Old Spice

[poliphilo]

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. 

Comments

[momof2girls.livejournal.com]

I think my mother still has spices left over from the 60s . . . !

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It doesn't does it!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wonder if she still uses them.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

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 How else could outdated foodstuffs end up in there?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!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we have one of those too.

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

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.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

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.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

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

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Unless you're making curries every night, spice jars tend to last a long, long time.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I have some herbs that are much older than that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Are they still usable?

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Only for incense. I would not inject them at this point.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

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.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

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

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's it. Out of date herbs and spices aren't going to do any damage, they're just no longer fit for purpose.

[momof2girls.livejournal.com]

She doesn't really cook, so I doubt it. Next time I am at her house, I should just throw them out!