11
votes
What foods are better after a day or two?
Lots of foods are best when freshly cooked. What foods do you think are better after they've been in the fridge for a day or two and they get reheated?
Lots of foods are best when freshly cooked. What foods do you think are better after they've been in the fridge for a day or two and they get reheated?
Home-made chili. Mine is always better the next day.
Pretty much anything that has sauce and spices, as the extra time and hydration lets it get all mixed together and mellow. Curries, chili, stews... heck, even cookie dough is better if you give it a day in the fridge before you bake it.
As others have stated, chili is great the second day, as it gives the spices time to really marinate in there and dig deep into the meat and/or the beans.
I find many pasta dishes are excellent at this as well. Second day lasagna (American style) is one of my favorites, as well as day old properly refrigerated Asian food leftovers such as lo mein, pad thai, and certain curries.
For me the real question is usually: reheat them or eat them cold? There are some things that I actually enjoy just as much cold as warm. Pizza is one of them, oddly.
Chilis, absolutely.
Also sarmale (Romanian cabbage rolls) and Stuffed peppers... Actually I think a lot of dishes with a tomato base develop further after they're done cooking
Homemade Popcorn, gives it a little more chewiness and is a little more saturated with the seasoning and oil. I always make more than I need so I get a bonus snack the day after!
For me the obvious choice is beans, they get really good on the next day when the sauce thickens up.
Basically any non-lettuce salad - pasta salad, cucumber salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, potato salad, etc. They typically have a fatty element that absorbs all the fat soluble components and spreads things around, creating a delicious taste and great mouth feel after a night in the fridge.
Honourable mention to pizza - has to be left on the counter overnight and eaten hungover/tired the next day. The danger makes it taste better (disclaimer: I've not done this in a decade, I'm a responsible adult now who refrigerates leftover pizza)
Any kind of Indian dish, my s/o's masala, korma, this ad-hoc lentil dish, every one of them is better days later.
We make a big pot, have 1 serving, store ~2 servings in the fridge for lunch during the week and freeze half of it for leftovers next week. Store separate from rice.
Curry is definitely the first that came to mind for me.
I remember reading an article once where some chemists had looked into it and found that various chemical reactions continued to occur while it's sitting in the fridge that benefit the taste, so there really is a reason for it seeming to taste better.
I make a Jamaican Soup (mannish water or Saturday soup depending on what your family called it when you were a "pikni") that tastes so much more dense and flavourful after a day or two.
The pepper spices soak into the veg, the spinners soak up and saturate the soup itself, and the goat/stewing steak softens and becomes so tender it makes one's mouth water.
Shepherd's pie is delicious fresh, but the next day? Forget about it.
May be an unpopular opinion but all kinds of dumplings. I like when they're cold and chewy.
A little different than what you mean, but chocolate chip cookie dough. Make it and leave it in the fridge for a few days before you bake it. Like 2-3 days makes killer cookies. You can do up to a week just fine.
Hutspot! But unless you're Dutch you're probably not going to be trying that :p
McDonald's chicken nuggets always taste better out of the fridge for me, but I haven't had them in almost a year for political and health reasons.
Otherwise, I agree with everyone else on the chilis, soups, stews, and salads being better the next day. Some casseroles are also better the next day. My mother in law makes casserole spinach squares and chilaquiles squares. The Chilaquiles are nothing like the real thing, but a casserole and it's so good cold or heated up.
Piling on the chili and stews train. Maybe it's weird, but I also love hot wings the next day (served cold)
Burritos. All the ingredients just meld together and it’s just chef’s kiss
To give a different answer to the sauces: fermented foods continue to change in flavour a lot as they sit in the fridge.
Gumbo and red beans and rice come to mind.