Cheap Vs Wasteful Vs Fucking Stupid?

[telecom_goddess]

here's a question...how can you tell if kimchee has gone bad? Talk about controlled rot....that stuff is nasty "fresh".

[IDrinkaRum]

Mr. Rum & I have become absolutely paranoid about throwing things out after their expiration date.

Why?

Blame MiL.

Before, she used to not live full time with FiL (before his retirement and they both moved to "the farm"), and so the food in the house wasn't always kept up-to-date.

FiL is cheap. He'll buy meats and stuff that are like 50-75% off the price because the meat is about to expire and keep it for what seems like forever in his freezer. He also doesn't like to go out to eat (even when it's not his money being spent).

Last time we ate something MiL prepared, it was spaghetti and Italian sausage. The sausage had been in the freezer for so long, it was freezer burnt, and it didn't have a taste. I'm happy to report no one go sick.

She's also tried to serve us condiments that were 3 or 4 years out of date.

This explains why, the last time we were at her house, we didn't eat anything she prepared.

[AdminAssistant]

I follow expiration dates pretty closely, especially with things like dairy. Honestly, I'm getting better at not buying more than what we'll eat in a given period of time, so we're throwing less out.

[HYHYBT]

here's a question...how can you tell if kimchee has gone bad? Talk about controlled rot....that stuff is nasty "fresh".

You can tell it's gone bad because it's kimchee.

A couple people have mentioned honey. I wish the notion that it never spoils would die. Yes, it *can* keep for centuries. Sealed, and in the right environment. But in the wrong conditions, it can spoil, and spoiled honey smells *nasty.* And then people don't believe me about having encountered the stuff.

[Greenday]

If it smells bad, I don't eat it.

If it has mold or looks freezer burnt, I don't eat it.

Sure, it might suck to have to toss food out, but there's no valid reason for eating expired food or food that has gone bad unless you are starving and have no other options. And even then, poisoning yourself is a bad idea.

[Ginger Tea]

When I first moved in late 03, we had a feezer FULL of food and I had to plan my shopping carefully to what I could and could not fit in, all because one person would do their shopping for a month or more, leaving the rest to fight for space.
This was a normal sized fridge/freezer combo and split between 6 rooms, it wouldn't last long and when the land lord replaced it this year, he bought a slightly smaller one instead of a stand up freezer as we had a separate fridge already.

One time we had a clear out as one guy had left and none of use knew whos food was whos, no one laid claim to some of the stuff so it was classed as the former guy's stuff and if anyone wanted it to put it back.
Doing this also gave us a chance to remove alot of ice from the top shelf and retrieved a tub of smarties ice cream which the attic couple's childern were delighted to see again.
If that guy had not left, most of the food would probably still be in there 6 months later and I might have bought my own fridge/freezer like the guy next to me did (who then sold it on to the next occupant when he moved out)

[AdminAssistant]

I've had kimchee before, and it tasted...pickled. And spicy. Not rotten.

[insertNameHere]

About the mammoth meat, that is completely different as it REMAINED frozen at pretty much a constant temperature, for the most part your typical freezer is horrible at regulation especially if you open and close it a lot.... We have the stand up style, not as good as the chest where when you open it the cold air doesn't settle out of the unit. So we get lots of freezer burn. My dad will also by shrimp when it on sale but we already got a lot, and by the time we cna get to the "newer stuff" it is freezer burned and tastes like shit, to the point I don't like shrimp anymore for that reason. At some point you need to start over to get ahead of the curve on spoilage.

[Fire_on_High]

Honestly? My mom's work would sell off just-expired stuff to employees dirt cheap at her last job. Everything I can remember eating tasted just fine, and it was everything from bags of Snyder's mustard pretzels to packs of Japanese noodles.

OTOH, I've seen milk that was fine 3 days past, and milk that started getting nasty 5 min after you poured it 3 days before.

[linguist]

OTOH, I've seen milk that was fine 3 days past, and milk that started getting nasty 5 min after you poured it 3 days before.

a lot of this has to do with refrigeration as well...most people's refrigerators just don't hold temp properly.

i have milk in my fridge right now that's almost 2 weeks past its date, and it was still just fine when i drank some with my cake tonight.

[Giggle Goose]

I hope the OP's dad doesn't have a food hoarding problem...have any of you seen those shows like "Hoarders" on A&E where their fridges are filled with food that has congealed, rotted, molded, and god knows what else? The ironic thing is that their kitchens are so wrecked that they usually can't be used, so when were they planning on eating all that stuff?

Not saying InsertNameHere lives in a Hoarding house, but hopefully it doesn't turn into a big problem. There is nothing cheap about throwing away stuff that is nasty and way past its expiration date....food poisoning can be very serious, and can also cost more in the long run (hospital bill, lost wages, etc.) But maybe I'm just paranoid like Rummy and her fam.

[IDrinkaRum]

After being served disgusting, tasteless (literally - the food is so old/been in freezer so long it has no taste whatsoever) "food", I'm going to be paranoid. Never ever unless under duress am I going to eat at my IL's house. *shudders*

[insertNameHere]

After being served disgusting, tasteless (literally - the food is so old/been in freezer so long it has no taste whatsoever) "food", I'm going to be paranoid. Never ever unless under duress am I going to eat at my IL's house. *shudders*

At least I'm not the only one that knows the taste of freezer burn, and to the person who mentioned the company selling JUST-Expired food is one thing, I found fruity pebbles that expired in Feb, still taste just fine. Now that family is out of town I'm on orders to make shit disappear. Found baking mixes expired 2006, 2007 etc etc. I'm willing to try stuff maybe 1 year out of date. But after making a 2 year old no-bake cheese cake and how bad it tastes I won't do that again. Now, if we all lost our jobs I could see keeping the food to eat. but we havn't ate it, it just sitting there. And not like any food pantry would even want it


As far as hoarders the show, some of those people have serious problems but I do see tendencies in my family. My dad has a version of cleaning where he just stacks shit in a corner, to make space so it looks clean.... rather than use some sense of order. Got one side of basement full of old shit. Part of the problem is moving from a 2200sq ft house into a 1600sq ft house.... almost 10 years ago. Or some of the shit we could "donate" right, I really don't think the goodwill wants my old holely jeans, etc etc.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Honey can still be good after quite a while.

Honey is an antibiotic. It doesn't go bad.

Everything else? Toss it. I mean, yeah, you can usually use it past the date. The date is not scientific. However if it's been forever and it's taking up space, toss it. Otherwise, it's hoarding behavior. Food is mostly pretty freaking cheap, if you consider it item by item. Why keep it if it's just sitting around and nobody will eat it...admit it...because it's really old?

And anyways, I heard somewhere that old cake mixes and whatnot can have toxic mold in them that you can't really taste but could conceivably poison you. Why risk it. Cake mix is what, a couple bucks?

Things like steak or a broil or beef cuts I will eat a week or so past the date. On purpose. Ever eat an old, expired steak? It's exquisite. The fibers break down in old beef. Make sure it doesn't smell rotten or feel slimy. You should see what New York style steak looks like before it hits your plate. You'd run screaming into the night. I wouldn't do that with pork or chicken. Fish needs to be very, very fresh or else it stops being old food and starts being new bait.

Eggs you can check for freshness this way: Get a bowl of cold water and sink the eggs in it. Fresh eggs sink. Bad eggs float. Ones that you need to use immediately will bounce point down on the bottom of the bowl. Those eggs I hard boil and eat them out of the shell during the week. Not only is it a good way to salvage eggs that about to turn over on you, but eggs boiled at this stage are easy to peel. Fresh boiled eggs are terrible to peel because the shell membrane has not broken down.

[Android Kaeli]

I had some mashed potatos in the fridge sometime around Christmas that I actually forgot WAS mashed potatos, since it was leftovers in a spreadable butter container. Went in to make some grilled cheese one day long after Christmas was over, got the wrong container, and looked inside. EWWW! Thank the Force that it was inside a container that could be thrown away, it was disgusting.


I try to get foods that will last a long time, like canned goods and the like -- nowadays I don't eat as much. Whatever foods I eat once a week vs the things I eat everyday, I want to last.