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I would invest in a small thermos bottle, about the size of what you need for one day. They are not only designed to keep hot food hot, they can also keep cold food cold. Choose a size that will be as full as possible when you start, it will keep better.
This is what the small B&B we‘re currently staying at supplies to their guests. If it’s good for an ...
37
It is absolutely untrue and very dangerous to think that "if it looks OK, and smells OK, it must be OK." If that were the case, food poisoning would be very rare.
Food that we can sense is spoiled rarely causes illness. For one thing what you don't eat can't hurt you, and people generally won't eat food that looks or smells spoiled. But less ...
35
Your best bet for longevity is UHT milk - in individual portions.
It's the same stuff you get in hotel rooms.
Pic from Amazon, anonymised.
Though it doesn't taste the same as 'real' milk it's virtually indestructible, almost inert, & will survive unopened & unrefrigerated for 6 - 9 months.
As soon as it's opened, you have to treat it just like real ...
27
I'm aware of three reasons that you might not want to do so:
You tie up spices that you might want to use in other dishes individually
You don't always want to add the spices at the same time.
You can't always keep spices well-blended.
If you only tend to cook one dish or you leave some of each spice in reserve, the first one isn't really a problem.
The ...
23
tl;dr : it's complicated.
If you're relying on cooking by blindly following recipes, and hoping that they come out the same every time, then yes, you probably want to replace old spices. So professionals are going to give that advice, as it's easier for every chef in the restaurant to be able to re-create a given dish, or for home chefs to have a chance for ...
21
It sounds like it's fermented, and more harmful bacteria or mold could definitely have grown without being visible.
So it's not safe, in that there's definitely some risk. It's hard to evaluate exactly how risky it is. It sounds like you're already routinely taking risks by eating iffy food that's not obviously rotten or moldy, so you certainly could choose ...
18
There's no issue with doing this, as you are no doubt aware ready-made cake mixes are sold boxed in stores and they aren't much different than you describe. Boxed mixes will often have anti-caking agents to prevent the dry ingredients from clumping up after a few weeks on the shelf, this won't be a concern for you if the mix will only be made a couple of ...
16
In a similar situation in a previous job we successfully used an old camping trick: Wrap the bottle containing the day's milk in a damp cloth, and stand it in a bowl of water, in the draught from an open window. The evaporative cooling produced that way is really quite effective. Either buy a small bottle in the way in or transport it insulated.
Another ...
16
For maximum life, refrigerate them wrapped in a dry paper towel inside a plastic produce bag, in the produce drawer. If you have more than 3 cucumbers, ideally store every 3 cucumbers in separate bags, since one that starts to go bad tends to take others with it.
I started storing cucumbers this way based originally on Cook's Illustrated's advice on storing ...
15
Most commercial fruit is picked before being completely ripened because once it is ripened it has a very limited shelf life, and strawberries are no exception. Strawberries ripen from the tip to the stem and a good indicator that a strawberry is unripe is a white ring around the stem area.
Some fruits can be artificially ripened by exposing them to ...
14
As I have noted in a couple of other answers, I have worked in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) industry for almost 30 years. It is safe to say that there is not a simple answer to this question. There are so many variables that it would be difficult to even go into all of them. Before I go further, let me say that common sense goes a long way.
Most food ...
13
Ingredients:
liqueur, acidity regulator (E331), emulsifier (E471), flavours (caffeine), colouring (caramel (E150b).
Source: a food product inventory database
The alcohol keeps the product from microbiological spoilage, the E331 (sodium Citrate) buffers the product form getting damaged by acids produced by any spoilage, and E471 (mono and diglycerides of ...
13
First off I want to point out the term "fresh". While some containers might keep milk from spoiling for longer, it may not taste as nice.
Several things might be why:
1.) Plastics leach flavor and odor into the milk. Cardboard cartons are also lined with plastic, not wax since about the 1940s. I would say this is likely the biggest impact-- I've always ...
13
Assuming you're using spices which are all dried and ground, there should be no problem.
In the middle-east, there are always several spice mixtures available in shops. The most famous of which are Ras-al-Hanout and Baharat. These are spice mixtures sold as pre-mixed combinations by the shopkeeper, who is usually the one who grinds the spices.
13
As an alternative to the (very good) vacuum bottle suggestions, Insulated lunchboxes with an ice-pack are great. My kids use them for school and the ice-pack is often still partially frozen at the end of the day, even when kept outside in hot weather.
As a bonus, you can put your other snacks/lunch in there to keep cool as well.
12
The USDA recommends storing hard boiled eggs, whether peeled or not, for 1 week. I personally have kept & eaten them after 2-3 weeks. I have also cracked one open that was no longer edible & believe me - You will know when that happens! The egg will will smell rotten & you will have no question as to whether or not to eat it!
Some additional Info ...
12
It is due to a combination of several factor, depending on how the particular sausage was made:
Dry cured sausages contain curing salts, a mixture of regular salt and sodium nitrate (which breaks down into sodium nitrite), which prevents the growth of botulism while the sausage cures.
Meat for dry cures sausage is also often frozen to specific temperatures ...
12
According to Still Tasty (a site that looks at USDA, CDC and FDA data), nori lasts 2-4 months in the pantry and 4-6 months in the fridge. Also it says:
Store in airtight glass or plastic container or in sealed plastic bag. Refrigerate to extend shelf life.
Still, nori is completely dried. I imagine that the concern beyond that time frame is staleness, ...
11
Coffee beans will retain their essential oils and flavor compounds longest if stored in a dry, dark, airtight container. Refrigeration and freezing are therefore not desirable options since they will almost always cause moisture to form on the surface of the beans.
Note that for the first couple weeks after the coffee has been roasted it will naturally ...
11
Vinegar is non-alcoholic, and my suggestion would be a brine of some sort, essentially pickling it. Alternatively you could just dry it out.
I should also add - Ginger is a root, and can generally be kept fresh in a cool dark place (ie. a root cellar) for some time.
11
I'm sorry to say that your three packages are no longer safe for consumption. Expiry dates are usually pretty conservative and food may still be good several days past them, but the concerning factor in your case is the ballooning of your packaging.
As various bacteria live their lives, they produce gas. A small amount of bacteria over a short amount a time ...
11
I don't know if this is possible for you at work but it hasn't been mentioned as an option: you can use a mini fridge to keep your milk cool / cold.
Here's an image of one
(I left the image out on purpose, because I'm not trying to advertise a specific product.)
I'm not affiliated with the manufacturer or seller, but I do have one of these fridges. I find ...
11
First of all, it's not air that makes the milk spoil but microbes that fall in and grow there. So keeping it cool is one thing, the other thing is not getting the microbes in there.
I have milk in my office outside the fridge up to about 20 °C over the working day without problems (I do have a fridge, though where I put it if I won't finish the package ...
11
The terms freezer and deep freeze are synonymous. There is no such term as "deep fridge" in British or US English, though apparently there is in Indian English… where if you search what you find are chest freezers.
This means, whatever your terminology, a 'freezer', 'deep freeze' or 'deep fridge' is not the same as an ordinary ice box inside a ...
10
That advice isn't "wrong" and millions of people keep keep fish sauce in a cabinet for decades. Regarding safety, it's generally OK to store fish sauce at room temperature for years, but that isn't recommended by government worrywarts for best quality. Still Tasty. Pathogens run in fear faced with this stuff, but it can (rarely) develop "...
10
I have worked in the CPG industry for almost 30 years. A few years back I had the privilege of representing one of the largest produce brands in the US. I learned quite a bit about produce storage and what speeds up the deterioration rate.
One thing I noticed in your picture is that there appeared to be moisture (condensation) inside of the bag of carrots. ...
10
Any standard pasta recipe (basically flour, salt, water or egg) should do. Unless stated otherwise, fresh pasta can be cooked right away or dried and stored for months. Cooking time will vary, of course, with fresh pasta done in a few minutes, dried in roughly the same range as store bought.
When drying pasta, use the same aproach as for laundry: Separation,...
10
As previously mentioned, any pasta recipe can be dried out. Semolina only pasta will dry harder and faster than one with eggs. If you use spinach or other colorful ingredients, they can fade with time or sunlight.
Lets talk equipment. Even a single pound of pasta takes a surprising amount of room to dry. Cleaned, upturned barstools, oven racks, broomsticks,...
10
If the tea was distilled water, a 5% solution would have been sufficient. That is, you'd need 50 grams of acid to 950 grams of water. The problem is, the impurities of the water and the tea itself buffer it somewhat, so it's impossible to predict the exact amount you need. You'll have to use a pH meter, and an accurate one, not strips, to make a pH solution ...
9
I have been a baker for over 30 years and made many pork pies in that time,the above answers stating that the jelly acts as a preservative and stops the meat drying out are correct, but also the jelly when added at the correct time, roughly 20 minutes half an hour after baking, absorb the pork juices that would otherwise soak into the pastry which would make ...
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