No ill effects so far.

Scientists Analyze 170-year-old Champagne Found on a Shipwreck...I'd try that.
http://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/sci ... -shipwreck

My cantaloupe tastes like lemons. Looks fine. Worried if there's no footy taste, something's off? If anything, it's unappetizing. Thoughts?

I say ditch the cantaloupe. Smelling like something other than what you're supposed to smell like is never a good sign.

I have a giant hubbard squash a friend gave to me last fall and has been in my pantry ever since. I swear that it was originally blue grey in color, now it's pale yellowish-orange.

It's got no soft spots, it doesn't smell... will it be any good to eat?

JoelF wrote:I have a giant hubbard squash a friend gave to me last fall and has been in my pantry ever since. I swear that it was originally blue grey in color, now it's pale yellowish-orange.

It's got no soft spots, it doesn't smell... will it be any good to eat?

you'll find out when you cut it open!

justjoan wrote:

JoelF wrote:I have a giant hubbard squash a friend gave to me last fall and has been in my pantry ever since. I swear that it was originally blue grey in color, now it's pale yellowish-orange.

It's got no soft spots, it doesn't smell... will it be any good to eat?

you'll find out when you cut it open!

...and it SCREAMS!

Hot dogs. "Sell By" date in mid-August (2015) it is currently early December 2015.
Have been refrigerated the whole time.

Eat or toss?

leek wrote:Hot dogs. "Sell By" date in mid-August (2015) it is currently early December 2015.
Have been refrigerated the whole time.

Eat or toss?

You'll know as soon as you cut the packaging open. Trust your nose.

My boss eats a lot of Fig Food soups that you just pour out and heat. She opened one yesterday that had a use-by date of 10/2/15. This was a lentil soup that was thick and somewhat dry on opening, when usually they are, y'know, soupy. She asked WWPLD, and I said go for it. It smelled fine, they're vacuum sealed, it's only two months past the date and there's no mold, etc. She said that if it's dry, air must have gotten in there so it's not safe.

She ended up flushing it but what do you say? Would I have kilt my boss?
http://figfood.com/products/soups/

Pie Lady wrote:She ended up flushing it but what do you say? Would I have kilt my boss?
http://figfood.com/products/soups/

I don't know what soup has to do with your boss wearing a kilt, but in general "use by" dates are pretty conservative. It probably would have been fine.

Aha! I should mention this on my next employee review.

So we have some honeycrisp cider. There's nothin' in it but apples. We drank some already (I think it's two weeks old) but the date on it is 12/13. The gallon container was all puffed up. It smelled and tasted okay but a little boozy and slightly fizzy.

So do we have moonshine or poison?

Mr. Pie is risking it, but I'm being a sissy and going with less festive wine for our Christmas card futzfest. Am I going to be a Christmas widow?

Thanks,
Imbibin' in Irving Park

Congrats. You have hard cider.

706 is exactly right. As someone who has made thousands of gallons of hard cider and apple wine, let me assure you that, given the descriptions you gave, esp. the puffy jug (!! which most certainly ¡whooshed! a bit as you took the top off), your sweet cider has undergone alcoholic fermentation. Look to see if there are any preservatives listed on the label--I suspect not.

If it's been in the fridge the whole time, it most certainly is still actively fermenting. Pull it from the fridge, put it in a cool--not cold--place, with a paper towel or section of cloth rubber-banded/affixed totally across the mouth. Wait a few more days. Back in the fridge, chill, pour very carefully (there'll be debris in the bottom of the bottle), and enjoy!

The chances of something bad happening to a fresh, clean sweet cidre instead of alcoholic fermentation are microscopically small.

Geo

Nope, no preservatives, just apples.

Nice! Free moonshine!

I'm hoping this is another "dates are generous" thing:
I bought silken tofu for a recipe and then ended up not making it. I figured it's tightly sealed, so it'll last forever! Apparently not. It "expired" 12/15. I'm not sure what happens to old tofu, sitting there in water...
Can I use it? I have a recipe for brownies.

Pie Lady wrote:I'm hoping this is another "dates are generous" thing:
I bought silken tofu for a recipe and then ended up not making it. I figured it's tightly sealed, so it'll last forever! Apparently not. It "expired" 12/15. I'm not sure what happens to old tofu, sitting there in water...
Can I use it? I have a recipe for brownies.

I'd use it without hesitation . . . unless it smelled or looked bad after I opened it.

=R=

I realize this doesn't say much about my housekeeping but how about a sealed package of standard Roundy's bacon with a Best-By of June 30, 2015? It fell into a no man's land in the fridge and I hate to toss it if it can be used for something. It seems in good condition, not puffy or leaky or anything and looks OK. It may not be suitable to regular griddle frying but maybe as an ingredient? I was considering smoking some ATBs today.

Smell it. Bacon's smell goes way faster than its look.

Geo

I'd try it...it's cured, after all. I'm with Geo, I bet the stench of rancid bacon is pretty strong, so if it smells okay I think you'd be fine.

So the fridge is a little full and I had to park around the block. I said the hell with it and left two frozen turkey breasts in the trunk last night.
Today they're still there. They're keeping my laundry company, taking in the sights, getting one last road trip before I turn them into crispy critters.
Considering the weather out there, when do I need to bring these in? I'm not cooking them until Saturday.
Cathy, I'm looking in your direction...

What's the outside temp, low to high, during the day? (We'll assume that trunk temp is the same as ambient temp, altho' if it's sunny, that'll be off.) If the temp stays in the low to mid-30s, that's the temp inside a fridge. The likelihood of the turkey breasts de-frosting significantly approaches zero. Were it I under these circumstances, I'd not sweat it.
YMMV.

Geo

The high/low for today through Saturday is 45/35 (overcast & rainy), 41/33 (overcast), 42/32 (mostly cloudy), and 48/33 (clear).

That's pushing it. Do you have a suitably-sized cooler? If so, *immediately* put the turkey in the cooler--test it, it should still be pretty solid. If it is, it'll probably hold for a couple of days. But I'd check it by seeing how solid it is, and how cold it is. It takes a lot of energy to pass from ice at 32°F to water at 32°F.

Geo

Geo wrote:That's pushing it. Do you have a suitably-sized cooler? If so, *immediately* put the turkey in the cooler--test it, it should still be pretty solid. If it is, it'll probably hold for a couple of days. But I'd check it by seeing how solid it is, and how cold it is. It takes a lot of energy to pass from ice at 32°F to water at 32°F.

Geo

Thanks. I do have a cooler somewhere. Maybe I can also do a little jostling and make more room in the fridge.

Darest I save and freeze a batch of turkey gravy that has been in a very cold (garage) fridge since Thanksgiving (two weeks today), when I forgot to freeze it? Would it help if I bring it back up to boiling for a while before freezing it?

Piggy-backing on Katie's...can I freeze some turkey meat from the Saturday after Thanksgiving, because I'm kinda sick of eating it?

If you freeze the turkey meat, don't wait too long to eat it. I find that chicken and turkey get an unpleasant spongy, dry texture after spending some time in the freezer.

As for the gravy, give it a sniff and trust your nose!

So I made cookie dough this past Saturday the 31st but only had time to bake about half the cookies. I put the rest of the dough in the fridge, with plastic wrap pressed on the surface, intending to freeze or bake the rest on the 1st. I totally forgot about it and now I'm wondering if the dough is still fine. Can I still bake the cookies tonight?