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In the back of the cupboard...

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In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Hope » Wed Oct 28, 2020 6:45 pm

What have you got lurking in the back of the cupboard that you've had for far too long and not used?

I have a packet of polenta (dry) which I keep meaning to use, but.... I've only made polenta a few times and keep hoping I'd like it, but... And some coconut milk powder, that I didn't realise had cows milk powder in (I'm intolerant). I was thinking of adding it to soap (I mean soap that you wash with, not mistyped soup!) but not sure if my skin reacts to it, so still don't know what to do with it.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Uschi » Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:02 pm

I have unearthed a few elderly pudding mixes, but they should be fine as they are dry.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Pepper Pig » Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:17 pm

Nothing. *she says proudly*

The recent appearance of a rat put paid to keeping anything that was lurking!

But God there was a lot of stuff.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:34 pm

Part of my lockdown decluttering has been working through and using up these things, so there aren't many left
The latest was a vacuum pack of chestnuts, not sure how long they had been there, but they were rather dark and smelled odd, although the vacuum seal was apparently intact so they got binned

There were random jars of antipasti in oil that I bought when seen at a good price, thinking they'd be an interesting addition to salads or sandwiches, but to be honest, they weren't; likewise the can of hearts of palm, which I thought I liked, but canned artichoke hearts have a similar texture

The things I keep thinking I should do something with are the two cans of cooked salt cod (it might sound odd to use canned, but if you just want a bit to make fritters, it's quicker than cooking from scratch and doesn't stink out the kitchen). And a little jar of porcini in olive oil that I have no idea what to do with - could work into pizza topping maybe.

There's a jar of cherries in brandy that I brought from my previous home - might try them this Christmas. Or might not.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:37 pm

At the beginning of lockdown (March), I cleaned out my kitchen cupboard and put some out of date things in a basket to be used up immediately. The basket is still out, I'm 2/3 of the way down the pack of polenta, 2/3 down the orzo, still have some hemp seed hearts and a whole packet of soya mince. In the cupboard I fear that the anchovy essence has been there rather a long time and yesterday found an unopened bottle of red wine vinegar in the cupboard with the cleaning things which I didn't know I had. I'm not sure when the pickled mussels will be opened either. We won't get onto spices ...

BTW, dried coconut milk has a very short shelf life - I'd put it down to experience and bin it.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:50 pm

Cleared out some tinned clams with a "use-by" date of 2016 :shock:
Then I found a bottle of Hershey´s Chocolate Sauce which I tried - yuk - use by 2015.
It´s so important to check the cupboard (and the fridge/freezer) from time to time, isn´t it? :) :)

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby KeenCook2 » Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:54 pm

Funnily enough only today I was looking at a small bottle of raspberry flavoured red wine vinegar that we bought at Auchan back in the days when our boys were little and we used to go to France on holiday by car, and stock up with all the usual French hypermarket goodies on our way home.

I also found a container of fish stock spices that still had its price on in francs dating from the same era ... we're probably talking mid-90s? We did have another large bottle of tarragon vinegar dating from then that we finished a few months ago ... somehow it just got forgotten!

On the other thread like this I was asking about a jar of Rick Stein sea salt and seaweed with a 2002 date.

I've also got a bottle of pumpkin seed oil dated 2010 ... I have no idea if it will still be good. I had it for making a green cake, which was delicious! But I have a feeling that oil doesn't keep that long and may have gone rancid. Maybe I should have a sniff/taste :oops:

PP - well aren't you the teacher's pet :lol: :lol: :lol: I guess you also had to get rid of stuff that wasn't out of date too, if the rat had been anywhere near it :cry:

EM, yes, I have the same with spices - was looking at some ground cardamom (unopened) when I was thinking about making some spicy mango chutney, dated Dec 2017. It will probably be ok as it is still unopened. I've definitely got a lot more spices that are opened and quite a bit older than that; I really should bin them. I tipped out a jar of ancient coriander seeds into a flower pot the other day and since then have seen a small grey mouse ferreting around in it - I guess it liked the seeds??

Sue, I've just found a tiny bottle of opened truffle oil dated 2002 ... I think that should probably go :oops: Your porcini in olive oil will certainly be rather more recent than that :oops: Also nice with polenta, I would have thought?

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Hickybank » Wed Oct 28, 2020 8:42 pm

Just chucked out (yesterday) an opened packet of suet BBD 2007

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Hope » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:09 pm

PP - oh that's annoying. We had a mouse in the kitchen last month (found it eating a cooling loaf of bread) but it didn't get in the food cupboard. Put out traps, but not seen it since (maybe the cat got it?!)

Sue - I'm doing my decluttering now - didn't have time when the schools were closed!

EM - noted about the coconut milk - will bin it. My spices - well they are mostly ancient. I have whole nutmeg my mum bought me when I went to uni and it's dated BBE 1999. Still tastes/smells fine!

(I bet you're all rolling your eyes at that one!)

KC2 - blimey you need to have a clearout/cook up those old things. You sound even worse than me!

Hicky - you could always feed it to the birds. (as I plan to do with some old seeds I found!)

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Sakkarin » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:20 pm

KeenCook2 wrote:I've just found a tiny bottle of opened truffle oil dated 2002

I was shocked to discover that most truffle oil doesn't actually contain any real truffle at all, sort of like the foodie equivalent of homeopathic remedies.

Armed with that information, I did a pie chart of the ingredients a while back...

Image

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby herbidacious » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:27 pm

I have managed to eat up most of my last French food shop now (almost a year ago) but have some out of date Maille honey mustard. Also some French cakes mixes probably a year past. Cook or chuck?

Apart from that... I did have a clear out earlier this year. There will be things that had just gone past or were about to, that will be well over, now.

My larder cupabord is fullish. Need to keep stuff for Brexit fallout? :?

But I do need to have another cull and organize. Problem is it's very deep and no pull out shelves (as requested when I had it made...)

I keep food in other cupboards too but a lot of out of date stuff was broken when the cupboard fell off the wall.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby herbidacious » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:28 pm

Ha ha Sakkarin :D Alas, too true.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby aero280 » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:33 pm

OH buys some stuff when we are in Europe "to keep for a special occasion". Some (most?) of those occasions don't arrive in time!!

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby liketocook » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:51 pm

I cleared out my herb & spice cupboard a few months ago and found a sachet of paella seasoning which I bought in Spain in 2008! My son made me throw it out lol!
My dry goods cupboard should be okay(ish) though I've a jar of coarse semolina that is of dubious vintage. I did check it when I had reorganise things when my son moved back in for lockdown bringing his kitchen contents with him. It looked, smelled and tasted just fine so I left it. I know I bought in an Asian grocery store in Glasgow no later than 2016, I can't remember why I bought it... :oops:
When my Dad died last year we found a cupboard full of baking supplies and tins that we reckoned must have moved with him into his flat in 2003 after my Mum died . My Dad was diabetic and didn't bake, there was a tin of condensed milk with a Shoprite sticker on it that my Mum must have bought! Shoprite was taken over by Kwiksave in mid-1990s :roll: .

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:02 pm

Hope wrote:EM - noted about the coconut milk - will bin it. My spices - well they are mostly ancient. I have whole nutmeg my mum bought me when I went to uni and it's dated BBE 1999. Still tastes/smells fine!

I find whole nutmegs keep really well - I used some I bought on holiday for years, and my current batch have been hanging round a while

I find dried coconut milk keeps quite well, I transfer it to a screw top jar once opened, but I find it sweeter than the canned, which I don't really like, though it's handy

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby herbidacious » Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:16 pm

When my great Aunt died in 1978, there was jam in the pantry that she'd made in the 1950s. I suppose not that old...

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Sakkarin » Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:27 pm

Not the world's greatest jammaker then?

That's probably a good thread topic, "What do you make that anyone gifted it would keep out of politeness, but would probably leave in the back of the cupboard for the next 20 years?".

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Oct 28, 2020 11:25 pm

:lol: :lol:

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby herbidacious » Thu Oct 29, 2020 1:27 am

I don't know, Sakkarin. Maybe she just did some post-rationing hoarding. I don't remember her cooking... apart from her once serving trifle with jelly in it, which my mother disapproved of, and not cooking carrots enough... in my mother's opinion.

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Re: In the back of the cupboard...

Postby karadekoolaid » Thu Oct 29, 2020 4:00 am

OH buys some stuff when we are in Europe "to keep for a special occasion"

How curious. My OH does exactly the same thing. The truffle oil from 2007 went out while she was away. I did taste it before ditching it and it was rancid. I did not taste the tin of smoked oysters (another "special occasion" item) with a use-by date of 2013. No way - straight in the bin. We´ve still got a bottle of Johnny Walker " Swing" (for special occasions) which has been in the cupboard since 2002. Unopened.
I´ve probably said this before, but I´ll say it again anyway. 8-)
Whole spices last for a long time. In fact, I´ve just used up some mustard seeds I bought 5 years ago, and while they weren´t as pungent as they might have been fresh, they were still very passable. GROUND spices tend to turn into sawdust very quickly and their flavour disappears. Herbs seem to last longer in dried form than spices, although I can´t say I´ve actually tested them scientifically!Pulverised herbs (as in "powdered bayleaf") - I just avoid like the plague.

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