Food labeling – Ringing in the old

 

As every marketing expert knows, names count. They hide deficiencies and create impressions of a better reality. Furthermore, as it used to be (and still is to a lesser degree), many people believe that it is a crime to throw out food even if it is not freshly prepared. Thus, cooks have learned to relabel leftovers and turn them into delicacies of their own with little or no effort.

Some foods are old by definition to the extent that, like wine, they improve over time. The classic example is kimchi, Korean fermented cabbage. The processing period lasts for years in order to reach the perfect taste. Similarly, no one would want to eat olives straight from the tree, at least most varieties. They are awfully bitter au natural. However, after a period of curing, they become the perfect complementary ingredient or a dish in themselves. The word fresh is illogical in these cases.

A few dishes can appear on the table the next day without any change besides their texture and name. Yesterday’s fresh pasta becomes today’s dry pasta while an Italian lunch may include cold grilled vegetables, such as zucchini or sweet potato, with a dash of olive oil, carrying the name antipasto. There is no mention of last night’s dinner there.

Many people reprocess yesterday’s fowl leftovers, only adding a moistening agent, usually mustard or mayonnaise. Generations of Americans went to school on the Monday after Thanksgiving with Turkey sandwiches whose prime ingredient dated from Thursday, four days previously. A turkey sandwich psychologically has no connection with the big bird cooking in the oven on Thursday morning and certainly was no cause for shame in the schoolyard. As for chicken, the slightly dry chicken remains become a part of a delightful lunch when it takes center stage in a chicken salad. That the bird was not freshly roasted does not bother anybody.

Frying is another way of renovating a leftover. Restaurants serve refried rice, mixed with vegetables and soy sauce, without any shame. Many lovers of Mexican food cannot get enough refried beans, made from legumes that had been boiled long before they entered the frying pan. The Brits consider fried triple-cooked chips a treat, which is best when the potatoes were boiled and then sautéed the previous day. The old can even be better tasting than the new.

Some recipes use milk to repackage leftovers. The stalest of bread becomes the perfect basis for French toast (pain perdu in French) merely by adding milk (Some Canadian maple syrup does not hurt it also). As for yesterday’s peas or spuds, a mashing with the addition of some milk or cream turns them into a tasty side dish, with an identity of its own.

For those with higher culinary ambitions, those chicken bits mixed with potatoes and thrown in the oven often become a restaurant dish, known as chicken Parmentier. As for leftover beef or pork, make a ragu sauce and pour it over the dried pasta mentioned above. You will have a perfect dinner. That is also true when you integrate the remains of last night’s fish into fresh fish cakes. Nobody will complain

Waste not, want not, but don’t call it leftovers. “Precooked” dishes can be as tasty as those straight from the oven or range and even sometimes better. Thus, calling them leftovers seems to insult them and even prevent these variations from getting the respect they deserve. Thus, it is a good policy to give them a name worthy of the pleasure they create in your mouth. Reused foods deserve to have their virtues sung.