Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a winter favorite, but there’s no reason you can’t enjoy a butternut squash throughout the year. The skin works well to protect the flesh, so whole butternuts should be stored at room temperature as moisture from the fridge can ruin the vegetable’s quality and even wreak havoc on the pulp.
Once it’s been cut, though, it’s an entirely different story, and the smaller pieces should be placed in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days before being prepared and eaten. Just don’t leave the prepared butternut in the fridge for too long otherwise the pieces can start to go mushy.
Ketchup or Catsup? However You Spell It, It Won’t Spoil
Almost every home in America has a bottle of ketchup, and that's largely thanks to Heinz, the company that started selling their ketchup in 1876. Ketchup is a condiment made of tomatoes, vinegar, and sugar. Vinegar and sugar are natural preservatives. Its natural acidity means an unopened bottle can still be used up to two years after its sell-by date.
If you love ketchup and enjoy having ketchup with most meals, feel free to leave it on the table, especially if you prefer it at room temp. That’s what they do at restaurants, after all. Ketchup can sit out for well over a month. In the fridge, it lasts forever.
Refrigerators and Bananas Don’t Mix
If you want to ruin a perfect banana, stick it in the fridge or the freezer. It will turn black as death and develop a texture like mush. Native to the tropics, bananas are made to sit out and slowly ripen. They get sweeter with ripeness, like many fruits, and should be eaten at your desired ripeness.
Once they have turned that corner and your bananas have started to blacken, you can peel them and place them in an airtight container in the freezer, which can then be used to make smoothies or banana bread in the future. The darker, the sweeter, making overripe bananas great in many recipes.
Cake
There are plenty of delicious cakes out there, but it would be a shame if it's ruined by not being stored properly. As with many baked goods, cake suffers from debilitating dryness when placed in a cold environment. Covered on the counter, it should stay good for about a week.
But really, who takes a whole week to finish a cake? If you want to be extra safe, you can store your cake in an airtight container. Otherwise, it might attract insects like flies and ants. If your cake has icing made of cream, then you'll have to refrigerate it.
Hot Sauce
Nothing adds excitement to your meal like a drizzle of hot sauce. So, while hot sauce may be easy to love, many people don't know how to store it and often keep it in the fridge. This sauce usually has a lot of vinegar, which helps prevent bacterial growth, so it's totally safe to keep outside the fridge.
It's this acidity in the vinegar that can cause the hot sauce to dull when left in the fridge. Leaving it out maintains that spicy swag that keeps us reaching for more. Like many other foods, the heat of the chili will also be much more potent if it's kept at room temperature.