It Smells Ok

It happens to everyone; you start a recipe and half way though when you are about to pour the expiable ingredient, you notice that expiration date has long since pasted. What do you do? Is it ok to use it? First, you smell it, sure it smells normal but I am certainly no expert and I think things like milk smell funny anyway. This actually happened to me this weekend. I was making buttermilk pancakes for breakfast (fat kid, I know) and I noticed that my buttermilk expired January 31. I obviously smelled it and it smelled normal. I shook it up and poured a little out to see if there were any chucks – negative. Everything looked good. So I used it. I held my breath until the first one was one and tore a corner off. I can’t take any more chances with BP II, a 2nd does of food poisoning might bring his poisoning theories back to the forefront. We can’t have that. I nibbled slowly and too my relief everything was fine. They tasted like buttermilk pancakes.

I googled “how long does buttermilk stay good” and some wonderful soul on Chowhound.com said she freezes buttermilk all the time. It is so true, you buy this pint of buttermilk and the recipe only calls for 1 cup and they rest spoils in the fridge. I am going to freeze the rest of my buttermilk when I get home and will let you know how well it de-thaws.

Ignore "Use By" Dates?

by Nicki Gostin, Posted Feb 19th 2010 @ 1:30PM \(slashfood.com)

It's cold outside. You're wearing your favorite pajamas, watching a Law and Order SVU marathon. Suddenly you're in the mood for a cup of hot chocolate or milky cup of tea to accompany two cookies.

But there's one problem (and we're not talking about limiting yourself to two cookies): The expiration date on the milk carton says the milk expired yesterday. You gingerly sniff the carton, fully expecting to be overwhelmed by noxious fumes but instead all you can smell is . . . milk.

Turns out nothing terrible is going to happen. According to University of Minnesota food scientist Ted Labuza (who spoke to Slate), perishables like milk and meat have a three- to seven-day grace period after the expiration date, assuming you are a normal person and store said perishables in the fridge and not, say, the sauna.

The "use by" date for milk varies state by state. Only twenty states insist on dating for lactose products, and each has different regulations.

You have plenty of wiggle room with expiration dates on other foods too. Pasta and rice is fine for a year. Unopened packages of cookies are good for a few months (though we wonder who has packets of cookies that sit around unopened for months?) and canned goods are safe for at least five years: perfect if there's a major catastrophe that keeps you housebound for . . . years.

The best "use by" detector is planted firmly in the middle of your face. If it smells suspicious, it's best to chuck it; if it smells okay then it's usually fine. So relax and go back to the couch.