Okay—random contest time!
I’ve got a challenge for all my friends. Go into your kitchen right now. (Unless you’re at work, or somewhere else, in which case, go into your kitchen the minute you get home, unless of course you have to pee first.) Open the cabinet where you keep your tins and packets. Root around in it. Get right to the back. And find the very oldest thing in there. The thing you should have thrown out ages ago. The thing you always meant to use, but never did. Maybe you bought it on special offer, maybe it was for a recipe you never made. Maybe you did use some of it, but the rest of it has languished in the back of your cupboard, neglected, for months that turned into years.
What is it? And what’s the sell-by date?
My friend, fellow author Giselle Green, and I took this challenge yesterday. Giselle (lucky woman) was cleaning out her cupboards for her new kitchen. She found some cans saying “Best Before End 2007″.
Three years out of date. That’s pretty good. I wasn’t sure I could beat it. But sure enough, I looked at my tins and found some new potatoes that said “Best Before April 2007″. I thought that was the best I was going to do, but then I dug further, back in to the recesses of the cupboard, and I found a half-used bag of pearl barley that said “Best Before February 2003″.
Seven years. That’s pretty impressive, I think.
Can you beat it? Go look! And report your answers below. Please, be honest, because it’s more fun that way.
Whoever has the oldest food wins a random prize, of no monetary value whatsoever, of postcards featuring the covers of Girl from Mars, and Giselle’s latest book which is out this month, called A Sister’s Gift. I’ll even throw in a couple extra “Porn for Women” postcards, featuring a picture of a hunky guy cleaning the house.
And, if you’re lucky, some ten-year-old barley.
*chuckle* My other half lived here alone until I moved in with him in late May last year. On Sunday we unearthed a pack of Rice Noodles with a use by date of October 2003!
Pearl barley does not go out of date.
I know my eldest refused to eat some chicken soup with a used by date of Jan 2009. I think at that point, my husband went through and tossed things, muttering as he went…
Thanks for setting this up Julie!The pearl barley was probably fine. They’ve eaten seeds out of the Pharoah’s tombs haven’t they? vbg. Now, I know it doesn’t count because it wasn’t strictly speaking the food cupboard, but whilst re-patriating bottles of cough mixture etc from kitchen yesterday back into the medicine cabinet I got into sorting out THAT too – and I found a bottle of vitamins at the back that had a use by date of 1999. That’s last millenium, I’m proud to say. (But I’m not counting it for competition purposes…)
Leonie…nice one. Did you eat them?
Michelle, I wouldn’t think that barley would go out of date, and actually I would use the rest of this. But it does make me wonder when I bought it, seeing as it has such a long shelf life! 2000? 1998? The mind boggles, especially as I’ve not touched it since.
Giselle, now seeds out of Pharoahs’ tombs…that’s impressive.
Dear Lord, I don’t even want to think about what our medicine cabinet holds!!
We just moved in here eight months ago and the pantry was empty, with the exception of one of those “fun size” boxes of Frosted Flakes that had fallen behind a drawer. I don’t remember if it had a sell-by date on it or not. The kidlet wanted to try it and had two bites, I think, before she decided she didn’t want any more.
Our medicine cabinet, on the other hand, is probably like everyone else’s…. Eek! Too scary to thoroughly examine…!
We had some friends around for dinner, and they brought a bottle of apple juice.
We didn’t drink it, so I put it in our drinks cupboard.
About 6 months later, I pulled it out to have some, only to realize that it was fresh (as in, to be refrigerated at all times and used within three days) juice.
I know I don’t have the most of date product, but it was NASTY looking, and no, I didn’t open it!
AS we have been in this house only since 2007 there won’t be anything older but when I was searching for stuff in our house in Cornwall I cam across a packet for sauce that had no expiry date on it – so that begs the question – at what point did they start putting expiry dates on stuff?
My medicine cabinet is a nightmare of old stuff!
Fun to hear everyone’s cabinet secrets.
lx
My mother has things in the larder that are priced in shillings and pence…
I have a little tin of sage that was best if used by 1979. However, I don’t think it counts, because it’s there on purpose. My grandmother NEVER replaced ANYTHING if it still had something in it. She gave me that tin of sage when I moved out on my own in 2003 (I was making a turkey; she didn’t want me to have to fork out money to buy my own sage, I guess). It was so amusing and endearing, I decided to hang onto it.
I have a jar of quince marmalade at the back of my cupboard that I made on the very day I was expecting my firstborn. It was a bluff with the pregnancy gods to get things moving (quince marmalade is a pain to make and I was really hoping to have to abandon it). The pregnancy gods killed themselves laughing (for another SEVEN DAYS) and meanwhile I had a pan of quince marmalade, a cut finger and aching back and legs.
The date on the label says November 20th 1985
Well, at first, I thought it would be the mulled wine spice – Jul 07; then I found curry powder – Nov 05; next it was black treacle – May 03; then tikka spice – May 02; but finally, I found a drum of golden breadcrumbs (unopened) Jul 98. What did I think I was going to make with them?
A bottle of barbecue sauce a year out of date, two dry pudding mixes 2 years out of date and a six year old box of yerba mate leaves (no experation date). Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
I’m sort of thinking we now have to have another challenge, where we see who dares to eat what they’ve found!! I personally regard these dates as arbitrary, unless there’s a risk of food poisoning.
Kris, I do think I’d draw the line at eating Frosted Flakes that someone else had left behind. Your kidlet is brave…I think.
Rebecca, it had probably fermented into cider! And hard cider at that. Yum!
I wonder when they did start putting expiry dates on, Liz. Does anybody know?
Lucy, wow, when was currency decimalised here? Like, in the 70s?
Ehle, a friend on my Facebook page says she also has her grandmother’s old herbs and spices. I like the sentimental food angle. I also like that your grandmother gave you nearly 30-year-old sage to save you a bit of cash. That’s a great story.
Jan J, your story is also lovely! Did you eat any of the marmalade, or is it all in that jar?
Jan S, I think you could put all of those ingredients together and make something really yummy! Mulled tikka curry black treacle bread pudding??
Yerba mate leaves, MB? What are those? Have any of them been used?
Thanks for making me feel better about my herb hoarding, Julie. And let’s not forget, I wasn’t even born until December ’82! That sage is technically my elder.
I ate all of it, Julie, except for that one jar. All together now, ahhhhh.
Ahhhhh!
Ehle, it’s older than you are?
Dear me.
I have a tin of Haggis that has no date, but has been sitting in my cabinet for 5 yrs. It was a gift, and that was the last time that person was in New Hampshire.
I know the contest is over, but I wanted to contribute some cocodamol I found with an expiry date of 2003. I had such bad earache last week I very nearly took it…
As for pearl barley, I can’t say; but I used to work in a flour mill, and the millers said quite firmly that if you had flour past its sell-by (about ten months if I recall) it WOULD have weevils. Not might, but would.
Also, you can use flour as an explosive.
I like the idea of sage being the oldest thing. If I wanted to consult a sage I would want an old one wouldn’t you ?(vbg). It does make me feel better to know I’m in good company in the hoarding stakes though. My kids now (and dh) will not eat ANYTHING past sell by date, though I would if it looked okay (within reason of course!)Ugh .. don’t like that weevil story though – will keep a watch onthe flour!
I know, I’m wondering how many weevils I’ve consumed. Ugh.
I’m a little late for this discussion but here’s my two penn’orth: In 1981 I went to see my aunt to show her our lovely baby girl. I was feeling a little off colour, and she said she had ‘just the thing’ to make me feel better. She mixed a white powder with water and made me drink it all down. “It’ll do the trick then?” I said. “O yes,” she replied. “It worked wonders for my brother when he was on home on leave.” Her brother was in the army during World War II. Thanks goodness for sell-by dates!