Are leftovers low class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a couple of single friends that are a bit older and I try to send them home with leftovers- I know they like them. We serve very good food and wine to our guests and I don't think anyone would consider us low class for doing leftovers.- If anyone thought that it would be their problem.

DCUM has this weird preoccupation with “class.” Most of the questions asked in connection with so-called class have never occurred to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put yourself in the shoes of an average UMC or rich person. They take your (let's assume) high-quality leftovers home and put them in the fridge. Leftovers aren't a breakfast item, so they're pushed into lunchtime or dinner (perhaps upwards of 24 hours later).

If you have a fridge and pantry full of fresh food, why would you reach for a day-old plate of lousy microwaved food?

It's very rare that I'm so blown away by someone's food that I want more of it from the microwave the next day -- outside of maybe a spectacular soup or chili, which will reheat well?

Exception would be cookies and desserts, which don't require reheating and are generally still very good the next day. I will absolutely devour a good piece of chocolate cake, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, or apple tart the next day. But I'd never want anything like sloppy trays of cobbler, cream pies, whipped cream desserts which always look sad after sitting out and then scooped into to-go trays.

Why assume it’s lousy? Reheated Turkey and stuffing sounds great to me. I don’t cook gourmet food for lunch so it beats the eggs or soup I’d otherwise have made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put yourself in the shoes of an average UMC or rich person. They take your (let's assume) high-quality leftovers home and put them in the fridge. Leftovers aren't a breakfast item, so they're pushed into lunchtime or dinner (perhaps upwards of 24 hours later).

If you have a fridge and pantry full of fresh food, why would you reach for a day-old plate of lousy microwaved food?

It's very rare that I'm so blown away by someone's food that I want more of it from the microwave the next day -- outside of maybe a spectacular soup or chili, which will reheat well?

Exception would be cookies and desserts, which don't require reheating and are generally still very good the next day. I will absolutely devour a good piece of chocolate cake, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, or apple tart the next day. But I'd never want anything like sloppy trays of cobbler, cream pies, whipped cream desserts which always look sad after sitting out and then scooped into to-go trays.

I'm UMC/rich and grew up UMC/rich. I've always eaten leftovers. Rich people don't get rich by throwing away perfectly edible food.

[Anonymous]

We eat leftovers all the time. Especially now that we’re home so much. The idea of throwing away perfectly good food makes me crazy. I grew up with food insecurity. We save and repurpose everything we can. Compared with most posters on DCUM I seem to have a much much lower level of worry about food poisoning.

[Anonymous]

Wtf? Left overs low class? DCUM continues its epic history of elitism and weirdness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We eat leftovers all the time. Especially now that we’re home so much. The idea of throwing away perfectly good food makes me crazy. I grew up with food insecurity. We save and repurpose everything we can. Compared with most posters on DCUM I seem to have a much much lower level of worry about food poisoning.

This gets at why some people consider leftovers low class. It speaks to a level of frugality that just isn't necessary if you don't have to worry about food or money. I think "low class" isn't the best term to describe such economy -- that phrase tends to be more appropriate to describe trashy behavior than thriftiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat leftovers all the time. Especially now that we’re home so much. The idea of throwing away perfectly good food makes me crazy. I grew up with food insecurity. We save and repurpose everything we can. Compared with most posters on DCUM I seem to have a much much lower level of worry about food poisoning.

This gets at why some people consider leftovers low class. It speaks to a level of frugality that just isn't necessary if you don't have to worry about food or money. I think "low class" isn't the best term to describe such economy -- that phrase tends to be more appropriate to describe trashy behavior than thriftiness.

I will never understand this. Just because you have enough to “not worry about food or money - does that give you a pass for wasting valuable resources?? It’s consumptive, entitled, and, frankly, disgusting behavior.

Don’t be one of those humans - and for gods’ sake don’t teach your children to be.

Think about it from a larger perspective than just your own selfish paradigm of “having enough”:

https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/fight-climate-change-by-preventing-food-waste#:~:text=When%20we%20waste%20food%2C%20we%20also%20waste%20all,greenhouse%20gas%20even%20more%20potent%20than%20carbon%20dioxide.

https://watchmywaste.com.au/food-waste-greenhouse-gas-calculator/

https://ourworldindata.org/food-ghg-emissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wtf? Left overs low class? DCUM continues its epic history of elitism and weirdness.

It's bourgeois posing.

[Anonymous]

Eating leftovers is totally fine. It seems like a PITA for a hostess to have to package things up, so I generally wouldn’t take anything from a friend’s house. Big holiday meals among family are an exception, and it just depends on how much food we have at home and if we will eat what we take in a reasonable amount of time.
If I’m hosting, unless you gush over cookies that I can easily slip into a ziplock bag, I don’t offer.

[Anonymous]

The only Thanksgiving dinner item worth eating the next day is good ham. The rest of pretty gross after microwaving.

[Anonymous]

We finished our leftovers today. Had turkey and random sides for 2 meals yesterday and lunch today. Pie for breakfast. We get a big enough turkey to make sure we will have leftovers for sandwiches. I often have dinner leftovers for lunch the next day. I thought reducing food waste was a good thing but what do I know. FWIW we have a 7 figure income and I went to a Big 3 school here and an ivy league college but I guess money, upbringing and education don't buy class?

[Anonymous]

I always eat leftovers for breakfast. Who wants a bowl of cereal when you could have, for example, stuffing with gravy like I did today? My kids always finish off the pumpkin pies for breakfast the day after T-day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm UMC/rich and grew up UMC/rich. I've always eaten leftovers. Rich people don't get rich by throwing away perfectly edible food.

Amen

[Anonymous]

I am fine with eating my own, but it feels cheap to me to drag home someone else's.

[Anonymous]

No, they just don’t taste as good.