Never the fridge before they are ripe. Once ripe, chilling holds the flesh for days — the skin blackens, which alarms people and means nothing.

Ripen at room temperature. Once ripe, the fridge slows further ripening and holds the flavour compounds. Out an hour before eating.

Cold converts the starch to sugar, so refrigerated potatoes brown badly and taste sweet when cooked. Keep them away from light or they green.

Never in a sealed bag and never beside potatoes — each one spoils the other faster.

The fridge encourages sprouting and mould. A whole bulb keeps for weeks in open air; a broken one for days.

Room temperature until it yields to a gentle press, then the fridge holds it at that point for three or four days.

They keep weeks longer chilled. They also release ethylene, which ripens everything nearby, so give them their own drawer.

Ventilated box, never sealed plastic. Wash immediately before eating, since water on the skin starts the rot.

Fridge for longevity, worktop for flavour and juice yield. Warm lemons give noticeably more juice.

Never the fridge. Refrigeration accelerates staling faster than room temperature does. Slice and freeze what you cannot eat in three days.

In their box, on a shelf rather than the door, where the temperature swings every time it opens. The box also stops them absorbing other smells.

A small covered dish on the worktop is fine for a couple of days in a cool kitchen, and makes it spreadable. Salted lasts longer out than unsalted.

Clingfilm suffocates it and it sweats. Waxed or greaseproof paper lets it breathe. Out of the fridge thirty minutes before serving.

Same paper rule, and eat it considerably sooner. Ripening continues in the fridge, just slowly.

The door is the warmest part of the fridge and milk is the thing least able to forgive it.

It does not spoil. Crystallising is normal and reverses in a bowl of warm water. The fridge causes it to crystallise faster.

Heat and light turn it rancid, not time. Keep it away from the hob, however convenient that is.

Fine in the cupboard for a month. Beyond that the oils go rancid and the taste turns sharp and dusty.

The freezer causes condensation every time you take some out, and condensation is what stales coffee.

White flour keeps for months. Wholemeal contains the germ, whose oil goes off, so keep that in the fridge or freezer.

Both red and white. Cold slows oxidation, which is what kills an open bottle. Let a red come back up for twenty minutes before drinking.

It survives on a worktop, but the flavour flattens within weeks.

Both are stable at room temperature. The fridge keeps the flavour sharper for longer, and neither will spoil either way.

Unlike honey, it moulds. This is the one people get wrong most often.

Basil on the worktop, coriander and parsley in the fridge, all of them standing in a glass like flowers. A bag in the salad drawer kills them in two days.

Plastic sweats and they go slimy. Paper lets the moisture out.

It prefers around ten degrees, so the drawer rather than the coldest shelf. The very back of a fridge will pit the skin.

The fridge causes bloom, the pale streaking on the surface, and chocolate readily absorbs the smell of everything around it.

Cool it fast, refrigerate quickly, eat within a day, and reheat only once. This is the one worth being strict about.