The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (7 page)

Broad beans

Bacon – with a very sharp knife you can trim off what you need from the frozen block

North Atlantic prawns

Pastry: shortcrust and puff

Woody herbs, chopped parsley

Breadcrumbs

Bread: most breads freeze well; bagels and pitta bread are especially useful

Leftover wine (really!) for use in cooking

We used to use our senses to help make decisions about whether to cook or chuck, but food labels can be pernicious, encouraging us to abandon our own judgement in favour of remote estimation. So here’s the thing: if food is clearly rotten and unsalvageable, it will have to be thrown out or composted. If it smells odd, if it’s turned a funny colour, has mould on it or is slimy, then bin it. Heat will intensify the smell of rotten food, so if that piece of slightly iffy bacon starts to throw off an intense, gamy smell once it’s under the grill or in the pan, it probably shouldn’t be there in the first place. Bottom line – if in any doubt, chuck it out.

Most raw meat, however, is perfectly fine for consumption even if it has just slipped over its label date: touch it, look at it closely and above all smell it. Bread may become stale but it’s fine to eat, preferably toasted, as long as there are no mould spots. Likewise, the mouldy bits can be cut off cheese or fruit, leaving the good parts for eating – they are often bursting with the best flavour as they reach the end of their lives. You should never take chances, but you
can
trust yourself to make your own careful decisions.

The reality behind food labelling is this:

This refers to quality rather than food safety and most food is fine to eat beyond these dates, though the taste and texture may not be at their very best. This also applies to canned, dried and frozen food.

Government advice is that eggs should not be eaten after the best-before date, though I admit I do it sometimes. You just
know
when an egg is off – it rattles, for a start, and once cracked open it stinks. If in doubt, put a whole egg into a bowl of water: fresh eggs will sink and rotten eggs float; anything in between is suspect. In this case, crack the egg into a separate bowl and smell it before adding it to anything else; if it doesn’t smell, it’s fine to use.