Should you save the gravy? Storing Christmas leftovers and what to cook with them

Christmas lunch is over, and you’re staring at a table laden with glazed ham, a turkey carcass, the finicky salad no one wanted to eat and a rapidly deflating pavlova. You are possibly still drunk, and can’t go to the supermarket for extra supplies. What now?

Short of whacking everything on a plate and eating the same meal again on Boxing Day (not a bad shout), there are some dependably delicious ways to get through your Christmas leftovers. Here’s a few ideas for what to do with the remains of today’s lunch – plus advice on avoiding food poisoning along the way.

The ham

How to store it: Erina Male from Food Safety Consultants Australia says the best way to stash your ham is in a proper, vinegar-soaked ham bag. The vinegar acts as a preservative, and that way it can last for about five days. If you want it to keep longer than that, she says, you should cut it up and put it in the freezer right away.

Using it up: “I think ham is a no-brainer,” says The Cook Up host Adam Liaw. He advocates for starting with the classics.

“Ham sandwiches for days is probably your standard one and that’s not a bad thing. The Boxing Day Test and ham sandwiches is an institution.”

But if you’re sandwiched-out, it might be time to fire up the frypan, “get yourself a bit of spaghetti and then use the leftover ham to make next-day carbonara”. Liaw also freezes his ham skins and takes them out throughout the year to pop in stocks, where they add “a nice sort of gelatinous-ness”.

Similar to Liaw’s carbonara, YouTube cooking sensation Nat’s What I Reckon says you could sub ham into basically any dish that usually calls for bacon. On top of that?

“You could make fried rice, you could make a pizza with Lebanese bread and throw it all on that. Fritters are great. Risotto’s really great. Obviously pea and ham soup is great; it’s not really pea and ham soup weather though.”

Or, if all else fails, grab a few potatoes and go for a classic: bubble and squeak.

“That’s the vacuum cleaner of what’s being cooked for dinner,” Nat says. “Just suck it all into a pan and fry it.”

The turkey

How to store it: Male recommends cutting things like our leftover turkey into smaller portions, so that they cool down faster when you put them back in the fridge. Store turkey in an airtight container, and don’t keep it for longer than two days.

How to use it up: In the Liaw household, leftover turkey has always gone into one dish: red curry.

“People tend to go for the breast of the turkey first and, no matter how good you are at carving turkey, there’s always going to be quite a lot of meat left on there. So I think pick through it with your fingers, shred it up a bit and make up a standard red curry,” Liaw says. “You don’t have to make your own paste or anything like that – a store bought one is fine. And then just fold the turkey through.”

Turkey isn’t actually on the menu at Nat’s place. “People cook turkey for Christmas because they’re told to, not because they want to,” he says. “I think people would prefer to eat chicken most of the time. It’s a way less stressful thing to cook and has a way better strike rate than cooking a massive turkey.”

His suggestions for how to get through your leftovers – whichever the bird?

“I’d do similar things [with chicken] that I’d do with turkey – turn it into a pie. A turkey and leek pie would be pretty nice, or you could stick it in quesadillas, or you could make a chilli. Whatever you can do with chicken, pretty much, you can do with turkey. Just more poorly.”

What ever you do with it, just make sure it gets piping hot, Male says. When it comes time to eat, reheating food is an important bacteria killing step – so if you’re not boiling it up in a curry or chilli, zap that meat in the microwave until plenty of steam is coming off it. This can help to keep it safe for consumption on day two.

The other stuff

How to store it: The aim of the game is to keep cooked food as chilled as possible for as long as possible. Male says that dishes such as turkey or ham should only be left out of the fridge for about two hours. If it’s been sitting on the lunch table all day – especially four hours or more – the leftovers need to go in the bin, not the fridge. This is particularly important in Australia, where our Christmas Days can be hot, spoiling food faster.

While it might be easier said than done, Male advises not overstocking your fridge either. That ensures there’s enough cool air flow to keep everything chilled.

“Generally in summer – and especially on Christmas – I would run your fridge a little bit colder because you’re opening and closing that door all the time, allowing that hot air in,” she says.

Using it up: If you’re a lamb-on-Christmas household, Nat suggests slapping any leftovers between two slices of bread. “Lamb sangas are the best. You could even make a nice stew with the rest of it and some of that leftover red wine. If there’s any left over – there probably isn’t if you’ve got a stressful family.”

And don’t throw out those prawn heads.

“If you’ve got everyone around peeling the prawns, you can use the prawn heads and shells to make a prawn stock – even if they’re already pre-cooked,” Liaw says. “You can still get flavour out of the prawn heads and, if you’ve got lots of them, you may as well make decent use of it.”

Liaw also advocates for making a double batch of gravy and setting half aside for use later. You could stir some through pasta with turkey – think stroganoff vibes – or just put it all straight in the freezer. Use an ice cube tray to portion it out and your future self will thank you.

“You can keep that gravy for a hundred roast chickens throughout the year,” Liaw says. “It’s a really useful thing, gravy, and if you can put the effort into making a good one at Christmas time, you can pull it out of the freezer the next time you’re making a stew – it will give it a bit more richness and flavour.”

When in doubt, throw it out

When you’re reaching for that wilting salad on 28 December, a little common sense goes a long way.

“If it doesn’t taste right, if there’s a smell, if it doesn’t look right, if it’s slimy or looks a little bit dull, you shouldn’t eat it,” Male says. “When in doubt, throw it out – that’s probably the key with Christmas food.”

Consider this licence to eat as much of your leftovers as quickly as possible – in the name of food safety, of course.