Wanting to make a big batch of brown rice and black beans on Sunday nights, enough to grab a couple scoops and mix in fresh veggies, sour cream, etc daily. Will it last through Friday or should I do a few days worth at a time?
Thanks!
Posted Aug 16, 2016, 3:37 PM UTC
Should definitely last until Friday, though you may want to store them separately just in case they end up having different times.
Got this info from StillTasty (honestly I always think their times are short and go by smell and have never had a problem, but up to you).
Tips for storing cooked rice:
Tips for storing beans:
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Perfect, thanks! Appreciate the source too - Going to have to bookmark StillTasty.
Throw extra in zip lock and put in freezer. Easy
Can also take it one step further and separate into individual servings, bag and freeze.
this thread makes me feel like I have the immune system of an Amazon
For real I've eaten meat left out all night
My roomate likes to leave food out on the counter overnight (Chinese food and pizza mostly) "because it gets hard in the fridge"
They actually say rice should be consumed within 24 hours I think. Maybe 48. I'm trying to recall. But it's because of a very toxic spore that lives in rice and I don't think reheating will kill it.
You're going to get downvotes, but you're 100% correct. Bacillus cereus grows in cooked rice at room temperature and is not killed by reheating. It can make you very ill.
That being said, infection rates are something like 4% worldwide. It's probably fine.
And he isn't storing at room temperature
And it only grows while the rice is in between 42° and 138°. So if you store it in the fridge, cool it quickly and reheat it quickly, you have a lot of leeway.
Id say it's good for a week
If you're worried, cook and store them separately?
I'm only commenting because I'm surprised no one else said this but running cold water or ice bath to cool down whatever you cook so your refrigerator doesn't lose any temp from the heat is a good way to keep food out of the danger zone. Also because of how dense rice can be it is harder to cool down in large amounts, cool it in small broken up containers if at all. Hope this helps.
source: am restaurant kitchen manager
no, it will dry out or start to ferment, depending on how much moisture is in the container. i would give either 3 days in a <40°F fridge before throwing it out. cooked beans freeze well, but rice will not, so make the beans, suspend it in a little sauce, then freeze half of it. rice you'll have to remake mid week. a lower starch high moisture retention parboiled rice may buy you and extra day before going off. there are some natural preservative tricks you can use to stretch the bean the entire week that may impact flavor (think canned beans) r/MealPrepSunday/
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Are you talking about after its been cooked? The rule in restaurants for ready to eat foods is 4 hours in the "danger zone" temps, 7 days in a fridge. Will it taste the best after 7 days? Maybe not. Safe to eat tho? Probably. However the hard thing about beans and rice is that because they are so dense after you cook them they retain a lot of their heat. You'll want to separate them into several containers and try to drop the temp as fast as possible.
Thanks, very helpful. Planning on cooking it all ahead of time, so will play around with portioning it out so the temp drops fast enough.
You can always spread it out in a wide pan to cool it off even faster.