If they are breaking down, I'd keep doing it. What kind of foods, how they are cooked and how active the pile is (and the size of the pile)can be limiting factors. What are the specifics in your case?

tj

Sure you can. Dinner plate scrapings constitute much of the kitchen wastes contributed to compost piles.

Some prefer to avoid meat, cheese, and dairy products because they feel it attracts unwanted pests but that is just a personal preference, not a prohibition. ;)

Dave

Cooked food can be put into your compost with no problem, those who tell you not to have no idea what they are talking about. Whether to put fatty things, Cheeses, meats, into your compost depends on the volume. If these fats are a small percentage of your total volume, and are well buried, they should not be a problem, but if the fats are more than 5 percent of the total volume they can present problems for the bacteria digesting them. Anyone that has a problem with "critters" visiting their compost pile to get that fatty material simply is not covering it well enough, or is adding way to much at one time.

I am curious what the reasoning would be for NOT composting cooked food?

Basically, if you are eating it, your compost can too.

I am convinced that, for anything that you might want to compost, there is somebody, somewhere, who says that you shouldn't. Didn't we have a contest one time, many years ago, to see if we could find something that nobody said you shouldn't compost?

Compost it all!!!!!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

Our first composting step is to make soup stock. We don't have meats or fats in there, though - just veg.

Then we strain it and the solids go out to compost land.

Lynda

Thanks for the responses. I wish I could find the website that said not to use cooked food. Someone with a nice website, claiming to be a master gardener but most of you seem to think it's okay. My pile runs pretty hot and everything seems to be breaking down, so I think I'll keep on keeping on.

I've seen plenty of sites with huge lists of things "not to compost" and most of those lists were compiled of things that if left out in the open on top of a pile of leaves, they would attract pests or look yucky or smell awful or perhaps with the help of flies spread disease.

If you manage your compost well (always covering the additions with cover material like leaves) and get reasonably hot compost and let it age well, then most things can be composted.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

About the only material, that once grew, that one should not compost would be Poison Ivy, Oak, Sumac. Other than that everything is compostable.

On reason that you may read lists with "do not" may be because many of us were taught that in writing articles that lists were good, lists "sell" as it were, and the best selling lists contain "do's a don'ts".

Cool. I've seen a few "do not" lists that said not to compost cooked vegetables and I was looking for a place to ask if that guideline was just about not putting fat in the compost pile (since I currently would like to put the rubbish from my steamed artichoke in the pile) or if there was a problem with cooking vegetable matter... can't wait until the next time I make stock. So much less rubbish to worry about.

I think I've read that cooked vegetables should not be added because of the salt that is used during cooking. I think you should be ok unless it makes up a large percentage of your compost.