1. Ketchup<\/strong><\/p>\n Ketchup is something I\u2019m always surprised to see in the fridge. Who wants cold ketchup on their hot fries or burger? Its acidity level is high enough to prevent microbial growth, and its sugar content is also a preservative. Just keep it out of direct sunlight, and it should be fine.<\/p>\n 2. Potatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n Many fruits and vegetables benefit from being stored in the fridge, but spuds are an exception. In refrigeration, they convert some of their starches to sugars (a natural antifreeze), which messes with their flavor and texture. They need a couple of weeks after coming out of refrigeration before the sugars revert to starches, which drove me crazy when I was preparing hand-cut fries at my restaurants. Chilled potatoes brown too quickly, making the fries darker than desired.<\/p>\n 3. Mayonnaise<\/strong><\/p>\n This one may surprise you if you grew up on stories of people getting sick at picnics from foods containing mayonnaise, but it\u2019s true. Store-bought mayonnaise is acidic enough to keep safely at room temperature. Don\u2019t believe me? According to Hellmann\u2019s (aka Best Foods), the top-selling mayonnaise company in the U.S., its product can be stored at room temperature for up to a month after opening, or two months in the refrigerator.<\/p>\n The problem is actually the foods you mix with the mayo. I buy mine in the big jar and use it to refill a squeeze bottle. I only ever reach into the jar with scrupulously clean utensils, so food never comes in contact with it. Important note: This only applies to commercial mayonnaise. Your homemade mayonnaise is extremely perishable and requires proper refrigeration.<\/p>\n 4. Mustard<\/strong><\/p>\n Mustard, like ketchup, is a condiment with more than enough acidity to keep it food safe. This applies to plain old yellow \u201cballpark\u201d mustard, the hot English style, Dijon mustard, or grainy deli-style mustard \u2026 whatever you\u2019ve got, in other words.<\/p>\n 5. Soy Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n I always have a bottle of soy sauce sitting on a shelf near my kitchen work area, and it never goes into the fridge. Its high salt content keeps it food safe, and I use it frequently enough that it never goes bad. (Soy sauce adds a great umami kick to anything you cook.) The same goes for my bottle of Worcestershire sauce that sits beside it.<\/p>\n 6. Tomatoes<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a lot of fruits that only ripen properly at room temperature, and tomatoes are one of them. (We eat them as a vegetable, but they\u2019re technically fruit.) If you refrigerate tomatoes before they\u2019re adequately ripened, their flavor is stunted and their texture suffers. You can refrigerate them once they\u2019re fully ripe to prolong their freshness, but they\u2019ll taste better if you let them come to room temperature before you eat them.<\/p>\n 7. Hot Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n Hot sauce is another food that\u2019s acidic enough to store sans refrigeration. It\u2019ll last for months at room temperature, and its flavors will remain full and bold. After about six months, though, the hot sauce will finally begin to lose its potency. If you only bring out that bottle of Tabasco a couple of times a year for bloody marys, it\u2019s probably best to refrigerate it.<\/p>\n 8. Avocados<\/strong><\/p>\n Scroll up a few lines to the section about tomatoes \u2014 that applies to avocados as well. They simply won\u2019t ripen in the refrigerator, full stop. So leave them on the counter until they\u2019re ripe, and then use them quickly. If you have more than you\u2019ll use in a day or so, at that point, it\u2019s OK to refrigerate the rest to keep them from progressing to the \u201ceww, ick\u201d stage. 9. Fresh Basil<\/strong><\/p>\n Most fresh herbs will keep for a long time when stored in the fridge, but basil is an exception. Simply put it in a glass of water and place it on the countertop. (Trust me on this \u2014 I grow basil in my garden every year.) That\u2019s why good supermarkets leave the herb out, often near the tomatoes, rather than put it in a refrigerated case.<\/p>\n 10. Stone Fruit<\/strong><\/p>\n Stone fruits, such as peaches, plums, and nectarines, fall into the same camp as avocados and tomatoes because they\u2019ll never fully ripen if you pop them in the fridge. Instead, they\u2019ll develop a mealy texture, which is not what you want at all. As with tomatoes and avocados, though, if you\u2019ve cut into one and won\u2019t finish it, it\u2019s OK to refrigerate the remainder to prevent it from spoiling.<\/p>\n 11. Nuts<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve personally gone both ways on this, because keeping nuts refrigerated does stop their natural oils from going rancid. Cooler temperatures mess with their flavor and texture, though, so I\u2019ve gone back to buying only what I\u2019ll use in a reasonable time frame and storing them in my pantry. An exception is the pine nuts I use to make pesto, which I buy in bulk and keep vacuum-sealed in my freezer between summers.<\/p>\n 12. Chocolate<\/strong><\/p>\n If you spring for some really good chocolate for baking or an occasional treat, you may be tempted to keep it in the fridge. Don\u2019t do that. The cocoa butter in chocolate misbehaves at cold temperatures, giving it a disappointingly crumbly texture and powdery surface over time. The latter issue is known as \u201cbloom,\u201d and it\u2019s just the cocoa butter coming to the surface, so don\u2019t throw away your chocolate if you see it. It\u2019s perfectly fine to eat and will melt away if you bake with it.<\/p>\n 13. Coffee<\/strong><\/p>\n Like chocolate, its frequent partner, coffee tastes best when not frozen or refrigerated. The chill dampens the volatile oils that give coffee its robust flavor, and going in and out of the fridge can cause condensation on the beans or ground coffee (especially in humid climates like mine). Condensation can lead to spoilage, which is pretty ironic in this context.<\/p>\n 14. Apples<\/strong><\/p>\n I live in apple-growing country, and my grandkids and I eat a lot of apples. OK, they eat the first few bites of a lot of apples, but the point remains the same. Apples are a naturally long-keeping fruit, and refrigeration can mute their flavors. Don\u2019t do it unless the apples are cut up or getting past their prime.<\/p>\n 15. Nutella and Peanut Butter<\/strong><\/p>\n These spreads are also beloved by my grandkids, and both are perfectly fine (better, even) when they aren\u2019t refrigerated. Mainstream peanut butter brands are packed with preservatives and will last months without issue. Natural peanut butter only needs refrigeration if you don\u2019t eat it often. Chocolate and hazelnut Nutella, and its competitors, develop a weird texture if they\u2019re refrigerated.<\/p>\n 16. Honey<\/strong><\/p>\n It would never occur to me to refrigerate honey, so I was quite surprised to learn that some people do. Sugar is a preservative, and honey is mostly sugar. It will last for centuries when sealed to keep out moisture, so relax and leave it in the pantry. Refrigeration also makes honey crystallize faster, making it a pain to get out of the bottle.<\/p>\n 17. Cucumbers<\/strong><\/p>\n For a lot of people I know, cukes go right from the shopping bag to the crisper drawer. That\u2019s a bad idea because the cold, dry air of the refrigerator will make the cucumbers deteriorate pretty quickly. I\u2019ve regularly kept my homegrown cukes on the counter for a couple of weeks without problems<\/p>\n 18. Citrus Fruits<\/strong><\/p>\n Citrus fruits are exceptionally versatile, making them a staple in many kitchens. Oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit all keep really well at room temperature, and refrigeration tends to suck the moisture out of them pretty quickly. Leave the fruits out, perhaps in a hanging basket or concrete bowl, and only refrigerate them after they\u2019re cut.<\/p>\n 19. Fresh Peppers<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ll finish with fresh peppers, another fruit masquerading as a vegetable. Like many others on this list, they will continue to ripen if you leave them on the counter, and that\u2019s when their flavor and texture are best. This is true for both sweet and hot peppers. I refrigerate mine after I cut into them, or if I\u2019m looking to preserve hot peppers\u2019 \u201cgreen\u201d flavor and don\u2019t want them to ripen and sweeten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 19 Items Professional Chefs Never Refrigerate 1. Ketchup Ketchup is something I\u2019m always surprised to see in the fridge. Who wants cold ketchup on their hot fries or burger? Its acidity level is high enough to prevent microbial growth, and its sugar content is also a preservative. Just keep it out of direct sunlight, and … Continue reading “No Refrigeration Needed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-tricks-and-tools","category-third-party-material"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23416,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23415\/revisions\/23416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRelated:<\/p>\n
\nRelated:<\/p>\n