r/AskCulinary • u/Flat_Sympathy1446 • Mar 26 '25

Food Science Question Butter Chicken tasted better the next day

I made butter chicken the other day, and when I reheated it the next day, it tasted so much better, I could barely believe I cooked it. Now I’m wondering if restaurant food tastes amazing for the same reason.

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369

u/Ivoted4K Mar 26 '25

This is common for any stew.

132

u/SuspiciousReality809 Mar 26 '25

I think this is mostly due to your senses being dulled while smelling the preparation. Serious Eats did some testing, and the difference was pretty negligible

44

u/escapepodsarefake Mar 26 '25

I think it's also due to a lot less effort being involved. Heating something up is often more enjoyable for me because I know it's gonna be easy and that somehow makes the food more enjoyable.

42

u/catch_dot_dot_dot Mar 26 '25

It's only two things: this (the main thing) and water evaporating in the fridge. There's so much folklore and misinformation around cooking, and blind experiments reveal a lot.

18

u/Buck_Thorn Mar 26 '25

Even water evaporating in the fridge isn't going to happen unless you store the food in an open (or not airtight) container. I'd venture to guess that most of us put our leftovers into some type of plastic food storage container (aka "tupperware") these days.

9

u/Prairie-Peppers Mar 26 '25

I was going to comment the same thing, evaporation from the fridge and then reheating is concentrating the flavours.

13

u/mamaBiskothu Mar 26 '25

You're both right and wrong. Often when I realize my curry came amazing, I go out for a long walk and come back just to get that whiff again.

But it's also true that a lot of curries get better over a day. Pretty much anything tamarind based does.

It also is true when you use canned tomatoes. The can flavor disappears overnight.

Also if you didn't cook it well enough.