How to get the most out of your Christmas leftovers

Christmas might be over, but the fun lives on with the leftovers… as long as you play it safe and store it right. 

Here are my top tips to get the most out of your leftovers. You can also find my favourite freezing tips for all kinds of meat right here – and it's a useful list to keep on hand to make sure that you're being safe with all your leftovers.

TOP TIP: Freezing only keeps food in the condition you start with – so if you want to freeze food, make sure you don't leave it sitting around for six hours on Christmas day.

Put the ham out for the big display, serve what you need and then put it in the fridge and replenish it as you need it. This applies to all the big centrepieces – and means they'll be safer to store/freeze after the feast.

Jane's Christmas leftovers storage tips:

Ham:

• Wrap it in plastic and foil and keep it in the fridge. If stored right and treated well it can keep for up to 10 days.

• A ham bag soaked in vinegar and water, wrung out and then used to cover the ham will also help with this and stop it drying out.

• If you want to freeze it, do it right after carving, wrap it in clingfilm and foil or put it in an airtight container and then freeze it for up to a month.

Turkey:

• You can keep your cooked turkey for 3-4 days in the fridge, wrapped or in an airtight container. 

• Or you can keep it for up to six months in the freezer.

Seafood:

• Most seafood that was fresh to begin with will keep for 1-2 days in the fridge. But don't push it past that, especially if you served it up on a platter. Better to be safe in the summer heat.

• I don't recommend freezing cooked seafood, it can change the texture and flavour – so just eat it and enjoy it while it's fresh and good.

Christmas cake and dessert:

• Airtight containers are best to store Christmas desserts like pudding, cake and mince tarts. Mostly they are full of booze and sugar, which act as preservatives. So those will keep for months away from humidity. I've been known to keep my pudding wrapped up in the back of the fridge for a whole year to let it mature.

• But if they are buttery treats – like mince pies with pastry cases – the butter will go rancid. So, I'd eat them within the week for best flavour.

Pavlova and trifle:

• This is a special case. It never lasts more than five minutes in our house anyway, and don't bother trying to store it. Pav is full of fruit and cream and needs to be eaten the day you top it and serve it.

• Trifle will keep in the fridge until the cake goes soggy... but it will never last that long, because it will all be eaten.

Jane de Graaff is Today's kitchen expert, food writer and recipe developer and content creator for fun family recipes of all kinds.

Find all Jane's food adventures, tricks and tips on Instagram and TikTok