How to store ingredients

Do not refrigerate these

Cold damages them, and in several cases the damage is not reversed by bringing them back to room temperature.

• Tomatoes. Below about 12°C the aromatic compounds stop being produced and the texture goes mealy. Partly permanent.
• Basil. A tropical plant. The cold ruptures cells and the leaves blacken within a day or two. Stand the stems in water on the counter instead.
• Potatoes. Cold converts starch to sugar, which makes them taste sweet and brown far too fast and unevenly when cooked.
• Onions and garlic. They want cool, dark, dry and airy. The fridge is damp and pushes them towards sprouting and mould.
• Bread. The fridge is the fastest possible way to stale bread — faster than the counter. Freeze it instead.
• Unripe fruit. Cold stops ripening and it may never restart properly. Ripen first, then chill.
• Honey. It crystallises faster and there is no benefit; it does not spoil.
• Whole melons and bananas. Chilling injury. Cut melon is a different case and does belong in the fridge.

The ethylene problem

Some fruits give off ethylene gas, which accelerates ripening in everything nearby. Useful when you want it and destructive when you do not.

Strong producers

Bananas, apples, avocados, tomatoes, peaches, pears, plums, melons.

Very sensitive

Leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, asparagus, herbs, potatoes.

Use it

A banana or an apple in a paper bag with an unripe avocado, peach or pear will ripen it in a day or two.

Avoid it

Apples and bananas next to carrots make the carrots bitter; anywhere near potatoes makes them sprout; near broccoli it yellows.

The practical rule

Keep bananas and apples away from everything else, and keep vegetables apart from fruit.

Keeping things alive longer

• Herbs, soft (parsley, coriander, mint, dill) — stems in a glass of water, loose bag over the top, in the fridge. Basil the same but on the counter.
• Herbs, hard (rosemary, thyme, sage) — wrapped in a damp cloth in the fridge.
• Salad leaves — washed, spun genuinely dry, and stored with a piece of kitchen paper in a box. Wet leaves rot in a day.
• Mushrooms — a paper bag in the fridge, never sealed plastic, which makes them slimy.
• Carrots and celery — in water in a container in the fridge, or wrapped. They limp because they are dehydrating.
• Asparagus — standing in a little water like flowers.
• Ginger and chillies — the freezer. Both grate and slice straight from frozen.
• Bread — sliced and frozen, toasted from frozen. Better than any other method.
• Cheese — waxed or greaseproof paper, then loosely bagged. Airtight plastic makes hard cheese sweat and soft cheese suffocate.

The cupboard

• Spices — airtight, dark, and away from the hob. Heat and light are what destroy them, and the rack above the cooker is the worst place in the kitchen.
• Oils — cool and dark. Buy sizes you will finish.
• Flour — airtight. Wholemeal goes rancid faster than white because of the oil in the germ.
• Nuts and seeds — the fridge or freezer if you keep them more than a couple of months. They go rancid.
• Dried pulses — airtight, and use them within a year or two. Very old pulses may never soften.
• Chocolate — cool, dark, dry, stable, and wrapped. Not the fridge, where temperature swings cause bloom and it picks up smells.

Common questions