Helpful Tips

Leftover Tips

Get the most out of your meals! Follow these simple tips for storing leftovers.

  • Be sure to follow the food storage guidelines for safely storing leftovers.
  • Take advantage of any leftovers that are still useable.
  • If you planned too much cake, for instance, offer to send some home with your guests. Remember, cake will also freeze well.
  • If you don't consume an entire bottle of red or white wine, cork and refrigerate it. Red wines should be brought to room temperature for serving. Partly used bottles of wine can always be used in cooking.
  • To use up leftover egg yolks, poach them until firm, then cool them and put them through a sieve. They are good for salads and soup garnishes.
  • Use the liquid from canned vegetables in soups, sauces, stews and casseroles, and for making white sauce for creamed vegetables.
  • Use celery tops to flavor meats, stews, soups and stuffings.
  • Leftover veggies from a relish tray? Recrisp them and eat them raw. Slice them into salads. Or use them in a delicious soup or omelet.
  • If you're making fudge and the batch doesn't harden, crumble it up, refrigerate the pieces, and use them in cookies or cakes.
  • Don't throw away end pieces of cheese. Grate them and freeze them in an airtight bag. You can use them in recipes calling for melted cheese, such as veal parmigiana or quiche.
  • Try leftover beef in a chef's salad, beef stew, skillet hash, fajitas or for a sandwich filling (chopped or sliced).
  • Leftover chicken? Make chicken pot pies, chicken fajitas or chicken salad.
  • Leftover turkey? Lucky you! Be sure to remove any stuffing from the carcass and refrigerate turkey and stuffing separately. Use leftover turkey for tetrazzini, turkey divan or croquettes.
  • Add leftover sausage meat to plain pancake batter, or combine it with leftover mashed potatoes; form the mixture into patties and brown it in a frying pan.
  • To extend a little meat into a meal, combine any leftover meat with rice, macaroni or spaghetti noodles.
  • Freeze leftover breads and rolls to use for homemade croutons or stuffing at a later date.
  • Don't pour out leftover coffee. Freeze it into coffee ice cubes for iced coffee or other iced drinks. The same goes for tea.
  • Save meat drippings; de-fat and store them in the refrigerator. Use them for frying, sautéing and making gravy.