My mother has excelled herself today.

[TwoSwansFromMyWindow]

Recently she moved home and gifted me two carrier bag loads of stuff from her kitchen cupboards that she didn't have space for in her new kitchen. It was mostly jars and packets, dry soup mixes, herbs and spices, various jars and bottles of condiments, the majority of which were unopened, but out of date by between 2 and 5 years. Needless to say I binned most of it.

This morning I realised I had completely run out of white pepper and DH is very partial to white pepper on his roast dinner so I asked my mum if she had any she could bring when we picked her up for lunch. She said she did and would bring it.

The jar was open and half full, with no proper lid, just the sprinkling cap with the little holes in it. She handed it to me and said 'I don't use white pepper often so it might be a bit old, but it looks fine.'

I narrowed my eyes and said 'how old? How old are we talking exactly mum?'

She looked sheepish and mumbled that she wasn't sure.

Guess. Just guess what the 'best before' date was on this jar of pepper.

It’s pretty popular amongst my friends and family in NI.

TBF, our cupboards would get like that were it not for Passover when we do a big cupboard clean (which is apparently where the whole 'spring clean' comes from) and I get rid of rarely-used things that are out of date. That said, don't usually do the spice drawers, so I probably have some things from the 2010s lurking in there...😳

Jacob's cracker, butter, cheese, slice of tomato, one tap of white pepper.
YUM.

Nine prime ministers! That made me giggle.

Over at my mum's about 10 years ago My son asked grandma if she had something he could take to his harvest festival service at school. Yes she said and had a rummage in her cupboard and came out with a packet of soup. I hadn't taken too much notice to be honest but I tuned back in when my son said " what's this sign on the soup grandma ?" Turns out it was a 1/- which stood for 1 shilling . We went decimal in 1971.

I keep a very well stocked larder with loads and loads of quite random ingredients so I do this all the time. I'll happily keep stuff that's gone past its 'best before' date, sometimes for a year or two, or even longer, depending on what it is. If it's vacuum packed or sealed, so long as it's not been opened at all, it's usually perfectly fine.

Anything wet, even in a sealed jar, does go horrible after a while, but dry things can be good for absolutely ages. At worst they just become inert and completely tasteless. They won't hurt you. But flour will go stale, anything with a high oil content like nuts and seeds will go rancid, and dried pulses that are too old will not soften up when cooking, just stay like bullets.

But I'm talking a year, two or three at a push. I really do draw the line at foods that are older than my children, who all left home several years ago.

I'm quite depressed to be reminded that 1991 was 33 fucking years ago!

33 years is weirdly impressive 🤣 I think it must be a combination of a mum thing and a generational thing. Both DM and DMIL have done similar.

DM still had jars of baby food in her pantry when I was in my early 30s. I'm an only child.

DMIL moved house about 10 years ago. A couple of years later we were staying with her and DH offered to cook dinner. "I've got some nice trout in the freezer" she said. Checked the date on the box and it had gone out of date six years before she moved, so she'd bought it, frozen it, kept it for years, taken it out of her old freezer, put it in a cool box, transported it, put it in her new freezer and left it languishing in there developing freezer burn on its freezer burn 😆

33 years is impressive! My dad offered me a gin and tonic with gin from a bottle so old that it was pre-barcode. 😂

Hate these silly guessing games. Pass.

But it had no lid. 😂 dirt/dust and any other number of things could have gotten in there.

Mine has lived through four.

I think a bottle of Fairy liquid typically last about three.

Well you asked her to bring it knowing what she’s like..

YABU! (Is this in AIBU?)

Haven't RTFT, but I clicked hoping the thread might have been started by one of my appreciative DC, proudly proclaiming my many accomplishments today.

Maybe it circled all the way back and now it’s a posh matured spice

I use white pepper regularly in sauces and gravy. I use ground black for other things but white certainly has its place in cooking.

I found stuff older than me when I cleared the drawer in parents' kitchen. I'm 56. There were tins and jars with pre decimalisation prices.

It's really good for some types of Chinese food

You see I'm very torn. On the one hand, I'm horrified something so old was in your mum's cupboard. On the other hand, I AM 33 years old, so now feel like a dusty, dried up condiment worthy of digust that deserves to be binned immediately 😂

She you sure it wasn't someone's ashes she'd put in there for good keeping?

It's both shocking and quite nice to think DP & I had already been together for 9 years by then!
Neither of us brought old cooking ingredients to our relationship though 😉

😂

1991? I've got some Oxo cubes the same age as that! I only know how old they are because I bought them when we were in Africa that year. Needless to say they are still in the outer box and are of academic interest only, so we won't be using them.

My mum still has some herb and spice jars from when they got married in the early 90s. I think they have become heirlooms now.

My SIL, visited her in Australia, gave me 5 year expired powdered baby milk formula when I visited… for my young baby.

Weirder still, her children were 10 and 13 yrs old so origin of milk a mystery, unless it was actually left over from when 10 yr old was a baby.
She is ultimate cheapskate.