Steaks will take on a little of the aroma of other food in the fridge, so it's best to keep the meat away from other produce. Let the steak sit uncovered for two days, allowing air to circulate around it.
Beef, veal, lamb and pork roasts, steaks and chops may be kept 3 to 5 days. After cooking, meat, poultry and seafood can be safely stored in the refrigerator 3 to 4 days.
Storing Meat FAQs
Raw meat should be stored below other items to avoid cross-contamination from accidental drippings. Keep raw meat on a plate covered with plastic wrap or an airtight covering. Raw meat typically stays fresh in the fridge for 1-2 days.
For grilled steaks, let your steaks rest off heat after cooking (no need to cover them with foil) while you add a dozen extra coals to the fire (or pump up your gas grill to high and preheat with the lid closed).
Information. Wrap meat securely to maintain quality and to prevent meat juices from getting onto other foods. Cover food to keep it from drying out. To maintain quality when freezing meat and poultry in its original package, wrap the package again with foil or plastic wrap that is recommended for the freezer.
Small Meat Cuts Temperature Rise - Smaller meats like hamburgers, chicken breasts, and steak will continue to rise between 3-6 degrees Fahrenheit when resting. Large Meat Cuts Temperature Rise - Larger roasts such as pork tenderloin and turkey can rise between 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit when resting.
Store raw steak in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. However, pay attention to sell-by dates and the expiration date. Steak may remain fresh for a few days past their sell-by dates, but you should freeze steak before its expiration date if you won't use it by that date.
Storage & Food Safety:
Raw beef should be stored in a bowl or on a platter in the bottom of the refrigerator. Your refrigerator temperature should be at 40 °F or less. Store whole-muscle fresh beef cuts for three to five days in the refrigerator.
Raw steak lasts anywhere from 2 days to two weeks in your refrigerator. It all depends on its packaging. From the butcher counter, steaks are wrapped in plastic wrap and butcher paper, and then sealed with a rubber band or tape. Often these steaks have been sitting in the meat case exposed to oxygen throughout the day.
The meat should lay flat in one layer on a refrigerator shelf with plenty of room around them for air to circulate and keep them cold. Also, keep your steaks on the bottom shelf to prevent any juices from potentially seeping out and contaminating other foods.
Why is this necessary? If the temperature is low, the meat will start to release liquid and all of its juices will be released and as a result you will have a tough and tasteless steak. Therefore, seal it on high heat, so that it forms an instant crust, which will not release liquid from the inside.
Salted meat does indeed get water/juices standing on it. If the meat was covered (tightly with saran wrap, not "loosely" in a closed container) the water/juice would have nowhere else to go but back into the meat, rather than evaporating in the dry environment of a refrigerator.
If a perishable food (such as meat or poultry) has been left out at room temperature overnight (more than two hours) it may not be safe. Discard it, even though it may look and smell good. Never taste a food to see if it is spoiled. Use a food thermometer to verify temperatures.
Store raw meat, poultry and seafood on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator so juices don't drip onto other foods and cause cross-contamination. When thawing meat in the refrigerator meat should be placed on a plate or in a container to prevent juices from contaminating other foods.
Information. The temperature in a refrigerator should be 40 °F or below throughout the cabinet, so any place within the cabinet is safe for storage of any food.
Raw meats should always be stored at the bottom of your fridge to prevent cross-contamination. Ensure that each item is wrapped or in a sealed container so that it doesn't come into contact with other foods. Fruit, vegetables and salad vegetables that have been washed prior to storage.
However, if the exterior of the meat, or a majority of the package contents, has turned gray or brown, then it's a sign that the meat is beginning to spoil and should be tossed immediately.
After beef has been refrigerated for about five days, it may turn brown. This darkening is due to oxidation, the chemical changes in myoglobin due to the oxygen content. This is a normal change during refrigerator storage.
Leftover steak is safe to eat after three to four days in the refrigerator—any longer and you could catch a foodborne illness from bacteria growth. Bacteria can also grow on perishable food that has been left out at room temperature for over two hours or kept at a temperature lower than 40°F.
IF YOU REST STEAK FOR TOO LONG? If you rest steak after cooking for too long under an aluminum foil tent you will get two bad outcomes: 1. Carryover Cooking: where the steak will continue to cook well past medium and into well done territory or worse.
You can rest your steaks one minute for every 100 grams. So for a 14 to 16 ounce steak, you should rest it about 5 minutes and you can let it rest as long as 10 minutes (as long as you keep it in a warm place). The meat will continue to cook once it comes off the heat for several minutes.
Eating steak that is cold, or even room temperature, is perfectly safe, as long as it hasn't been in what the USDA calls the "danger zone" (the temperature range between 40°F and 140°F) for longer than 2 hours. (This is true of most any food.)
Wrap the steak in aluminum foil and seal tightly to allow steak to continue cooking in its own juices. After 5 to 10 minutes, enjoy.