A recent study by researchers at Deakin University in Australia has explored the popular belief that some leftover meals taste better the next day. The research, which is currently available as a preprint and has not yet undergone peer review, suggests that this idea is not entirely a myth, although its validity varies by dish.
The study involved a blind taste test where participants compared freshly prepared meals with their day-old counterparts. The findings reveal that only one dish consistently lived up to the expectation that leftovers taste better: butter chicken. According to the research team, “Few culinary beliefs are as persistent as the idea that some foods taste better the next day.”
First author Russell Keast, previously a chef, noted his personal experiences with this phenomenon, stating, “You have a takeaway curry one night, then eat the leftovers for breakfast the next morning, and somehow it seems even better.” The team began their investigation with a list of 25 dishes and asked 30 university staff and students to select which four they believed improved with age. The finalists were beef lasagna, butter chicken, dhal, and apple crumble.
In the taste test, a separate group of 65 adults sampled the four foods over two sessions. Participants received randomly coded samples—some fresh and some prepared the previous day—and were unaware of which was which to minimize bias. They evaluated each dish on three criteria: distinguishing between fresh and day-old, preference in side-by-side tastings, and overall liking of each sample.
Results indicated that dhal was the easiest to distinguish, with participants noting a difference 83 percent of the time when they were fed different samples. Butter chicken and apple crumble were also identified as different after a night in the fridge. However, participants could not reliably distinguish beef lasagna from its day-old counterpart.
While butter chicken was favored approximately 64 percent of the time in day-old taste comparisons, dhal and apple crumble showed varying preferences between their fresh and aged versions. Overall liking scores revealed no statistically significant preference for any dish, regardless of freshness.
Keast and his colleagues emphasize that these findings highlight the “next-day effect” as a modest and food-specific experience, rather than a universal truth applicable to all leftover meals. They noted the importance of sensory perception in food enjoyment, suggesting that complex flavors in a sauce-based dish like butter chicken may integrate better overnight, unlike more structured dishes such as lasagna, which might suffer from changes in texture.
Interested individuals can replicate the tests themselves, as the researchers have made their recipes available in the study’s supplementary materials. The researchers acknowledge the limitations of their study, including the small sample size, and stress that their results are not conclusive for all types of food.
For those curious about the science behind food taste and preservation, the full study is available online for further exploration.
