How long can I keep the Thanksgiving day left overs? If they are kept in the fridge.?

Question

I was just wondering what the safety guidelines were. I still have a lot of food left over but I don't want to make my family sick. Any thoughts and answers would be great. Thank you in advance.

Thank you for all of the responses. I most definetly DO NOT have the left overs anymore. Yahoo asked me to leave up the question so that is what I am doing. If you don't have anything nice to say, then please keep it to yourself. Thanks for all of the tips.....at least I have ideas for my Christmas left overs.

Answer 1

Cooked food can be kept in the refridgerator a varying amount of time based on ingrediants. All meats can be kept cooked for roughly four days. Any preserved sauces such as cranberry sauce will last up to 6 days. Anything with cream will have a three day shelf life.

Answer 2

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RE:
How long can I keep the Thanksgiving day left overs? If they are kept in the fridge.?
I was just wondering what the safety guidelines were. I still have a lot of food left over but I don't want to make my family sick. Any thoughts and answers would be great. Thank you in advance.

Answer 3

Look. I don't know what the 'safety guidelines' are, but I'm going to tell you the way I've approached refrigerating meat my whole 49 years:

Almost ANY food will keep in a cold refrigerator for 7 days.

My mom would have whupped my butt if I had even THOUGHT about throwing away good meat after "3 days".

I think the various discrepancies come into play because there are so many varying degrees of temperature in refrigerators. I keep mine quite cold, but I couldn't tell you the temp. My soft drinks, beer, milk, etc. are nice & COLD when I drink them.

I'm always hearing stuff on tv about how you shouldn't keep this or that longer than 'X' days, but my mother always said food would keep for a week. I never got sick growing up and my wife & I live by that same philosophy and never get sick.

More importantly, the food tastes just FINE.

Obviously, lots of foods keep much longer than that, and some foods, like a leftover dinner salad, you wouldn'ty WANT to keep that long, but that turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and gravy will keep 7 days no problem!

Cave

Answer 4

It depends on the food item.

Anything that has turkey in it or has touched the turkey should be kept for no longer than 4 or 5 days after it was cooked. Meat can go very wrong it kept for too long, and eating it can result in either a bad stomach ache or even food poisining.

Items such as cranberry sauce (if fresh) should be able to go for a week or so. Anything that's canned (in in the fridge) shoule go for 8 or 9 days..after that it should go just to be on the safe side.

Breads will last you a long while...so I'd just keep them in the fridge and check for mold before eating.

Happy Eating!

Answer 5

Anything made with Pork should have been frozen that same evening unless you were planning to eat it the very next day. Rice, mac & cheese, and your green veggies will last longer in the frig. Meat is your biggest concern.

Hot foods should be refrigerated as soon as possible within two hours after cooking. But don't keep the food if it's been standing out for more than two hours. Don't taste test it, either. Even a small amount of contaminated food can cause illness.

Date leftovers so they can be used within a safe time. Generally, they remain safe when refrigerated for three to five days. If in doubt, throw it out

Answer 6

The longest time to keep left overs depends on the food and how you wrap it.If the food is not properly covered all the way then 2 days tops.Meat should not be kept for a large amount of time because it does go bad even if it's cooked(I leaned this the hard way).Veggies should be kept no more than 3 days if you value the taste.
It looks like you have a lot of answers and I hope you do get to this one......GOOD LUCK!!

Answer 7

as long as you can using the proper storage techniques. In my opinion leftover Thanksgiving stuff is one of the greatest meals you'll ever have. Just like with all food, everything has its limits on how long it can be kept. But I say keep it until you can't stand looking at it anymore. By then you'll be too tired of turkey to even look at it until next year.

Answer 8

you can keep it as long as you like - just don't eat any of it after 5-6 days! 3-4 days for meat products 1-2 days for fresh dairy (cream egg)

Use your common sense though - if it was left out on the side in a warm room for a long time before going back in the refridgerator, then don't keep it for as long, if at all.

If reheating always make sure its heated all the way through and never (as suggested in another answer) re-heat more than once.

Leftover vegetables can make a great soup - easy to make with a pint of stock and a blender. These will freeze, too.

Answer 9

Anything that has turkey in it or has touched the turkey should be kept for no longer than 4 or 5 days after it was cooked. Meat can go very wrong it kept for too long, and eating it can result in either a bad stomach ache or even food poisining.

Answer 10

I'm always hearing stuff on tv about how you shouldn't keep this or that longer than 'X' days, but my mother always said food would keep for a week. I never got sick growing up and my wife & I live by that same philosophy and never get sick.

More importantly, the food tastes just FINE.

Obviously, lots of foods keep much longer than that, and some foods, like a leftover dinner salad, you wouldn'ty WANT to keep that long, but that turkey, po

Answer 11

The news has reported too
much on things that scare
people in to worrying about
bacteria, samonlela, and
echoli. The fact is, that
food in the refrigerator will
begin to taste bad before it
is harmful to all but the most
sensitive digestive systems
and immune systems.

That said, cooked turkey lasts
for about a week, actually pretty
much everything should be fine
for up to a week providing that
you didn't let anything set out
too long before you refriger-
ated them.

If you know you are going to have
more than enough food to last a
week, you should freeze what
you don't plan on eating in
order to preserve all you
can. In the freezer,
the cooked food
can last for
weeks, if
not months.

H a p p y
E a t i n g !