Today Is The Last Day For Leftovers!

If it’s STILL a game of culinary Tetris, tonight’s dinner choice is obvious: The Leftover Buffet.

Four days have passed since the big feast, and your refrigerator is starting to feel less like an appliance and more like a time capsule. According to the USDA, today is the final safe day to dive into those leftovers before they cross over into “science experiment” territory.

Sure, some brave souls will push the limit. Food is expensive, waste is tragic, and Grandma swears she once ate mashed potatoes nine days old and was “just fine.” But experts disagree, and unlike Grandma, they don’t rely on the legendary, deeply flawed “smell-test.”

The USDA lays it down clearly: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, gravy, and pumpkin pie all tap out after three to four days in the fridge. After that, it’s a gamble.

But there’s good news: your freezer is basically a magical time machine. Most leftovers can survive in suspended animation for months. Slide them in there ASAP, before the food safety fairies revoke your privileges.

There is one holiday hero with a longer shelf life. Cranberry sauce, homemade, hangs on for a week to ten days. The canned stuff? Practically immortal at two weeks.

So tonight, pile a plate high with everything that’s still safe, savor the last echoes of the holiday… and maybe say a small prayer of thanks for whoever invented Tupperware.

Just be smart. Just be safe.

And whatever you do—don’t trust the smell-test.

Doug O’Brien