So this thing popped up on my news feed today about how we are storing certain food all wrong. Mostly about things that should not be refrigerated that many of us still stick in the fridge.
One of the first things on the list was donuts. Apparently, storing donuts in the fridge will make them stale. But I have one big question. What is this “storing” of donuts all about? That would seem to indicate there are leftover donuts in need of storage. I’m not sure I understand what is going on here. If you have leftover donuts, you’re not eating enough donuts. This is not something I tend to be concerned about. But I still read on.
They mentioned peanut butter. Now most peanut butter is probably just fine being stored at room temperature. Unless you buy the all natural peanut only type peanut butter. That can require refrigeration. Some of it says so, right on the jar. So I’m more inclined to trust the people who make the stuff than a random Facebook post.
There were a few that made some sense. Things like onions and garlic and potatoes should not go in the fridge, but in a cool dry place somewhere. Honey tends to solidify. Same with molasses, although it tends to end up in the fridge anyway. And pickles. Although they are built to not decompose, with all the vinegar and salt and things like that, apparently they are fine if you leave them out. But they still end up in my fridge.
There are also a number of fruits and nuts that do not need refrigeration. Although I suspect the article may have been written by fruit flies.
Then they got to condiments. Things like ketchup and mustard. These things are always in my fridge. It seems they don’t have to be. The acidic content of the vinegar in them will keep them from spoiling. And when you think of it, ketchup and mustard have been sitting on the table in a lot of diners for many years.
But in my place, they live in the fridge. usually several containers of them. One gets low and you get another. You have good intentions of dumping the one that is down to next to nothing into the new one, but it never happens. Probably because the old one has moved to the back of the fridge. But you may need them someday, so you let them stay. Although if they were out in plain site, you might actually do what you had planned to do in the first place.
But they have always been in the refrigerator. And as a creature of habit, I probably wouldn’t be able to find them if I moved them, so they stay in the refrigerator. I know right where they are when I need them.
Maybe they can do quite well left out, but I feel better knowing they are safely put away.
