Have you ever thought that your food leftovers taste a lot better the next day? It is the same food which you ate yesterday or a few hours ago, but why is that you seem to enjoy leftovers more? If you are one of these people, you are not alone because the food leftovers definitely taste better after some time.
Nearly 74% of the British population agrees that their last night’s leftovers taste much more delicious when they eat it the next day. A survey conducted by ASDA found that this is a real thing and not a myth that the taste enhances in certain foods after some hours pass. Some of these taste-enhancing food with time include pizza, curry, chili corn, casserole, and spaghetti bolognese.
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Because of this whole leftovers taste better thing, there is a massive increase in batch cooking trends in the common households during the lockdown period. More than one-third of people prefer to cook their food in abundance and eat it the next day and enjoy how good it tastes.
Charles Spence who is a Food Scientist and works as an Experimental Psychologist from Oxford Uni explains why food leftovers taste better the next day. He says it is because of the process of cooking which triggers so many reactions at a time which eventually makes the food taste more delicious the next day.
According to Spence, people like eating their food after the next day when they cooked it. Being a curry fan himself, he said that curry tastes a lot better after a few hours as compared to right after when it is cooked. So does this mean this taste has something to do with the reheating and refrigerating?
He says most of the foods taste better after reheating are those which are moist. So when the food is moist, the chances of drying up completely or going somewhat soggy reduces to zero.
The improvement of taste is because of the reheating which enhances the flavors of multiple ingredients inside. For example, when the curry is left in the fridge for the whole night. It helps the flavors to improve even more.
Typically, curry uses up to 20 ingredients so finding one ingredient that is responsible for improving the taste is almost impossible. In addition to this, when meat is mixed with spices or sauces, especially if it is marinated will end up tasting delicious, and more when a few hours are passed, after cooking it.
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Furthermore, when a dish like curry or stew is in making, the meat’s collagen completely breaks down, and then it is stored in the fridge which creates a jelly-like structure. After reheating, it again melts and the result is a silky type structure that feels delicious once you eat it.
To make the food leftovers taste better, make sure that the food is properly cooled and then refrigerated. Before reheating, give the frozen or refrigerated food some time to settle. Microwave and pan-heating, both work well for this purpose.
