Door open, door closed: these 7 things belong in the fridge
Are green spots appearing on your fresh tortillas at record speed? Is the ketchup developing weird crusts? And has your lemon turned into a rock-hard, wrinkled little lump? You should have kept them in the fridge. Wait, what? Yes, you didn’t know that yet, but these seven things are best stored in the fridge.
Nuts and seeds
At the back of a kitchen drawer, in a crate you bring out when you feel like making granola or baking, walnuts, pine nuts and pistachios are slowly crumbling away. At room temperature, they lose their flavor, can go rancid or dry out into a fossil from the Mesozoic era. You don’t want that, so from now on, keep them in the fridge. Put them in a freezer container next to the quark and mayo. They’ll keep even longer in the freezer, for at least a year, so if you’ve stocked up heavily, that’s a practical plan B.
Tortillas
You may think those soft corn tortillas will stay good until the end of time, but you soon discover that’s a misconception. Before long, green-blue spots appear on those tasty little things, especially once you’ve opened the package. Put them in a sturdy airtight bag and place them with the vegetables. That way, you can keep them for at least a week, maybe even longer. Don’t know when you’ll use them? Put them in the freezer. You don’t have to, though—you could also make these delicious tacos this afternoon.
Dates and dried fruit
Apricots, raisins, prunes, figs, dates and other dried fruit can be stored for a long time, and even longer if you put them in the fridge. Because dates are best when they’re sweet but still a little juicy inside, right? In a container in the fridge, they stay deliciously soft and sweet.
Sauces
Mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, maple syrup and horseradish are best stored in the fridge, but chili sauce, soy sauce and fish sauce are not. Of course, ketchup or mustard will survive outside the fridge for a while—at snack bars, they’re simply kept on the table. But they can spoil faster than you think, and you probably don’t use them every day. In the fridge, a bottle of ketchup will easily last six months.
Ripe fruit
Are your bananas getting a little too ripe? Put them in the fridge’s vegetable drawer so they won’t ripen any further. Brown bananas are perfect for banana bread (try this vegan version sometime!), but eating a soft brown banana after working out isn’t quite as appealing. The same goes for avocados: if they’re perfectly ripe but you’re not ready for the perfect guacamole yet, put them in the vegetable drawer. And don’t put them next to the bananas, because they’ll still ripen very quickly…
Citrus fruit
Are you going to use all those juicing oranges this week? And that net of lemons—how long will it take you to get through them? If it’ll be longer than a week, put them in the fridge. That way, you’ll prevent them from drying out and losing their tart flavor—and that’s exactly what makes them so delicious. Lemons keep for at least three months in the fridge, and the same goes for other citrus fruit. So you can enjoy perfect mandarins for months!
Bread
Want to keep your fresh bread fresh for longer? It actually goes stale faster in the fridge, but it does brilliantly in the freezer. Handy, because you can chisel the slices you want to eat later out of the bag, while the rest stays peacefully in the freezer.
Read also:
- How to get that huge block of ice out of your freezer
- People find the strangest things in their freezers and all of Twitter goes wild
- Tried and tested: tips to combat fridge odors
Source: Food52
