Near-death experiments in food

[NT2C]

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I think it improved the flavor.

[EBuff75]

I know that some of us use Hormel Compleats as a "poor person's" MRE.  I've got some which are fairly old and I had one for lunch today.  It was a Roast Beef & Gravy with Mashed Potatoes meal that appears to have been discontinued.  It's fairly similar to their Tender Beef and Mashed Potatoes in gravy meal though.   It was marked as "Best By 11/05/17" (that's November 5, 2017 for those outside the US), so it was a little more than 6 years past due.  

No swelling, odd smells, strange colors or anything.  It was still in good shape and opened and cooked normally.  It tasted fine, if a bit bland (which is odd considering that it has 720mg of sodium).  That was lunch today and I'm still upright, so I'd consider that a successful test!

I've got a number of these which are well past their prime, so this will be an ongoing thing as I work my way through some of them. 

[majorhavoc]

I know that some of us use Hormel Compleats as a "poor person's" MRE.  I've got some which are fairly old and I had one for lunch today.  It was a Roast Beef & Gravy with Mashed Potatoes meal that appears to have been discontinued.  It's fairly similar to their Tender Beef and Mashed Potatoes in gravy meal though.  It was marked as "Best By 11/05/17" (that's November 5, 2017 for those outside the US), so it was a little more than 6 years past due. 

No swelling, odd smells, strange colors or anything.  It was still in good shape and opened and cooked normally.  It tasted fine, if a bit bland (which is odd considering that it has 720mg of sodium).  That was lunch today and I'm still upright, so I'd consider that a successful test!

I've got a number of these which are well past their prime, so this will be an ongoing thing as I work my way through some of them. 

Damn.  I was going to post about a pair of Pace Ready Meals I've consumed over the past few days.  But they had a best by date of only Feb 11 2019.  You got me beat!

FWIW, the Pace Ready Meals were also fine.  Perhaps a little drier than I would have liked (which might be related to being almost 5 years past due).  But they tasted absolutely fine - better than Hormel Complets, IMO.  And both the dryness and the taste were improved with the Sriracha sauce I added.  They were part one of my 3-Day/1-Person or 1-Day/3-Person DIY ration packs I've posted about here and on the old ZS forums.  Clearly a refresh is long overdue.  Not all the food items held up as well as the Pace meals. 

[NT2C]

I've got a few more cans of those 11-year-old overstuffed ravioli anytime you two want to join me for lunch. 

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

I know that some of us use Hormel Compleats as a "poor person's" MRE.  I've got some which are fairly old and I had one for lunch today.  It was a Roast Beef & Gravy with Mashed Potatoes meal that appears to have been discontinued.  It's fairly similar to their Tender Beef and Mashed Potatoes in gravy meal though.   It was marked as "Best By 11/05/17" (that's November 5, 2017 for those outside the US), so it was a little more than 6 years past due. 

No swelling, odd smells, strange colors or anything.  It was still in good shape and opened and cooked normally.  It tasted fine, if a bit bland (which is odd considering that it has 720mg of sodium).  That was lunch today and I'm still upright, so I'd consider that a successful test!

I've got a number of these which are well past their prime, so this will be an ongoing thing as I work my way through some of them. 

Good to know. Thx, @EBuff75. Will start looking into this for me.

[EBuff75]

Today, it was some Dinty Moore Beef Stew from September 2018.  Tasted just fine, despite being over 5 years past due.  That's a good thing, since I just realized that I have a case (an 8 count, I think) of them in the back of the shelves!  I need to do a better job of rotating my food stores!

I also ate the last of some old Hershey's chocolate bars that had a use by date of Aug 2021, so just 2.5 years overdue on those.  The chocolate bars are mainly for s'mores when I'm together with friends who have kids, which is why they've taken so long to use up (this was a box of 36 from Sam's Club).  Since we weren't going to need them any time soon, I decided over the holidays to finish up the ones that were left and buy another box.  I'm fine with eating old stuff like this, but if any of my friends noticed the date on the box, they might object! 

[Anianna]

Found an unopened jar of bread and butter pickles (store bought) in the cabinet.  I popped it open and proceeded to shove a couple down my gullet, quickly realizing they were rather soft and didn't have much flavor.  I checked the expiration date at that point.  2019. 

Anyway, I figure being pickles, they weren't particularly unsafe to eat that far out of date, but they weren't very appetizing anymore.  I fed the rest of the lot to the composter.

[NT2C]

Found an unopened jar of bread and butter pickles (store bought) in the cabinet.  I popped it open and proceeded to shove a couple down my gullet, quickly realizing they were rather soft and didn't have much flavor.  I checked the expiration date at that point.  2019. 

Anyway, I figure being pickles, they weren't particularly unsafe to eat that far out of date, but they weren't very appetizing anymore.  I fed the rest of the lot to the composter.

A fitting end to anything pickled IMHO. 















(yes, that sound was indeed my German ancestors rolling in their graves) 

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

I don't mind dill or kosher pickles, but bread and butter pickles are just nasty.

My grandma on my mother's side used to make pickles out of watermelon rinds. My mom says they were good, but no one wrote down Grandma's recipe, so I can't try to replicate it myself.

[EBuff75]

Y'all forced me to go get some pickles out to snack on!  These are just some Vlasic Sweet Gherkins, which is about as close as I've found to my grandmother's sweet pickle recipe.  I have the recipe, but haven't been able to find baby cucumbers to make it.  They're also a pain to make (I remember helping my mother make them when I was a kid), but we love them and they last forever!  (Seriously.  When my parents moved, they found some in their basement that had been canned over 30 years ago and they were still fine!)

[Anianna]

I don't mind dill or kosher pickles, but bread and butter pickles are just nasty.

My grandma on my mother's side used to make pickles out of watermelon rinds. My mom says they were good, but no one wrote down Grandma's recipe, so I can't try to replicate it myself.

I find dill to be the nastiest of nasty.  I like sweet gherkins, but they can be a little too sweet for me these days.  I've always liked bread and butter pickles. 

There are plenty of watermelon rind pickling recipes around if you want to give a few a try.  I'll probably try that this summer.  I plan to get into fermenting now that I have the room for it.

[Anianna]

Turns out everything from that cabinet expired between 2017 and 2021.  I could have sworn we were actively using that cabinet and that we had purged out of date food a year or two ago, but I guess my sense of time is borked again. 

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

I don't mind dill or kosher pickles, but bread and butter pickles are just nasty.

My grandma on my mother's side used to make pickles out of watermelon rinds. My mom says they were good, but no one wrote down Grandma's recipe, so I can't try to replicate it myself.

I find dill to be the nastiest of nasty.  I like sweet gherkins, but they can be a little too sweet for me these days.  I've always liked bread and butter pickles. 

There are plenty of watermelon rind pickling recipes around if you want to give a few a try.  I'll probably try that this summer.  I plan to get into fermenting now that I have the room for it.

I'm not a fan of sweet pickles myself. I actually don't eat pickles all that much anymore.

[majorhavoc]

I vote dill>sweet any day of the week. That goes for whole pickles, spears, slices, gherkins, even relish. 

Sweet pickled anything: blech!

[NT2C]

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I worked at a pickle factory? 

[flybynight]

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I worked at a pickle factory? 

No but hum a few bars and maybe we'll remember it

[NT2C]

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I worked at a pickle factory? 

No but hum a few bars and maybe we'll remember it

It's to the tune of Camptown Races but the do-dah is in with the pickles.

[TACAIR]

Skippy brand peanut butter 1 oz sachets.  2 years past "Best By" date.

After mushing the package for a couple of minutes, cut corner and spread out on bread.   The smell was good, as was the taste - the oil was slightly separated, so a bit more kneading would have helped.  No issues.  Much cheaper than MRE PB and same size - 1 oz.   The MRE PB I see online is $1/packet


Stored for first two years in Das Bus, then indoors.  

[NT2C]

Making some Hamburger Helper for dinner tonight (don't judge) and it called for a quart of milk.  Like me with my coffee, my better half has to have her mug of milk in the morning.  Looking at what was left of the gallon in the fridge I could see it'd be close so I got a package of powdered milk from my preps.  Mixed it with water and the tannish yellow color and ugly stench made it a candidate for the drain, not the dinner.

I looked at the box a little later and the "Sell BY" (actual sell-by date because it's milk, not just a best-by date) was Feb 24... and then I realized that 24 wasn't the year, it was the day in 2013 that it couldn't be sold after.

Guess I need to go through my food preps. 

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

Making some Hamburger Helper for dinner tonight (don't judge) and it called for a quart of milk.  Like me with my coffee, my better half has to have her mug of milk in the morning.  Looking at what was left of the gallon in the fridge I could see it'd be close so I got a package of powdered milk from my preps.  Mixed it with water and the tannish yellow color and ugly stench made it a candidate for the drain, not the dinner.

I looked at the box a little later and the "Sell BY" (actual sell-by date because it's milk, not just a best-by date) was Feb 24... and then I realized that 24 wasn't the year, it was the day in 2013 that it couldn't be sold after.

Guess I need to go through my food preps. 

I've had a similar experience, but mine was with some Knorr's cheddar broccoli noodles and rice. It was still within the best by date, but I swear it smelled like vomit when first cooking it.

As it cooked, though, the smell disappeared and there were no ill effects from eating it. Aside from some hellacious burps later on, I mean.