Last night I bought a bottle of balsamic vinegrette to marinade some bell peppers and portobellos (mmmm… balsamic vinegrette marinated bell peppers and portobellos, aarrgggaaarrrgh).
I stuck it (i.e. the sealed bottle) in the fridge for only a few hours before I decided to use it, but when I took it out and shook it up, nothing seemed to get shook. So I cracked open the top and stuck a knife in to mix it up and I noticed the top portion of the contents were of a thick, clear gel-like consistency (while the bottom 75% or so was the dark part with all the spices and stuff). It was pretty cohesive too because I would sqeeze the bottle enough to allow this stuff to come out beyond the opening of the bottle and when I released it it just slunk back in.
It wasn’t in the fridge that long and I certainly don’t believe it was frozen, but I put it in the microwave for a short while on a low setting and and it returned to its normal liquid state.
I was pretty grossed out by that gel, but I had already cut up the vegetables and besides, I was damn hungry, so I used it.
Was this a mistake? What could that gel have been and is it safe to eat?
Are you sure it wasn’t frozen? For whatever reason, things in the back of my fridge have sometimes had the tendency to freeze. If oil-and-vinegar-type salad dressing gets back there, it congeals much like you have described. I usually move the bottle to the front of the fridge, where it thaws with no obvious ill effects.
It could be that your fridge is too cold, or that, if you live in a cold climate, it sat in your car trunk too long or something. Perhaps it was nestled next to the ice cream in the shopping bag?
A few hours in a cold-enough fridge is enough to congeal olive oil. Plus the oil would have been at the top of the dressing, which was the bit you say turned to “gel”.
Now I have a question for you: what’s a portobello?!!
“Portobello” is a fancy-schmancy food marketing term for button mushrooms. Sometimes they let them get bigger before they pick them, so they’re really huge and they can stick a “Portobello” label on them, but they’re still just basically button mushrooms.
No no. Portobellos are indeed the same species as button mushrooms, but their longer growth cycle gives them a completely different taste, and that’s the important thing, no? Saying the size is the only difference is somewhat analogous to saying that sirloin is really the same as filet mignon.