How Long Is Cooked Steak Safe To Eat?

Sometimes, a steak gets the better of you. When it is just too big for a single meal, you either need to toss it out or store it for later. The latter, however, comes with some health risks. Foodborne pathogens can grow on meat that's been out too long, even after it's cooked, meaning your reheated meal can end up making you seriously sick. How long a cooked steak will stay safe depends entirely on how long you wait before storing it, and if you practice proper leftover storage habits to begin with.

According to the USDA, any food that's been kept at temperatures lower than 140 degrees Fahrenheit needs to be refrigerated within two hours. Harmful bacteria grows fairly quickly when the temperature isn't sufficiently hot or cold. E. coli, for example, doubles its population every 20 minutes, meaning the amount of it on your meat could reach 32 times the initial total within two hours. Once refrigerated at temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, a cooked steak stays safe to eat for three to four days (via the USDA). This is because some harmful bacteria like Listeria monocytogenes can still grow at low temperatures.

Freezing can prevent bacterial growth by inactivating these microbes, but it doesn't necessarily kill what's already on your food. If freezing your leftover steak is an option, make sure to do it as soon as you can. The USDA advises consuming frozen cooked meat within two to three months, as the quality of the steak can degrade during prolonged freezing.

If you can't finish your steak within two hours, it's probably best to start planning for what you'll do with the leftovers. You can technically warm them back up and eat them as-is, but there are a lot of steak reheating mistakes that could ruin the meat for you. The odds of the food disappointing you with dryness and diminished flavor are fairly high, so your best option is to use it as an ingredient for something else.

You can, for instance, use the leftover steak for a stir-fry. The addition of liquid via your stir-fry sauce will help the beef stay moist while compensating for any loss of flavor that might have happened during storage. You can also slice it thinly after reheating it to mask any toughness that may have developed and turn your leftover steak into a topping for baked potatoes.

If you really want to keep the meat as-is, however, you may want to try this chef-approved method for reheating it. Omaha Steaks executive chef David Rose told Mashed that cooks should let the refrigerated beef warm up to room temperature first and then sear it in a pan. This helps prevent overcooking, giving you the best possible results. It may also be best to do this just once. Reheating the steak may not kill all the bacteria that grew since the last time you cooked it, so additional meals could become less safe.