I remember, as a kid, never getting a funky bag of Saltine crackers. Now, it may have been that the family went through them quicker that I do now, I’ll grant that.
But now I seem to pitch half the carton, more often than not. Sure a carton (or in this case, a half carton) may last a year, but I don’t ever remember them goin’ rancid on me in my youth.
By rancid, do you mean soggy?
Did your parents get the saltines in the old metal tins when you were a kid? I just barely remember those and indeed, the saltines never went bad in those.
As to the boxes, it seems to take several months for saltines to go soggy, but I don’t have a good idea of how long as the only time this happens is when I find a box that was opened and then got pushed to the back of the cabinet.
By rancid I mean they start to smell Really Bad…and we still has one or two of those metal containers. It didn’t seem to map a differece. Being a fan of Alton Brown, I think the hydrogenated oil is going funky. I’m just wondering if other people have seen this.
Have they pulled the trans fats out of them? One of the reasons trans fats were used was they had shelf life like plutonium. They’re bad for you, but the manufacturers love them.
They lost their crispiness in the past also. You ate less or more to finish of a pack without opening a new one. You can put them on a cookie sheet after you turn off the oven from baking and let them loss the moisture. You can mic them on a plate for a short time and they dry out too.
I have never had this problem.
Is it safe to assume the issue is with more than one brand? If by any chance it is just one brand, try a different brand and see what happens.
What kind of time frame are you talking about? I know I have saltines that occasionally sit for a few months at home and the worst I get is soggy saltines. The ones I keep at work are usually a store brand and never stay around longer than a month.
The saltines I typically use have no trans fats and use one of the following:
Interesterified* Soybean, Canola or Palm oil.
I see radically different results depending on how tightly I seal the package. I think simple exposure to air explains this – if you seal it tightly, no problem.
I’ve just noticed it with Saltine’s brand (Nabisco?), mostly because I don’t care for the other ones. But I guess I could shop around…I can also put them in a gallon ziplock and see if that improves things.
It is a FUNKY smell though…and not funky in a good way.