Questions tagged [storage-lifetime]
Questions specifically about the expected shelf life of a food item.
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Is it safe to leave butter at room temperature?
Is it safe to leave butter at room temperature? If so, for how long is it safe to keep it out?
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How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?
How do I know if a given food or ingredient I have is still good, or if I should discard it?
How can I best preserve a food or ingredient?
This broad question is intended as a "general reference" ...
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Shelf life of spices
The common wisdom I've heard is that dried herbs and spices:
have a shelf-life of about a year or 2
keep best in a cool dark place
will release more flavor when crushed
That's fine but some spices ...
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My tea bags are expired, can I still use them?
This box of tea has an expiration date which has passed but I would like to know if I can still use it. What do you think?
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Why doesn't Bailey's go bad?
I realize it can go bad after a long time, but why does it take so much longer than other dairy products? Does it have to do with the alcohol content? If so, what is the process that is happening?
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Is there anything I can add to homemade bread to preserve it?
I love making our own bread - we rarely buy shop bought, but it tends to go off very quickly. Part of the appeal is that it doesn't have any "junk" in it - artificial preservatives - which I'm sure ...
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How long is it safe to drink coffee after brewed?
How many hours/days would you recommend to drink coffee (after brewed) and consider it safe? (For example if you don't want to waste it). What is the difference if it is refrigerated or not?
The ...
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Keep milk (or milk alternative) for a day without a fridge
I like to drink my coffee with milk, but my new place of work has no refrigerator I can use. Is there any milk or milk-substitute I can use that will not taste funny around 15 o'clock, when I remove ...
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Sniffing out a rotten egg from the dozen
Is it possible to tell if an egg has gone off?
I am not referring to those eggs that have been especially brined to look like they've been sitting around for decades, but to fresh eggs you want to ...
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How long should I keep a cut onion?
Since I only cook for one or two, I will tend to buy an onion and only use part of it, and then keep the rest in the fridge. Sometimes it will be a while before I use the rest. Is there any guidance ...
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Should tomatoes be stored in the fridge?
Storing tomatoes in the fridge tends to make them last a bit longer, but I've heard that the flavor is negatively affected. What is the best way to store them?
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How long does cooked pasta last in the fridge?
I sometimes cook more pasta than I intend to eat or use at once and store the rest in a container in the fridge (just plain, cooked pasta). How long would it store safely for?
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Do nuts ever go bad?
I have some walnuts I found in the back of my cabinet that are probably 5 years old. The packaging says best if used by 2010. I tasted them and they taste alright, maybe a little tartish but I don't ...
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Is smell a bad way of determining whether meat is still good?
I have always relied on my sense of smell to determine whether meat (most often chicken) is bad and I thought it was reliable. However, I have just heard that [1] smell is not always reliable, since ...
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At what point should carrots be thrown away?
We tend to buy a big bag of carrots from the supermarket (mainly because it's cheaper than a small bag), but usually these are starting to go soft halfway through the week. My current rule of thumb ...
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Are refrigerated hard boild eggs really unsafe after a week?
Most sites that I've googled (such as http://www.ochef.com/1009.htm, and http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/eggs2.htm) say that refrigerated hard-boiled eggs need to be eaten within one week.
I'm a ...
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Can heavy cream be frozen?
Sometimes, I want to try a recipe that calls for a small amount of heavy cream. Can the remainder be frozen and then used to make whipped cream? If so, how long will it keep in the freezer?
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What is the best way to store cucumbers? Do I refrigerate or not refrigerate?
I purchase the cocktail and snackable Persian cucumbers from my big box store because I enjoy the taste of the smaller cucumbers over the larger varieties. I always store them in my refrigerator ...
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How long can hard cheeses last in a refrigerator?
I had chunks of various hard cheeses, mostly parmesan, in my refrigerator for varying lengths of time. Some as long as 3+ months.
I've never seen any obvious signs of spoilage and have never been ...
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Do different fat contents (skim, 2%, whole, etc) affect rate or intensity of milk spoilage?
Does milk with different fat contents (skim, 2%, whole, etc.) spoil at different rates?
And when spoilage does occur, are milks with higher fat content more sour than those with less?
Are there ...
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How does butter remain edible for so long without refrigeration?
My wife and I keep a stick of butter in the cupboard rather than the refrigerator. Even with just the two of us, it rarely lasts very long, but I'd say it may go as long as a week without ...
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How long does it take for buttermilk to go bad?
I love making buttermilk pancakes but I can never seem to use up my buttermilk before it passes the expiration date. The thing is, if I take a solid whiff of the "expired" buttermilk it smells great (...
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My applesauce has fermented, is it safe to bake with?
I don't have access to refrigeration, so I use applesauce as an egg substitute. I have a plastic can (it's got a metal & rubber lid like a Mason jar but the container is plastic) of store bought ...
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How can I know how long home-cooked food will stay good in fridge?
As through the week we too busy to cook we have gotten the idea of cooking a big bunch of food in the weekend, storing it in the fridge and eat it later in the week.
I am a bit concerned how long ...
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Do certain spices really go bad? or will people without refined palates usually not tell the difference, specifically chili powder?
All my seasonings/spices are at least a year old (most several years). I recently threw out nearly a full bottle of paprika because it was so strong (thought it went bad). I realized I was just ...
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Why consume DRIED apricots within 21 days?
I bought a large bag of dried apricots at Costco. I was planning to enjoy them slowly over the next few months (the Best Before date is in mid 2023) but the label says: "Reseal and refrigerate ...
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does white sugar have a shelf life?
i have had a sealed container of white sugar for about 5 years now, we have been using it slowly, but is it safe/healthy to continue using it because of its age? or should i replace it?
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How long can I store cooking wine?
I made a dish that used a small amount of wine and now I'm wondering how long I can keep the rest of it for next time. I know you wouldn't want to keep good drinking wine around long after opening it,...
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dry garlic in oil --> botulism risk?
My girlfriend and I are thinking of preparing some flavored oils for Christmas presents this year (don't tell anyone!). We've read online that fresh garlic presents a health hazard when stored at room ...
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How long can boiled eggs be stored in the fridge?
I boiled some eggs one week ago and forgot to eat them, so they stayed in the fridge. How long will they stay consumable in there?
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Is there a reason for storing ground spices separately (unmixed)?
I always use the same spice mix for dal. Instead of taking 1-2 tsp of each, I would rather keep a special container for the dal of the ready made mix in the proportions I want.
Is there any reason ...
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omelettes and scrambled eggs - How long can I store them?
Is it a good idea to keep make a lot of them and keep them in the refrigerator? I like them for breakfast but I don't like cooking every morning. For how long I can keep them?
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How long does unopened, room temperature pop last?
How long does a can of coca-cola last? Like a case of them, sitting in a room-temperature room. There is a date on the bottom (MAR1411), but what does that mean?
I have a can with the World Cup on ...
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How long does uncooked meat last when kept in the freezer? [duplicate]
Chicken, beef, or even shrimp? How long can I keep it there before it goes bad?
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How long will live lobsters last in the fridge?
My parents just got back from Boston. Since we were looking after their dog, they bought us 2 live lobsters as a "thank you". We've named them Pinchy and James. They were bought Saturday afternoon and ...
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How long do eggs last in the refrigerator out of the shell?
I dropped my carton of eggs when putting away groceries. The eggs were broken severely enough that the internal membrane ruptured and I had to remove them from their shells. I went ahead and used ...
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Should whole coffee beans be stored at room temperature, the fridge or freezer?
My coffee is normally used up within 1 week and is of unknown age on purchase, do I need to do anything extra to make it last a week?
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Can I store suet or home-rendered tallow at room temperature for a year?
This weekend I will be in possession of 100 lbs of beef suet (which I'll be getting from a butcher friend) and plan to render it into tallow. I can't even begin to imagine exactly what this amount of ...
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Why don't dry aged/hung sausages go bad?
I was just watching this program on the food network here and they were talking about the Spanish fermented pork sausages. It made me think of sausages that are hung to dry and even though its raw ...
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Why does cheese have an expiry date?
I am wondering why there are expiry dates on cheese. Sorry if I am not very clear about how cheese is made, but isn't cheese made from rotten milk? Some cheeses have molds on them too.
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How to store Parmesan cheese?
I recently lucked into about 4 lbs of a delicious Parmesan. Sadly it's already in 4 pieces, and so I'm pretty sure its going to be more prone to spoilage than a single large chunk. How does one go ...
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How to store homemade pasta without freezing
I'm curious how to make pasta (and in this case I'm talking about say, spaghetti, angel hair, shells or lasagna noodles, no filling) and store it dry like I would find in a box at a store. I would try ...
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How to store garlic?
When I buy garlic, I normally put it in a bowl on the kitchen counter or in the pantry, and then pop off cloves as need. Sometimes, if the garlic has been around for a while, I find what looks like ...
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Why do they put the jelly-like substance in pork pies?
I don't like the jelly-like substance found in between the pastry and meat of pork pies, and I don't know anyone that does, so I was wondering why they put it in. Or is it a by-product of the cooking/...
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How long does bicarbonate soda (baking soda) keep?
I am thinking of baking biscuits for presents for Christmas.
However, the recipe calls for baking soda, and I cook from scratch fairly rarely, so I'm worried the leftover bicarb will go strange in my ...
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How can I store root ginger for maximum shelf life?
I have root ginger which sometimes dries out and goes a bit wrinkly. Currently I just store it on the side in a bowl. Is there a better way to store it to maximise its shelf life?
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Honeycomb in honey - how long does it last?
I've got some nice honeycomb (submersed in honey) in a big jar, but the "best before" date was over 4 months ago! I was saving it for a year or two. Just realised the date is gone.
Any possibility it'...
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How to store Onion
I've just harvested onions from my garden. I have quite a few and should last me about 3+ months. What is the best way to prepare the onions for storage and how should I store them so they last as ...
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Does a colder refrigerator keep things fresh longer?
Are they simply "cold" or "not cold", or does the degree of coldness make a difference? Does it depend on what is being refrigerated?
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How long will shredded carrots keep?
How long will carrots that I've shredded in the food processor stay good in the fridge? Also what's the best way to store them?
Lori