, and everything has new life.
Chinese noodle soup! Boil some noodles and add leftover stirfried veggies and/or tofu to the pot when the noodles are almost done. An egg cracked in at the very end (so the yolk is still kind of runny and mixes in with the soup) makes it even better.
Leftovers make great casseroles! Or I throw them on top of soba noodles and call it a day.
If my husband and I do have leftovers and we don’t just want to heat it up and eat it later, we usually find ourselves making a quick stir fry out of it or a sort of egg bake. We usually add something fresh to it though to liven it up a bit and change it from the same flavor it was originally. If we have a lot of something leftover and it is great the way it is, we will either give it away or freeze it and save it for a time when we don’t have anything to make for dinner. I am pretty new to the idea of freezing meals, but I am finding that a lot of things reheat really well and they are so convenient and so much healthier that a store-bought frozen meal!
I happen to have a lot of leftovers at home since we’re only two. Most often, I’ll make recipes that are meant for 4 to 6 people and we’ll end up eating them as lunch.
Sometimes I revamp some dishes, for instance, grilled meats (chicken or pork) can be turned into a tasty sandwich. If I have vegetables, they can easily go into a stir-fry or used as toppings for a quick pizza. Leftover bread can be turned into croutons or pulsed in the food processor to be stored in the freezer as breadcrumbs, which is perfect for meatballs and meatloaf.
There are times when I even look forward to leftovers. Whenever I make jasmine rice I usually plan on making extra in order to make fried rice later on in the week. Any leftover mashed potatoes can be used as a filler in my salmon patties recipe.
Leftovers are like a challenge to think outside the box and most of all, to not waste!
The best way I use leftovers is to have them for lunch the next day, in order to enjoy it again or make sure it gets eaten.
When the son is home from college there are no leftovers. When he is away, many items are frozen into individual trays and labeled for those busy nights when there is no time to cook. If a roast has leftovers, it just made over into tacos, enchiladas, potpies, pasta dishes, frittatas, etc.
my husband detests leftovers which is lucky for me because i love them for lunch the next day. sometimes i purposely set aside half my meal just so i can have leftovers. if we end up with way too much for me to eat i dish them out to family as we have lots nearby. my step-dad will eat just about anything.
It’s just my husband and myself in our house. When there are leftovers it usually gets finished the next day. Mashed potatoes become potato pancakes. Meatballs and sausage leftover from my Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs and Sausage become Torpedos. Sometimes I fix up a few plates for my 94 years young mother and she freezes them. She will always have a meal ready for herself between my sister and I giving her leftovers. She doesn’t cook much anymore because she lives alone and is always busy with her friends.
Leftovers are wonderful! With kids in the house, we often have to get home and eat quick so that we can get our girls to evening activities such as 4-H and drill team. I usually cook on Sunday with an eye for fast leftovers. The whole baked chicken and gravey become chicken pot pie with a frozen puff pastery in just 30 minutes. Extra homemade pizza warms up in the oven nicely in just 10 minutes. Leftover taco or fajita meat makes very tasty quesadillas. And, leftover leftovers make great lunches or afterschool snacks. YUM
Cooking, baking, creating – I love it all as it is a true passion of mine. Leftovers are a challenge I relish. Of course some get frozen, some go to work for lunch with hubby, very little runs their refrigerator shelf life and then off to compost. But mostly I peruse my cookbooks – I read them cover to cover like others read novels -for another creative recipe using at least some of the leftovers. And then there’s the leftover baked goods, which are not really leftovers at all but works of love that I actively seek to place – an event of my own, a charity, a church potluck, my college boys, or an ailing friend.
I freeze leftover meats, vegetables, broths and gravies in storage containers/baggies for what I call “trash can soup”. When it’s time to make soup you gather up all of your containers and dump them in a big soup pot or slow cooker add your broth and season to your liking. Quick and easy.
Its funny you should ask. I usually have my leftovers while reading the Feed and surfing other food websites during my lunch hour. It always amazes me how much better everything tastes when reading about great food.
Hey everyone–
Thanks for your creative uses for leftovers– and congratulations to mgenti for winning this week’s give-away; the contest is now closed. To look for other give-aways you can check out http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/topics/giveaway/ and keep your eyes peeled for more Secrets of the Test Kitchen.
–Marshall
Soup, soup is the way to go with leftovers..when the veggies are ready to be thrown out but still looking OK they go into stock and broths for soup. This summer I taught cooking to elementary and middle schoolers and the line was so long to come up and get seconds and thirds of soup. I thought this is what parents need to know if they are worried about kids eating vegetables..cut them up in soup. We made wontons and put veggie mix in the noodles & fresh spinach in the soup with corn, mushrooms, beans they were thrilled..eating any of these thing singly would have been a problem but put some chicken chunks & noodles and they kids are charmed. Also all my fruit that is about to go…I make homemade sorbets with my ice cream machine..no waste.
Some leftovers get used as is for another meal, warmed up if necessary.
But most of them become part of a salad, stir fry, or soup. Maybe a lightly sauced pasta dish. Practically anything can go in one or the other of these.
I usually have cooked pasta and/or rice in the fridge ready for a quick meal, and this makes transformation into something else easy.
I think Bridget is hot! Sorry, I mean a hot chef(cooks well) Very good show! keep-up the good work.
No Veggie Burgers?