poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2010-12-29 04:31 pm

Old Spice

We've been sorting out our kitchen. Most of our herbs and spices have gone in the bin. The oldest in the collection passed its use by date in 1996. 
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[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 05:03 pm (UTC)(link)
It doesn't does it!

[identity profile] momof2girls.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I think my mother still has spices left over from the 60s . . . !

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I wonder if she still uses them.

[identity profile] momof2girls.livejournal.com 2010-12-30 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
She doesn't really cook, so I doubt it. Next time I am at her house, I should just throw them out!
ext_12726: (cup of tea)

[identity profile] heleninwales.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm convinced there is a time portal in our cupboard. How else could outdated foodstuffs end up in there? I actually once found a tin of something that had passed its use by date!

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 05:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps we have one of those too.

[identity profile] treehavn.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
When she went into a home, my grandmother's cupboard had a tin of lobster bisque priced in shillings and pence and a tin of carnation milk that was perfectly spherical due to some inner...ickiness.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Keep something like that long enough and it becomes a valuable antique.

I wonder how many pre-decimal tins of lobster bisque are still in existence.

[identity profile] ooxc.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Guilty here too! When I moved house in 2004, I took everything from the spice cupboard - but I did chuck out the 1994 stuff whe I moved again in 2008

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Unless you're making curries every night, spice jars tend to last a long, long time.

[identity profile] ooxc.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes - and they keep much longer than the date suggests - I discarded those that either no longer smelled of their nature, or that I couldn't remember last using

[identity profile] wyrmwwd.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I have some herbs that are much older than that.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Are they still usable?

[identity profile] wyrmwwd.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Only for incense. I would not inject them at this point.

[identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I did a spice clear-out not so long ago. I had some sage, I think it was, dated as expiring about 10 years ago. I don't think spices go off, though. They just lose flavour.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2010-12-29 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
That's it. Out of date herbs and spices aren't going to do any damage, they're just no longer fit for purpose.