![Leftovers from Thanksgiving](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Leftovers_from_Thanksgiving.jpg)
Leftovers are surplus foods remaining unconsumed at the end of a
meal
A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food. The names used for specific meals in English vary, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal.
Although they c ...
, which may be put in containers with the intention of eating later. Inedible remains like bones are considered ''
waste
Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
'', not leftovers. Depending on the situation, the amount of food, and the type of food, leftovers may be saved or
thrown away.
The use of leftovers depends on where the meal was eaten, the preferences of the diner, and the local
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
. Leftovers from meals at home are often eaten later. This is facilitated by the private environment and convenience of airtight containers and
refrigeration
The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...
. People may eat leftovers directly from the refrigerator, reheat them, or use them as ingredients to make a new dish.
At restaurants, uneaten food from meals is sometimes taken by diners for later consumption. In the United States, such food is put in a so-called "doggy bag", notionally to feed to pets, whether or not it is in actuality.
Leftover cuisine
![Hot and Spicy Leftovers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Hot_and_Spicy_Leftovers.jpg)
New dishes made from leftovers are common in world cuisine. People invented many such dishes before refrigeration and reliable airtight containers existed. Besides capturing nutrition from otherwise inedible bones, stocks and broths provide a base for leftover scraps too small to be a meal themselves.
Casseroles,
[. "With the addition or subtractions of leftovers or inexpensive cuts of meat, the casserole is flexible and economical in terms of both ingredients and effort." (As quoted in )] paella
Paella (, , , , , ) is a rice dish originally from Valencia. While non-Spaniards commonly view it as Spain's national dish, Spaniards almost unanimously consider it to be a dish from the Valencian region. Valencians, in turn, regard ''paella'' ...
,
fried rice
Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. ...
,
Shepherd pie
Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier is a savoury dish of cooked Ground meat, minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are ...
s,
[''Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management'' by Isabella Beeton, 1861.][''Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book'' by Lizzie Heritage published by Cassell and Company, 1894] and
pizza can also be used for this purpose, and may even have been invented as a means of reusing leftovers. Among American university students, leftover pizza itself has acquired particular in-group significance, to the extent that the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service offers, as its first tip under "Food Safety Tips for College Students" by Louisa Graham,
a discussion of the considerable risks of eating unrefrigerated pizza.
At some holiday meals, such as
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
and
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
in the United States, it is customary to prepare much more food than necessary, specifically so the host can send leftovers home with guests. Cold
turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
is archetypal in the United States as a Thanksgiving leftover, with turkey meat often reappearing in
sandwich
A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...
es,
soups, and
casseroles for several days after the feast.
Leftover portions
Leftovers have had a major impact on the consumption of food, particularly the size of portions. Portion sizes have increased greatly. In general, food leftovers have both positive and negative impacts, depending on the person's eating habits involved with leftovers. With an increase in portion size comes the perception of the amount of intake a particular person considers. For example, a smaller portion usually leads to smaller consumption, making a person believe they have not eaten enough and negatively impacting their eating habits. In turn, a larger portion leads to a greater amount of leftovers, whereas a smaller portion leads to a small amount of leftovers. Through extensive research, one of the most influential factors of weight gain is leftover food and the increased amount of consumption because of it.
Chop suey
The name of the Chinese-American dish ''
chop suey
Chop suey () is a dish in American Chinese cuisine and other forms of overseas Chinese cuisine, consisting of meat (usually chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or fish) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery a ...
'' is sometimes translated as "miscellaneous leftovers", although it is unlikely that actual leftovers were served at chop suey restaurants.
Doggy bag
![Leftovers doggie bag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Leftovers_doggie_bag.jpg)
Diners in a
restaurant may leave uneaten food for the restaurant to discard, or take it away for later consumption. To take the food away, the diner might request a container, or ask a server to package it. Such a container is colloquially called a ''doggy bag'' or ''doggie bag''. This most likely derives from a pretense that the diner plans to give the food to a
pet
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...
, rather than eat it themselves, and so may be a
euphemism. The ''modern doggie bag'' came about in the 1940s. Some also speculate the name was born during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
when food shortages encouraged people to limit waste, and pet food was scarce. In 1943, San Francisco cafés, in an initiative to prevent animal cruelty, offered patrons ''Pet Pakits'', cartons that patrons could readily request to carry home leftovers. The term ''doggy bag'' was popularized in the 1970s etiquette columns of many newspapers. Doggy bags are most common in restaurants that offer a
take-out
A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...
food service as well as sit-down meals, and their prevalence as an accepted social custom varies widely by location. In some countries, especially in Europe, people would frown upon a diner asking for a doggy bag.
Some restaurants wrap leftovers in
tin foil
Tin foil, also spelled tinfoil, is a thin foil made of tin. Tin foil was superseded after World War II by cheaper and more durable aluminium foil, which is still referred to as "tin foil" in many regions (an example of a misnomer).
History
...
, creating shapes such as
swans or
sea horse
A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...
s.
Image:Leftovers-food.jpg, Restaurant patron showing his leftovers to be put in a "doggy bag"
See also
*
Foam food container
A foam food container is a form of disposable food packaging for various foods and beverages, such as processed instant noodles, raw meat from supermarkets, ice cream from ice cream parlors, cooked food from delicatessens or food stalls, or beve ...
*
Oyster pail
An oyster pail (also known as a paper pail, Chinese food box or Chinese takeout container) is a folded, waxed or plastic coated, paperboard packaging, container originally designed to hold oysters. It commonly comes with a handle made of Wire#S ...
*
Food waste
Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...
*
Pagpag
Pagpag is the Tagalog term for leftover food from restaurants (usually from fast food restaurants) scavenged from garbage sites and dumps. Pagpag food can also be expired frozen meat, fish, or vegetables discarded by supermarkets and scavenged in ...
*
Tirit
*
Bibimbap
Bibimbap
* ( , from Korean , literally "mixed rice"), sometimes romanized as bi bim bap or bi bim bop, is a Korean rice dish. The term "bibim" means "mixing" and " bap" refers to cooked rice. ''Bibimbap'' is served as a bowl of warm white ri ...
References
{{authority control
Meals
Recycling by product
af:Woefkardoes