When you’re cleaning out your kitchen, which area do you tackle first? The sink piled high with washing-up? The oven that’s long overdue a deep clean? Or perhaps you focus on wiping down every surface until it gleams?
According to Suzanne ‘The Batch Lady’ Mulholland, there’s one key spot many of us are completely overlooking.
It’s not the hob or even the bin. It’s your fridge.
'A lot of people don't realise that your fridge should be really clean. It should be the cleanest thing in your house,' says Suzanne, who's returned with Joe Swash for the second series of Channel 4 show, Batch from Scratch: Cooking for Less, sponsored by Lidl.
Why exactly? The answer is simple: your fridge is where all your food lives, and a poorly maintained one can cause everything inside it to spoil more quickly.
'If you've got anything mouldy in your fridge, you're reducing the sell by date of everything in your fridge,' Suzanne tells us. 'So you really want to make sure you've got a nice clean fridge for freezing.'
Beyond hygiene, Suzanne says organisation plays a huge role too — particularly when it comes to your freezer, and especially if you're working with limited space.
'I would say, one drawer for meals. One drawer that's got lots of frozen veg is a major essential. It's cheaper than buying fresh and it's going to last longer, so you're going to have less waste,' she explains. 'And then we all need that small, little compartment that's got fish fingers and, you know...'
'Baked beans, sausages,' Joe chimes in.
'I have them in my house,' Suzanne says. 'And I love ice cream. We all need an ice cream drawer.'
Now, that’s something we can all agree on.
• Stream or watch Batch from Scratch: Cooking for Less on Channel 4.
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The Kitchen Edit
