Cooking ahead saves time on busy days, and a well-stocked freezer means a proper dinner is never far away. But cooked food needs a little care to stay safe and taste good the second time around. This guide covers how long cooked dishes keep in the fridge, how to cool, freeze and thaw them safely, how to reheat stews, rice and fried food, and how to label what goes into the freezer.
The storage times here follow mainstream food-safety guidance from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). Where the two differ, we say so. If you’re cooking for someone who is pregnant, elderly, very young or has a weakened immune system, use the shorter times.
The basic rules
- Keep your fridge at 5°C (41°F) or below. The FSA uses 5°C as the upper limit and the USDA uses 4°C (40°F), so aim for 0–4°C if you can. A fridge thermometer is the only way to know.
- Keep your freezer at −18°C (0°F) or below.
- Don’t leave cooked food at room temperature for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour on a very hot day (above 32°C / 90°F). Bacteria grow fastest in the range between about 5°C and 60°C (40°F and 140°F).
- Reheat leftovers until they’re piping hot all the way through: 74°C (165°F) in the centre, by USDA guidance, or 70°C held for 2 minutes, by FSA guidance.
- Reheat leftovers only once. The FSA advises against reheating the same food more than once.
- When in doubt, throw it out. Smell and appearance aren’t reliable signs of safety; some of the bacteria that cause food poisoning don’t change how food looks or smells.
Cooling cooked food quickly
The aim is to get food from hot to fridge-cold as fast as possible. A big pot of stew left on the hob to cool overnight stays warm for hours, which is exactly what you want to avoid.
- Divide large batches into smaller, shallow containers, no more than about 5 cm (2 in) deep, so they cool evenly.
- To speed things up, set the pot in a sink of cold water and ice, and stir now and then.
- Spread rice, grains and pasta out on a tray so they cool quickly.
- You don’t need to wait until food is completely cold before refrigerating it. Once the steam has died down, it can go into the fridge, as long as it’s within the 2-hour limit and the fridge isn’t overloaded.
- Leave a little space around containers in the fridge so cold air can circulate.
How long cooked food keeps
Fridge times are USDA guidance for food cooled and refrigerated promptly. The FSA’s general advice for leftovers is shorter: eat them within 2 days. Freezer times are for best quality. Food kept frozen at −18°C stays safe indefinitely, but its texture and flavour slowly decline.
| Food | Fridge | Freezer, best quality |
|---|---|---|
| Soups, stews, curries and tagines | 3–4 days | 2–3 months |
| Cooked meat and poultry | 3–4 days | 2–6 months |
| Cooked fish and seafood | 3–4 days | 4–6 months |
| Stock and broth | 3–4 days | 2–3 months |
| Cooked pasta and baked pasta dishes | 3–5 days | 1–2 months |
| Cooked rice | 1 day (FSA) | freeze on the day it’s cooked; best within a month or two |
| Pizza | 3–4 days | 1–2 months |
| Hard-boiled eggs, in the shell | 1 week | not recommended |
| Desserts with eggs and dairy, such as tiramisu | 3–4 days | depends on the recipe |
| Bread, rolls and plain cakes | a few days at room temperature | up to 3 months |
Raw ingredients you’ve bought or prepared ahead have shorter fridge lives: raw chicken, mince and fish 1–2 days, and raw steaks, chops and roasts 3–5 days. Marinate raw meat in the fridge, never on the counter.
Rice needs extra care
Uncooked rice can contain spores of a bacterium called Bacillus cereus, which survive cooking. If cooked rice is left warm, they can grow and produce toxins that reheating won’t destroy. The FSA’s advice is to cool rice as quickly as possible, ideally within 1 hour, refrigerate it, and eat it within 24 hours. Reheat it only once, until steaming hot all the way through. If you want to keep it longer, freeze it in portions as soon as it’s cool. Day-old rice is ideal for fried rice, such as our kimchi fried rice, as long as it was cooled quickly and stored in the fridge.
Freezing well
- Cool food completely before freezing it. Putting warm food in the freezer raises the temperature of everything around it.
- Use airtight containers or freezer bags, and squeeze out as much air as you can. Air causes freezer burn: dry, pale patches that are safe to eat but tough and tasteless.
- Leave about 2 cm (¾ in) of space at the top of containers of soup or stew, because liquids expand as they freeze.
- Freeze soups and sauces flat in bags. They stack neatly and thaw much faster than a solid block.
- Freeze in the portions you’ll use, so you only thaw what you need.
- Freeze things that stick together, such as gnocchi, dumplings or coxinhas, on a tray first, then tip them into a bag once they’re hard.
What doesn’t freeze well
- Cream and milk-based sauces can separate. They often come back together if you stir or whisk them as they reheat.
- Raw salad vegetables, cucumber and lettuce turn limp and watery.
- Hard-boiled egg whites go rubbery.
- Fried, crisp coatings turn soft, though a hot oven or air fryer will bring much of the crispness back.
- Boiled potato chunks can turn grainy. Mashed potato freezes better, especially with plenty of butter or oil in it.
- Mayonnaise and dressings made with it separate.
Freeze it cooked or uncooked?
Many dishes freeze better before they’re cooked. Our spinach and ricotta stuffed shells and vegan lentil shepherd’s pie are both frozen unbaked, then baked, so they taste freshly made. Potato gnocchi and chicken coxinhas are frozen uncooked and cooked straight from the freezer. Stews, curries, braises and broths are the opposite: they’re best cooked fully, cooled and frozen.
Thawing safely
There are three safe ways to thaw food, plus a fourth option for some dishes: cook it from frozen. Never thaw food on the counter at room temperature, because the outside warms up long before the middle thaws.
- In the fridge. The safest method, though the slowest. Most portions thaw overnight. Large, dense items take longer, up to a day or more. Food thawed in the fridge keeps for a further day or two before cooking.
- In cold water. Seal the food in a leak-proof bag and submerge it in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes. Cook it as soon as it has thawed.
- In the microwave. Use the defrost setting and cook or reheat the food straight away, because some parts may have started to warm.
- From frozen. Soups and stews can be reheated gently from frozen in a covered pan with a splash of water. Some dishes are meant to be cooked from frozen: gnocchi, coxinhas and our stuffed shells all go straight from the freezer to the pot, fryer or oven.
Can you refreeze?
Raw food that has been thawed in the fridge can be cooked and then frozen again. Cooked food thawed in the fridge can, by USDA guidance, be refrozen without cooking, though the quality suffers each time. Food thawed in cold water or the microwave should be cooked before it’s refrozen. And don’t refreeze anything that has been left out at room temperature.
Reheating
Stews, curries, tagines and soups
Reheat them covered over low to medium heat, with a splash of water or stock, stirring now and then, until the sauce is bubbling and the meat is hot all the way through. Thick stews catch easily, so keep the heat low and stir. Soups and sauces should be brought to the boil. Our lamb tagine, for example, takes 20–25 minutes from the fridge. Use a thermometer if you have one: 74°C (165°F) in the centre of the thickest piece.
Many braises taste better the next day. Our lamb tagine with prunes is a good example: refrigerate it overnight, lift off the fat that sets on top, then reheat. For more on tagines, see how to cook a tagine.
Rice
Reheat rice only once, until it’s steaming hot throughout. In the microwave, sprinkle it with a little water, cover it and stir halfway. In a pan, add a splash of water, cover and heat, stirring, or stir-fry it in a little oil. Don’t keep reheated rice warm for long, and throw away anything left after reheating.
Fried food
The microwave turns fried food soft and chewy. Instead, reheat it on a rack in a hot oven, around 200°C (400°F), or in an air fryer at about 180°C (350°F), until crisp and piping hot inside. Our coxinhas take 10–12 minutes in the oven or 6–8 minutes in the air fryer.
Baked pasta, pies and casseroles
Reheat individual portions in the microwave, covered, until steaming. Reheat a whole dish in a 180°C (350°F) oven under foil, with a spoonful of water or sauce to stop it drying out. Most dishes take 20–30 minutes, but larger or deeper ones take longer, so check that the centre is piping hot.
Microwave tips
Cover the dish loosely, stir or turn it halfway through, and let it stand for a minute or two before eating so the heat spreads evenly. Microwaves heat unevenly, so check a few spots, especially in the middle.
Labelling
A freezer full of unlabelled boxes is a freezer full of guesswork. Before anything goes in, write on it:
- What it is, including whether it’s cooked or raw
- The date it was cooked or frozen
- How many portions it holds
- Any reheating notes, such as “bake from frozen, 190°C, 50–60 min”
- Allergens, if you’re cooking for others
Masking tape and a permanent marker work on almost anything. Put new food at the back and move older food to the front, so the oldest gets eaten first. A list on the freezer door of what’s inside, crossed off as you use it, saves a lot of rummaging.
Recipes that work well ahead
These recipes on the site are written with making ahead or freezing in mind. Each one has its own storage notes.
| Recipe | Make ahead | Freeze |
|---|---|---|
| Vegan lentil shepherd’s pie | Assemble up to 2 days ahead | Unbaked, up to 3 months |
| Tonkotsu ramen broth | Broth keeps 4 days in the fridge | In portions, up to 3 months |
| Traditional Greek moussaka | Assemble 1 day ahead | Baked, up to 3 months |
| Brioche cinnamon rolls | Shape, then rise overnight in the fridge | Baked without icing, up to 2 months |
| Classic tiramisu | Best made the day before; keeps 3 days | Undusted, up to 1 month |
| Oven chicken döner | Marinate up to 12 hours ahead | Sliced and cooked, up to 3 months |
| Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells | Assemble up to 24 hours ahead | Unbaked, up to 2 months; bake from frozen |
| Potato gnocchi | Boil, oil and chill up to 24 hours | Uncooked, up to 2 months; cook from frozen |
| Brazilian chicken coxinhas | Filling up to 2 days ahead | Breaded and uncooked, up to 3 months; fry from frozen |
The two tagines aren’t tagged as make-ahead, but both keep well: the chicken tajine and the lamb tagine each freeze for up to 3 months.
For measurements and oven temperatures when you come to bake or reheat, see our kitchen conversions guide.