I just had some of my mom’s leftover spaghetti, and I realized that it always has a slightly more bitter taste in the morning after being reheated. What causes this kind of reaction?

Question

It happens both when stored in pyrex or tupperware.
Ingredients aren’t anything unusual; onions, garlic, hamburger, tomato paste, etc.
Tastes sweeter when fresh off of the stove, but has a more bitter taste when reheated as leftovers.

In: 159

Answer 1

Another thing I thought of. It could be burnt fronthw sides of the pan. Like if you scrape the pan when you put the left overs away, the stuff you scrape from the sides could be giving the bitter flavor. That is if there’s a lot stuck on and you do scrape the sides.

Answer 2

There is a lot of reactions that happen in the food that may cause the formation of bitter tastes.

Without a full actual ingredient list , and the ingredients of the ingredients, it would be difficult to check.

Bitter tastes may be related to protein breakdown: if you mix milk with green papaya, pineapple or figs will for sure have a VERY BITTER product after a few minutes. This sort of breakdown may also happen with cheese. This is because these fruits, specially when green, contains enzimes (papaine, bromeline, ficine) that break down the milk proteins at random places, forming bitter compounds.

[https://hal.science/hal-00929271/document](https://hal.science/hal-00929271/document)

Citric products are known to form bitterness after time. So if your mom likes to place lemon or lime into the tomato sauce, even if only a little bit, this may cause formation of bitter tastes. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-79660-9_4](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-79660-9_4)

Answer 3

Do you use an electric or gas flame stovetop?

Answer 4

More onion, cooked slowly to bring the sugars out, will help lessen acidity in tomato sauces.

Answer 5

If some of the sauce or other components are getting stuck to the bottom of the pan, you wouldn’t be getting that on a fresh serving. However if someone scrapes the bottom of the pan while putting it in containers, the burnt/bitter parts are now throughout the rest of the dish.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Tomatos are also slightly more bitter when refridgerated. Something happens that changes the chemistry in it.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

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Answer 10

Can someone explain “hamburger” to me?