What groceries actually belong in the fridge? Photo / Facebook
What groceries actually belong in the fridge? Photo / Facebook
What should you keep in your fridge? According to UK supermarket chain Tesco's chairman, John Allan, bread should be in there, in order to reduce food waste and save money as food inflation is set to soar. Or, to put it another way, if we can't afford the weekly shop, it's our fault for being wastrels, and nothing to do with the supermarkets charging more to safeguard their bottom line. (Tesco recently reported a doubling in their first half profits).
But – natural cynicism aside – I'm all for reducing food waste. It's just that keeping bread in the fridge isn't the way to do it, as bread goes dry and stale faster if it is chilled. Could it be that the Tesco chairman might know the price of a loaf of sliced white, but isn't that involved with the nitty-gritty of household mealtimes?
To be honest, I'm a bit sensitive on the subject of fridges. They are a very personal space – like my spongebag, or my Google history. When a well-meaning visitor moves to open the door on mine – to helpfully fetch their own milk, perhaps – I feel myself tense. Will they be startled at how full it is, stacked with tubs and packets, or repulsed by the crustily greying pot of neglected sourdough starter festering in a dim corner? Perhaps they'll judge me for the squeezy bottle of mayonnaise (calls herself a food writer!), or the sticky jar of some Asian condiment that's been gently crystallising there since Ottolenghi's second cookbook.
These days, we keep everything in the fridge – but my mother would have thought it pretty odd to chuck the cheese and the chocolate in there, next to the leftovers of yesterday's roast and the bottles of silver-top. She'd be right, too: cheese prefers to breathe at a somewhat warmer temperature, around 10C, and chocolate becomes greasy and tasteless when chilled. We've lost our "frigucation": a knowledge of what is best in and out of the fridge, opting instead for a rather prissy "just in case" attitude promoted by food manufacturers, who invariably suggest their products are refrigerated. As if anyone wants ice-cold ketchup on their sausages.
To meet this new need, fridge sizes have been rising steadily over the past couple of decades, and we've become obsessed by wardrobe-like American-style coolers. These slick-looking kitchen behemoths promise us entry not to Narnia, but some glossy Stateside fantasy of sleek, clean efficiency, a place where Carrie Bradshaw keeps her coffee in the freezer – although she also stores her Manolos in the oven, so she's no Delia.
As our fridges have got bigger, our houses have got warmer. While in 1970, the average room temperature in winter was 12C, nowadays your living areas are likely to be above 18C. Central heating means warmth reaches into every corner of the house, and old-fashioned cold, well-ventilated larders were ditched long ago in favour of indoor loos and utility rooms. So when the instructions are to keep food "in a cool place", we don't feel we have much choice. The only place may be the fridge.
With energy bills soaring, it could be time for a rethink, and not just in terms of turning down the thermostat and popping on the pair of socks that the energy company so thoughtfully sent – E.on chairman Leonhard Birnbaum was surely at the same dinner party as John Allan when they brainstormed money-saving tips for the masses. Those big side-by-side fridge freezers use as much as three times the power of the little undercounter refrigerators we used to get by on.
We have got some of our fridge routines all wrong. Why is the bottom drawer invariably labelled as the salad drawer? It's much better for meat storage, not only because it's the coldest spot in the fridge but also the location means that meat juices (a source of food poisoning bacteria) can't drip on other food.
Maybe we just need to buy food and eat it, rather than ram our fridges and cupboards with bags of salad and half-eaten jars. I'm off to have some bread and butter – neither of which has been in the fridge.
If you keep bread in the fridge, it will go stale a lot faster. Photo / Getty Images
To fridge or not to fridge?
Bread
Keeping bread in the fridge makes the starch molecules crystallise, so the bread toughens and dries out – OK for toast at a pinch, lousy for sandwiches. If you don't eat much bread, you're better off keeping your sliced loaf in the freezer and toasting from there.
Eggs
Keep eggs in the fridge to extend their life, from around two weeks to two months. But cold eggs are useless for baking (they'll curdle a cake batter) and chilling breaks down the natural seal on the shell, so once they've been in the fridge you can't change your mind and leave them out instead.
Jam
Traditional jam keeps in the cupboard perfectly well, provided you use a clean spoon to dollop it on your plate – toast crumbs from your knife are prone to turning mouldy. That said, modern preserves with lower sugar contents will need keeping in the fridge, unless you are planning to finish the jar within three or four days.
Ketchup
Who wants cold sauce on their sausages? Keep it in the cupboard.
Perfectly safe kept out of the fridge, but spice levels will fall, so if you like it hot, chill it.
Tomatoes
Never put firm tomatoes in the fridge as it stops the flavour developing and gives them a mealy texture. However, when they go squishy, the fridge will stop them going mouldy and give you another day or two to eat them up.
Potatoes
Fridges spell disaster for potatoes, as the cold turns the starches to sugars, making for soggy, dark roasties and cloying, gloopy mash. Store them instead in a dark, well ventilated, cool spot. 8-10C is ideal, but at least make sure they aren't next to the radiator.
Onions are also best kept out of the fridge. Photo / 123rf
Unroasted nuts keep perfectly well in the cupboard, but once they've been toasted they are prone to rancidity, so store them in the fridge. Long term? Any nuts will last for a year or more in the freezer.
Nut oils
If it's not in the fridge, it's almost certainly rancid. That goes for toasted sesame too, stir-fry fans.
Coffee
Never keep coffee in the fridge: it's too damp, and may result in off flavours. The freezer can extend the life of whole beans, though.
A controversial one: dried food definitely doesn't need to be in the fridge, but open tins (properly covered) will last longer and smell less if kept cold.
