I had to root through my files yesterday, to work on an old medical-legal case, and I uncovered, buried in the waaaay back of a drawer, a box of old girl scout cookies! And they were Lemon Coolers, to boot! They haven’t made those in a while, as far as I can discover.
Bad news: They had been opened, all those years ago.
Good news: They were just as tasty and crisp and fresh yesterday as they were when I opened them.
Mmmmmm, retro-flavors. Lemon Coolers
So, uncover any older treats in your pantry/closet/file drawer/mattress lately?
Umm doc? I can’t recommend 5 yo opened cookies. :eek:
Some other company still makes Lemon Coolers, afaik. I just had a box, less than a year ago. They are nice, arent they?
OTOh, decades ago, my gaming buddies uncovered several crates of Cold War Survival Crackers, which were in hermetically sealed cans. Even after 20 years, they were still Ok. Kinda like graham crackers. Bland, but only a tad stale.
Does a nice can of evaporated milk from 2006 count? I stirred up the clumps, checked online that it actually starts out with a brownish tinge, and went ahead and used it.
That’s miraculous. Not that five-year-old GS cookies were still tasty, but that they existed. It doesn’t matter where I hide them around here, they’re gone within days after purchase.
(In fairness to my family, I have to admit that’s because no matter where I hide them, there’s one person who knows where they’re hidden. I sometimes forget where I left my car keys, or my wallet, or my tax refund check; but I never forget where I put the Girl Scout cookies!!)
I offered to cook dinner at my parents’ house over xmas.
When I asked for dried herbs my mum found a jar of rosemary which appeared to have been imported from West Germany (i.e. pre-unification!) making it at least 22 yrs old.
It was probably bought by my German great-aunt on one of her visits to us.
I decided to get some fresh stuff from the garden rather than risk it!
My wife bought me a jar of Jif peanut butter the day after I left for a month-long business trip.
I don’t know what happened - if the month wait caused it to settle/mix/whatever, but that was the best damned jar of peanut butter I’ve ever had in my life.
It was an unusual circumstance: Keeping them in a locked file cabinet, to which only I have the key, in a locked office, on a locked unit, deep inside a maximum-security prison.
I just can’t believe I forgot about 'em. That is soooooooo not like me.
My grandparents had a cellar with lots and lot of canned and boxed goods on steel shelving. They grew up during the great depression, and I guess the hoarding was their way of feeling secure. If you needed some pasta sauce or canned veggies or whatever they always had it. One day gram sent us over a box of stuff, which included a 21 year old box of cake mix and a bottle of ketchup so old it was starting to turn black. :eek:
After that we started checking the dates on everything they bought over…
Yesterday I made an executive decision and tossed out a box of a former co-worker’s “personal items” which have been sitting on the floor near another co-worker’s desk for quite some time. (Long enough for her to move desks* twice*.) (Co-worker #2 has maintained that she sometimes saw co-worker #1 and would be taking her personal items to her “some time.”)
Not only had I lost any confidence in the likelihood of the items actually ever being taken to their owner, some the said box contained mostly canned food items which expired in 2006 and 2007 (plus other valuable items such as an Uncle Cracker CD case, sans CD,) covered in several years of office dust, I began to suspect that the hypothetical deliver might not received with much joy, should it ever materialize.
I am also looking hard at a bag of Tostitos which has been in one of the kitchenettes for as long as anyone can remember.
The “Guaranteed Fresh Until” date is JUN16, provocatively without reference to a year. (Unless they are meant to be “fresh” for eight or nine years, I suppose.)
I think I might have told this one before. My mom when she visited would always bring over presents for me. A few months ago I pulled out the box with the game of Go in it. you know how some game boxes have extra space in them, and they fold over the cardboard to cover the empty space, so that the included pieces don’t slide around in the box? When I pulled out the board and the pieces, for the first time I noticed that the box was still heavy. I took out the carboard insert and find several bars of fancy Swiss chocolate - with an expiration date of 1987! Of course I just had to try them. The dark chocolate was all white by this time. (Our toy chest is right under a window and it gets hot there.)
The chocolate? Not so good anymore. But I didn’t get sick!
ETA: to be clear, the chocolate had an expiration date of 1987, and the year when I found it was 2010.
Doc, I thought that by the standards of your food preferences, 5 years was young. I mean, isn’t that the minimum for the aged cheddars you’re so fond of?
Tonight the Mrs. had a recipe calling for fish sauce, and we noted that our 1 liter bottle of the stuff (half-used) had a ‘best by’ date on it of November 2001. Very piquant!
In 1999, my mom bought me several boxes of chocolates because she liked the foil that was wrapped around them. I ate several in 05 or 06. I still know where they are. I can test them tomorrow to see if it has any negative effects on me.
I’ve got a couple MREs that are at least 21 years old* kickin’ around in the back of my Jeep. Being intimately familiar with the mechanical good-ness that is “Jeep”, I can pretty much state with certainty that I will some day be compelled to eat these.
*That is how long I’ve had them. Who knows how old they were when I found them in the abandoned gas station in Yermo.
NO WAY! I mean sure, it’s already fermented etc etc, but still, 5-year-old yoghurt? That is awesome. WIN! :D:D
Tell us more! Did you sniff judiciously first? Maybe let the cat try it first? Was the top puffed up at all? Any mold? Did you take a tiny taste first, or dive right in? Did you eat one, pause to check for gastrointestinal distress etc., then go eat the rest? Come on, spill!
Seriously, this is great. I stopped stirring my clumpy canned stuff, and am saluting you.
I don’t have a cat, but I sniffed, tiny taste, and then ate them at five different times. No mold, puffed tops, bad smells or tastes. Like you said, it’s fermented to begin with, and had been undisturbed in my frig for five years.
