Several months ago I decided to make spaghetti carbonara. While shopping for the ingredients I was unsure how much pancetta I needed, and I ended up buying an extra package. So the unused package went in the fridge and I kind of forgot about it. The “best before” date is July 29, 2023. The package is unopened, and I don’t see any visible mold or anything inside, but I’d rather not open it up to do a sniff test.
It’s basically this stuff, except it’s uncured pancetta (in case that makes a difference in the shelf life) in that same sort of package.
In hindsight I should have just put it in the freezer when I realized I bought more than I needed, and I put it in there just now assuming it is still good. But is it?
Yeah, I eat all sorts of stuff that people on this board are afraid to eat. But no way would I eat uncured pork that old. And I’d be worried about botulism, not just a tummy bug.
I would have given it a sniff. It’s not really “uncured.” There’s plenty of cure with the celery powder or juice I presume it uses. (I’ve read that they often have more nitrates/nitrites than traditionally cured products.) Real pancetta can last months, if not over a year. The worst it gets is it dries out. But with this stuff, I’m not 100% sure. Note that the date is a “best before” date and not an expiration date.
Yeah, “uncured” really doesn’t mean raw, it means not cured in the conventional method with nitrites.
But it’s still got loads of salt and lots of nitrites that come from natural sources like celery juice/powder, so they can get the exact same result as conventional curing, but they can claim that it’s not the same thing and market it as such.
Plus IIRC, pancetta has a drying step as well.
So I’d imagine that if it smells and looks good, it’s probably safe to eat , although the flavor may have suffered due to oxidation or something like that. That’s what “best before” means, especially if it’s been refrigerated the whole time.
Yep. I’ve made it before. You basically salt and season it, stick it in the fridge in a plastic bag for a week or so, roll it and string it up, and let it dry for 3-4 weeks or so in the correct conditions (in re:temp & humidity.) And, voila, pancetta.
Speaking of which, i have a whole dry salami that i bought early in the pandemic (hey, meat that keeps!) That i ought to throw away. It looks fine, but i don’t trust it.
And a cure doesn’t even require nitrates/nitrites of any kind. Things can be completely salt cured. (And, stuff like prosciutto is only cured with salt. Or at least that’s the way it’s traditionally done. I believe it’s the same for jamon iberico. The main thing is you need to use more salt if you don’t use nitr(a/i)tes. Salt is a wonderful preservative. I still have jars of blended fresh red jalapenos preserved with 20% salt by weight into a paste that are over two years old and still taste fine.)
Cherry powder does the same and also stabilizes the color of preserved meats.
However, as @pulykamell points out, the historic method of preservation is just to use salt. The meat will taste different than the stuff you are used to, but that is how it was done in the olden days.
I cannot stress this strongly enough: You did the right thing. Sniffing has little to no bearing on whether old food is going to kill you or make you sick. Please folks, get it through your heads (I know you’ve heard this before) most food borne pathogens do not look, feel, or smell any different than perfectly good food. That’s why we need safety guidelines.
We all want to believe that we can tell the difference, but we can’t. I’m not saying that the bad-smelling food is OK, I’m just saying that the good-smelling food isn’t (necessarily) either.
Cherry meat sounds good. 