Have you ever warmed up some leftovers from only a day ago and found the flavor a bit odd? Or maybe you found it downright disgusting, and threw the food away. How can perfectly cooked food go bad in such a short time? This is called "warmed over flavor," or WOF. People are different in how sensitive they are to the taste or aroma, and it doesn't happen in all foods. In fact, it's a phenomena that really only happens with meat, which explains why I can't relate to the experience- I rarely have any leftover meat in the refrigerator. Even in the meat category, WOF is most likely to occur in chicken. The reason has to do with the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and the iron they react to.
Kyle Frischkorn at Serious Eats explains the exact process of leftovers turning just enough to give them WOF. But more important, he explains what we can do to prevent it from happening. Frischkorn and his colleagues ate a ridiculous amount of chicken prepared and stored in different ways to rate their detection of WOF. Their findings may be valuable to you. Or you may be one of the people who are not at all sensitive to WOF, in which case, count yourself lucky.
(Image credit: Michael J. Bennett)
