Store All Your Leftovers in Soup Containers
Although I rarely have more than two people in my apartment at a time, I cook as if I were feeding a family of four. This is mostly related to my work, but compounded by my tendency to overestimate how much food I can eat for any given meal. Therefore, food storage is critical, and while I have tried many food storage systems, none compare to the ease and efficiency of using soup containers (not gourmet containers that are similar in shape but fragile – soup containers will look slightly more opaque).
Ever since I bought two packs of soup containers (two different sizes) from a food supply store, I haven’t used much. Sometimes I pull out a converted jar of jam (for dressing salads , some gravy, and emergency shakes ) and I knew I sometimes use a freezer bag, but I would rate 90% of my food – leftover homemade spices, pickles and dry foods – stored in a plastic soup container. And I’m not the only one. A.A. Newton (who drew me to them in the first place) has already praised them :
Buckets come in several sizes, but the lids are versatile. You can put them in your microwave, dishwasher, or freezer. Empty or full, they fold efficiently. The flexible material makes them very easy to pour: just squeeze the sides slightly to create a spout. They’re recyclable, but they’re so cheap ($ 5-10 per sleeve out of $ 50 depending on where you get them) that throwing a month-long bucket of rotten mysterious liquid right in the trash isn’t the end of the world. …
I just cannot stress how important the summation factor is to me. As I mentioned earlier, my refrigerator (and my entire kitchen in fact) is small, and containers that stack stably on top of one another make my life a lot easier. Like A.A. Newton before me, I use their wide mouth to make mayonnaise and other emulsified dressings right in the container, and their ability to withstand a wide range of temperatures means I can fill them with vegetables and fill them with boiling brine right away. top, then turn over and place them in the refrigerator or freezer. These are all, and they are transparent, which means I can actually see the food stored inside, which exponentially increases the likelihood that I will eat it before it goes bad. (What do I do if I need to store something larger than the soup container, like fried chicken? I just leave it on the baking sheet and cover it with plastic wrap, but all the juices from the pan end up in the soup container.)
Yes, they are plastic, but they are designed to hold food – even very hot food – and they are cheap enough to be recycled as soon as you feel they wear out. They’re pretty sturdy, and if you don’t microwave them daily, I’ve found them to last for a very long time (almost indefinitely if you only use them for cold and room temperature storage).
Finally, they are lightweight and practically unbreakable. While I like the look of glass containers, good ones are heavy and – no matter how thick or tempered the glass is – they can break if dropped. The weight of the Pyrex crockery may not matter much to some of you, but the weight of the kitchen equipment is something I’ve been thinking about lately, especially now that my mother is developing arthritis in the wrists and hands of the veterinarian (as it turns out, sterilization of thousands severely affects the joints).
Also, if you have children, it is a little easier for them to pick up and hold light containers than heavy glass containers that can drop, break and potentially cut themselves. I have no children, but I think they always drop something.
What are your favorite ways to store food? Our health and science editor Beth Skorecki loves square, black, tray-like takeout containers, especially when planning meals (which I don’t do much). Justify your choice in the comments below.