OT. Food Waste

[Dean Hoffman]

Supposedly, forty percent of the food produced in the U.S. is wasted.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I've read that figure before. Can't speak for others, but I toss just about nothing. I do occasionally look at an expiration date but I often eat stuff past it, never got sick.

The billboard shown in the article shows "the average American wastes

280 pounds of food a year? I bet I don't toss 2 pounds.

OTOH, I know people that don't eat leftovers and toss everything at the end of the meal. For me, it is lunch the mest day or so.

[Snag]

We're like you , we waste very little . The dog gets some table scraps , the chickens get most of what he doesn't . And we too often have last night's leftovers for lunch . If there's a lot , like a pot of spaghetti sauce or a smoked pork butt it'll get portioned for 2 and frozen .

[Dean Hoffman]

The article says we're wasting a lot more since 1974. "Environmentally it?s bad, too. The study found that 25 percent of fresh water in the US goes toward producing food that goes uneaten, and 21 percent of input to our landfills is food, which represents a per-capita increase of 50 percent since 1974. Right now, landfills are piled high with wasted food, most of which was perfectly fine to eat ? and some of which still is."

A lot of the food I ate growing up was farm raised. Leftovers went on the table as long as they passed the mom sniff test. I watched sausage being made on the kitchen table.

I cook for just me so it's easy to judge how much is needed. I think a microwave helps with that too.

[gfretwell]

I have always lived on leftovers. Working 3d shift amplified that. I was still home alone most of my life from about 3d grade on and grazing out of the fridge. I seldom cook anything special for breakfast or lunch. It is something we had for dinner but you can get creative with it. A pork roast becomes pulled pork sandwiches and any kind of leftover meat goes in Chili. Turkey is a big one for that. I can eat on a big bowl of spaghetti for days. Pot roast gets shredded, spiced and rolled up in a burrito. Those are good snacks to freeze. If you keep your fridge right on the verge of freezing, 34-36 degrees in the cold spots, stuff lasts a real long time. Then I have a dog. You save a lot of money if he eats leftovers too and it is probably safer than that Chinese dog food ;-)

[rbowman]

The last thing I tossed was about 1/2 pound of farmed Atlantic salmon. It didn't smell bad but it didn't taste like Atlantic salmon should, more like steelhead. After three nights I'd had enough. I offered it to the cat and he wasn't impressed either. Real salmon is one of his favorites.

I'm not a purist but farmed fish just doesn't get it for me.

[gfretwell]

Imagine how I feel about septic tank fish like Asian Tilapia ;-) I am not a fan if Asian Tiger shrimp from that sewer either. I like wild caught gulf shrimp, particularly right off the boat.

[micky]

Random comments.

"Every year, the average American family throws out somewhere between $1,365 and $2,275, "

First, bad syntax. It should read, "American families on average throw out ..... " there is no average American family.

This certainly doesn't apply to me. It's been a bad 3 or 4 years, and I've wasted between 40 and 100 dollars of food each year, but in 90% of my adult life, I wasted less than $10 of food a year. And when I was a child, my mother was as good as it as I am. She grew up poor, learned not to waste, and so did I.

I've never even considered throwing food out because it's past the expiration date!

In fact I believe eating old food helps me develop antibodies, maybe the same ones that will fight Covid 19. (Okay, I'm kidding about that. )

I have had eggs that explode when you try to open them. But if they looked good inside, I'd still eat them. Eggs last for months without spoiling I've learned. The ones that are no good are even more months older than that.

In college, I told my roommate that you didnt' have to refrigerate Hershey's syrup and he said you don't have to refrigerate ketchup. (He pointed to restaurants that leave the ketchup out all the time. I pointed to my prior habits.) So we comporomised and refrigerated neither. Never had a problem. (Actually Hershey's syrup, at least in the can, will get mold if you wait long enough. But I would use a can opener, remove the lid, and spoon out the mold, and the rest was fine.

I also concluded that to avoid mold (also on spaghetti sauce) and other forms of spoilage, it's important not to leave something uncovered more than the minimum time it takes to get the food you want out. 5 or 10 secodns is usually enough. When there is no lid, mold spores and who knows what else are falling into the container, where they reproduce. I'm pretty sure my food lasts twice as long or even more since I started being careful about this.

Milk will last 3 weeks. Milk is an interesting food. If you open the carton and smell it, it will smell what I think is sour after only a few days, maybe around the expiration date. But if you pour some in a glass, it won't smell or taste bad at all. I think some milk clings to the inside of the carton or bottle, goes sour, and smells bad, a little, but it doesnt' affect the milk until a week later.

[angelica...]

Most of that is upstream from the consumer. Ever see a supermarket employee tearing the outer leaves off of cabbages?

Cindy Hamilton

[rbowman]

Years ago you could find acceptable produce and stale baked goods dumpster diving behind a supermarket or a fast food place. Now the dumpsters are secured.

I remember going into a McDonalds when I was really hungry and ordering a burger that I could see on the warming shelf so I wouldn't have to wait. That was the instant the kid decided the items were past their time and swept them all into the trash.

[gfretwell]

If they don't, I do. That is where most of the E-coli and salmonella is.

[gfretwell]

I don't eat a lot of fast food but I learned, order with something special and they will make it while you wait. I can live without mustard on a burger. Burger King usually makes your burger to order but the patty itself may have been sitting in the broiler out chute for a while if you are on a slow time (1400-1600 generally). Wendy's cooks all day and at any but the slowest times you get one off the grill. When they are cooked to death, they go in the chili.

[angelica...]

No argument, but it's still counted as food waste.

Cindy Hamilton

[Wade Garrett]

Not unlike your many OT posts in this NG ;-)

[gfretwell]

I should "Give it to Mikey. He'll eat anything"

[Thomas]

I toss alot of food. Bread in particular. Last night tossed a ribeye from the grill. Simply got tired of chewing. I know it is wastefull but I have no time to waste.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Buy a better grade of meat. That leftover can still be used in other dishes, sliced thin for easier chewing.

[rbowman]

Do you cook like my uncle used to? He could turn a rib eye into a boot sole. Thing is that's how he liked steak. He's send a nice medium rare back for cremation.

[cshenk]

Same here. I suspect part of what they are talking about is something you do waste (if not composting) most likely. Vegetable trimmings and ends. Here, they end up making vegetable broth (strained out then maybe in the composter bin). For me, that's just a fun and useful sideline.

Today has been a typical weekend. We try to make something interesting but with enough to have variable fast nibbles through the week. Don suggested we make up French onion soup and carmelized onions. The onions freeze well and we'd used up the last baggie from the freezer door on Thursday.

We pretty much start with looking in the crisper to see what needs using up and now that the crops are comming in, the container garden. This time we knew the last bag of onions were starting to get a bit soft (not bad, still usable). So....

With stock pot at my side for all peelings (minus any bits that may have black mold starting which went in the compost pail), I peeled then chopped about 2-2.5 lbs onions. Skins, roots and tops in stock pot, unusable bits (very little) in compost pail, onions in crockpot with

1/2 stick butter. Then 4 or so carrots (peels and ends in stock pot) setting them aside for something else along with a zuchini from the garden and 2 nice yellow squash (ends in stock pot). Shemenji mushrooms (bottom in stock pot after a good rinse on colandar and tops set aside). 1 red and 1 green bell pepper (tops and seeds on stock pot) and set aside. Root part of a leek in stock pot. White tender leek part chopped and set aside. 3 large cloves of garlic (peels and ends in stock pot, whites rough chopped and set aside). Add water and 1 ts salt to stockpot (cover plus 2 inches) and set to long simmer at back of stove.

Then I setup the wok ring plate for Don (he wants to play with it so the veggies for a stir fry to which we will add shrimp and a stir fry sauce I mixed up Friday from beef broth, cornstarch, mirin, and seasonings.

Shrimp defrosting but shells will go in the stock pot unless I decide to freeze them separate to gather for a seafood broth another day.

Anyway. 'Just add rice'! (ricemaker all loaded). He's taking a nap but when he gets up, it's just stir the crockpot, peel the shrimp, then start the rice. When he's ready, he does the rest. Late this afternoon, we put the big rectangular plastic keeper in the sink and the large strainer (14 inches across) in the sink over it. It gets lined with paper towels that afterwards go in the compost pail. I may toss the solids out from the strainer, or may compost them.

Actual waste? A few onion outer layers, a bit of shemenji root bottom that crumbled into the sink drain, 1 carrot top that escaped when chopping and had to be dug out from under the fridge.

Come dinner time, French onion soup, fresh crusty bread (will start it in an hour), salad from the garden, potato crusted seasoned trout, pan fried. Might make some apple tarts as the crop is coming in nicely and have enough to make a dozen. They freeze nicely once cooked, for during the week. (peels in compost pail).

[cshenk]

> > >

We do that too. It had a name in the early 2000's. 'Cook once, eat many'. AKA planned leftovers.

Take the pot of 'vegetable broth' I just posted, made with the freebies from carmelized onions and a lunch stir fry. It's predominantly the same base as 'French onion soup' but making about 3/4 gallon (12 cups). At 1 cup per serving, Don and I have 6 servings. Tomorrow, he wants to try making my roasted cream of vegetable soup. That will use up another serving for 2. We may not use up the other 4 during the week but kept in the fridge, it's good for 2 weeks at least and will definately find a home in that time.