Anything that I see that’s expired, I sample first, assuming it’s not furry or moving or speaking or anything. Ie, I wouldn’t just blindly add it to a batter, ’cause then that could ruin all the other ingredients, too.
Eg, months ago, I unearthed some ancient Ranch-flavored soup/dip mix. Generally don’t like it, but figured let me try it, ’cause I was out of everything else. Made a small quantity of dip with some sour-cream, and it was… passable. Bland, like it lost its flavor (which is likely true). So I just dumped the rest. Had I used up a whole container of sour-cream, it all would’ve gone to waste.
Yogurt seems to “keep” okay, but it separates. Sour-cream is usually okay unless it’s really old (hey, it’s sour already…). Cottage-cheese gets a stank to it and just turns unpleasant.
I don’t throw much away as like some others here, I hate wasting food. A few weeks ago I found a bag of Kimche on the bottom shelf of the fridge that had expired. It was one of those resealable plastic bags which was sealed and looked like it had been inflated like a balloon. I left it on the kitchen table to show my wife and Later that afternoon it exploded. It actually went BOOM and sprayed Kimchi all over the kitchen. What a mess. I keep the Kimchi on the top shelf now so I can keep an eye on it.
Spicy Kimchi is great on a hot dog or on a cheese sandwich.
What’s worse than bread that gets moldy too soon is bread that seems to never get moldy. I don’t want to know what’s in it. Potato rolls and English muffins are like that.
- If you’re buying something edible, think of the amount. If you’re not sure you’ll enjoy it, don’t get bamboozled by the cheaper price-per-weight of larger packages, pick a smaller amount. You’ll still be spending or wasting less.
- Rather than buying a gamut of totally new ingredients you don’t know how to use in practice, try making more recipes with your usual stuff, like juicing older fruit in Boaz’s case. Having a bit of the comfort zone can be a huge help, and you can often predict how the ingredient will “react” to the method you use. (Also, try deep-frying banana slices, no need for batter )
- Don’t be afraid of leftovers. Even if you don’t eat them again as they are, they can be mixed into new recipes. For example, a vegetable stir fry and a roast beef’s scraps can be boiled on a pot with pre-fried garlic and onion with pasta (I especially like fusilli) and make some divine soup. A single dish can last up to 3 meals in my household.
- Bet on spices but don’t overdo it. Parmesan cheese is a frequent flyer in the “easy to go overboard on” category, with fresh ginger a close second.
- If you don’t stay home often, certain foods can stay refrigerated for a really long time. Apples are one such case, they last forever in my produce drawer and are my “emergency” fruit of choice.
- Salad doesn’t necessarily have to be seasoned. Goes double if you eat it alongside something else like rice & beans or chicken. This avoids having an eventually goopy, mushy mess that no one wants to scarf down.
- Since avocado was mentioned so often so far, here’s a QoL tip: only buy the ones that still have the stem. They age way slower this way. And don’t buy them too hard, as those were harvested too far before their time and will never go soft and buttery like we love them.
- In general, try not to freeze non-fruit stuff. My mother says what’s frozen “tastes like fridge”, and even the consistency changes - pumpkin becomes fibrous, green beans turn spongy, and so on. If you absolutely must, then vac-seal it if you can.
If in doubt, don’t buy it, like you said. Don’t fight yourself over the idea, just keep the cash.
There’s a whole laundry list on how to pick produce that I could give, but I think this is long enough already
Over here the Thursday is the most frequent market visit day, because produce is on sale. But you gotta know what you’ll pick and how much you’ll use, or yep, it’s easy to waste.
About the only thing around here that gets trashed is the bread heels. Even then I normally feed them to my chickens or raccoons. Those will eat just about anything so all my table scraps go to them also.
Ghost pepper salsa sounds good. Reminds me I need to thaw some of the ones I grew and make some more hot sauce.
+1 for banana bread. I went as far as to translate the recipe for my mother and she loves it to bits. Now she buys quite a bit of banana so there’s always some to make bread with even after she makes dumplings or candy to her heart’s content.
An extra benefit is bananas destined to cooked/baked recipes don’t mind being frozen at all. They get mushy but the flavor is the same.
Opened just to scoop some (chunks, not slices) onto the yicky cottage-cheese, then immediately covered with plastic-wrap and held in place with a rubberband. Still went moldy.
Had the open jar of sauce (mushroom’n’something) that I want to use before it grows fur. Also had a third of a hero-roll. Sliced in half, then 3 slabs (top/middle/bottom) for making homemade pizza, so only the 1-piece top’n’middle was left, if that makes any sense. Got baby onions, got garlic, both were around for a while. Also an open box of spaghetti. ’though that lasts forever. So let’s go crazy.
Boiled some spaghetti, let it soak.
Minced 4 cloves of garlic and a baby-onion, fried that a while to not-quite-brown. Glopped in a bunch of sauce, let it boil a while to finish the onion’n’garlic and let it “infuse”. More than a little sugar (was a bit salty and bitter). Nom-nom, was good enough to just eat like that, as a thick tomato soup.
Glopped some sauce on the bread and let it sit and soak in while still scalding hot. Et when it cooled down some. Damn, that was good. Like dipping breadstix in sauce, only yummier. And finally, had the spaghetti with the yumyum sauce.
So… killed off most of the sauce, some garlic before it starts sprouting, a onion, some spaghetti, and am that much closer to using up the goodies.
Same dealy, seeing what’s “in inventory” and figuring out what to do with it all to use it up. Got a few more spoons of sauce and the last of the spaghetti, so if I wanted to, I could use up some more garlic’n’onion, too.
Oh, and “breakfast” was the last 3 slices of Münster in a grilleded-cheese samwich, so even more cleared out.
Yeah a can in the fridge doesn't work and will cause a nasty metal taste almost immediately. Especially with acidic foods like tomatoes or pineapple . just move it into plastic .
Wellp, I rarely leave open cans at all, so that’s also rarely an issue for me, but yeah.
Like I opened a jar of olives, but can only put a small handful at a time on pizzas, samwiches, etc., so one of the jars I saved (from PB or something) is the perfect size to just dump ’em into, and with a screw-lid seals nicely.
Imagine I can use one of those for cans of other stuff, too.
)
