Let me tell you something about cooking. If you live on your
own and are attempting to feed yourself for the first time, you will often find
that you don’t eat some of your food right away. That pack of chicken might
have been sitting in the fridge for a day or so, or you forgot how long that
container of hummus has been out on the counter. On the one hand you don’t want
to waste ten dollars’ worth of groceries by chucking it in the bin, but you
certainly don’t want food poisoning. What’s the best solution?
I do three tests on my borderline food. I check the date on
the package first. If it’s waaaaay past due, then it’s out. A few days to a
week past and I’ll double check with the other two tests before I pitch it. It’s
because I found out that it’s not really an “expiration date”, it’s a sell by
date. That means stores can’t sell it because it isn’t considered fresh
anymore. It may be a little funky, but it’s probably still edible past that
date. Just use a little common sense. Your corn flakes might be fine two weeks
past the date, but definitely not your ground beef.
Sight and smell is next. Discolorations or mold are easy to
spot, especially on an old loaf of bread. Smell is second, and that works with
dairy and meat. I was at a loss for what good meat smelled like for a while until
I got used to cooking it myself. For chicken, it’s pretty much scentless until
it’s bad. Either that or a faint bloody/meat smell. At least that’s what I’ve
found. Any meat with a tangy smell or a grey color to it is probably bad.
Finally, if all else fails, there’s the Google test. I can’t
tell you how many times my mind has been made up by yahoo answers, where people
post these questions all the time. Just today I found out to my dismay that Ice
cream can in fact go bad. Apparently, I don’t eat it often enough to get a huge
box of it and I had to throw out half a container of vanilla. It was the same
with wine. I bought a huge bottle of white wine thinking I could keep it in the
cupboard and use it for cooking. The other day I found out with a search that
wine goes sour and gets vinegary after a few days. Still safe to drink, just
tastes like ass. Now I have a jar of bad wine in my fridge that I hesitate to
use, but am too proud to throw out. Maybe I can hide it in a casserole or
something.
One of the most unfortunate things is that fresh, homemade
food invariably has a shorter lifespan that processed foods from the store. Of course
it doesn’t last as long, it hasn’t been pumped full of ten syllable long
chemicals that keep it preserved. But I am learning fast that the freezer is my
best friend. It’s not just for meat and vegetables, practically anything can be
frozen. Some dough for baking, yogurt, even eggs. Yes eggs, but you have to crack them first. To
do it, you have to break the yolks gently, so as to not incorporate any air
into them. Then people suggest adding a little salt if you plan on using them
in savory dishes, or sugar if you want to bake with them. Just make sure to add
to the package just how many eggs are in there. Unless you’re making an omelet,
most recipes requiring eggs need to be at least a little precise. I tried it
and it worked out wonderfully!
Ah, life is a mess, particularly when you’re working in the
kitchen. I think learning how to cook is way more about experience and
knowledge than skill. Maybe after five years of cooking for myself I’ll stop
making rookie mistakes with expired food.
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