What's the oldest meal you've eaten? Maybe you've had leftovers from a few days ago. They probably still tasted good. But what if it wasn't a few days ago, what if you ate a 60-day old stew? Or a 49-year-old beef noodle soup? 

你吃过最古老的一餐是什么？也许你已经吃了几天前的剩菜了。它们的味道可能还是不错的。但如果不是几天前，如果你吃了60天的炖菜怎么办？还是49年的牛肉面？ 

Perpetual stew is a dish that is never taken off the heat; it's never finished. As portions are served, new ingredients are put in the pot to replace them. One day's stew becomes the basis of the following days' meals. There have been some famous examples. This year, Annie Rauwerda's 60-day stew became a social media sensation. One Bangkok restaurant claims to have been cooking its beef noodle soup since the 1970s. It has been suggested that perpetual stew was a tradition in Medieval Europe when the effort required to start a fire meant that they were left to burn all day, and a pot of stew was always simmering away on top of it. One New York Times article tells us about a stew in Normandy that was kept cooking for 300 years. 

永久炖菜是一道永远不会离开火源的菜肴；它永远不会完成。上菜时，锅中会放入新的食材来替换它们。一天的炖菜成为第二天膳食的基础。有一些著名的例子。今年，Annie Rauwerda 的 60 天炖菜引起了社交媒体的轰动。曼谷的一家餐厅声称自 20 世纪 70 年代以来就开始烹制牛肉面汤。有人认为，永久炖菜是中世纪欧洲的一种传统，当时生火所需的努力意味着它们要燃烧一整天，而一锅炖菜总是在上面慢慢地煮着。《纽约时报》的一篇文章向我们讲述了诺曼底的一种炖菜，它已经烹饪了 300 年。 

This tradition may date back to the Middle Ages, but thankfully, our understanding of food hygiene has developed since then. In a world where food is often thrown away once it reaches its use-by date, many people have asked how safe perpetual stew can actually be. Experts are divided, some maintain that as long as the stew is kept bubbling away at a temperature too high for pathogens to survive, it should be safe. Others suggest that meat can become dangerous if it's left in the stew for too long. Concerns have also been raised that some vegetables, such as potatoes, or those containing nitrates, could become more toxic the more they are reheated. 

这一传统可以追溯到中世纪，但值得庆幸的是，我们对食品卫生的理解从那时起就已经发展起来。在当今世界，食物一旦过了保质期就会被扔掉，许多人都在问永久炖菜实际上有多安全。专家们意见不一，一些人认为，只要炖菜的温度保持在足以让病原体无法生存的温度下冒泡，它就应该是安全的。其他人则认为，如果肉在炖菜中放置时间过长，就会变得危险。人们还担心一些蔬菜，如土豆或含有硝酸盐的蔬菜，加热次数越多，毒性可能会更大。

Advocates of slow cooking believe that the best food takes time, but even they may be surprised by a months or years-old perpetual stew.

慢煮的倡导者相信最好的食物需要时间，但即使是他们也可能会对长达数月或数年的永久炖菜感到惊讶。 

词汇表

leftovers 剩饭，剩菜
stew 炖菜
beef noodle soup 牛肉汤面
dish （一道）菜
take off the heat 将…从灶上挪开，离火
portion （食物的）一份
ingredient 食材，原料
pot 锅
simmer 炖，煨
food hygiene 食品卫生
use-by date 保质期
bubble 沸腾，咕嘟冒泡
pathogen 病原体
nitrate 硝酸盐
toxic 有毒的
reheat 重新加热（食物）
slow cooking 慢炖