To eat some cream that's almost a year past its use-by date?

[DaisymooSteiner]

Have got some mince pies to go in the oven and haven't got any fresh cream to go with them. Have just remembered that I bought a load of rum and raisin-flavoured cream that was reduced in Tesco after Christmas '08 and popped it in the freezer. I bet it's still fine.

Shall I risk it?!

eeehhmm... hmmm..

yeah go for it!I bloody wouldn't..

i wouldn't fancy it much (irationally) but hey you have to get your thrills wherever you can

no I wouldn't

Oh, ice cream! I thought you meant cream cream!

Yeah, it'll be fine.

I am going to say no but I will check in my book for you.

Hang on.

That is a no.

No, no, it's cream that I froze.

Nope, you did mean cream cream.

Can't you pop to the shop? Better that than spending Christmas day on your knees in front of the toilet.

cream or ice cream?

"Popping" to the shops here means a 45-minute round trip at the best of times. More likely 1 1/2 hours with the roads and shops as they are.

Frozen cream. Yeah. The sell-by date was for if it was in a fridge. Everyone knows that things last forever in the freezer.

I'm thinking the 3 year old roast beef that dh made into a chilli (honestly the best one I've ever tasted) was OK so this should be too as it's only 11 3/4 months out of date?

If it is cream it will taste vile after 12 months in a freezer.

You should only freeze cream for 3 months.

Things don't keep forever in the freezer and then taste nice.

Rum and raisin cream wouldn't taste nice in the first place TBH.

Anyway, rum and raisin flavour?

No. Don't eat it. Even if it only left the cow this morning and is practically still mooing.

I'll say it again - no. NO!

I would defrost it, see if it tastes OK or not, then eat it accordingly.

I would also make a NY resolution to keep an eye on stuff in the freezer to ensure reasonable turnover times.

If you are habitually poor at turning your stocks over, I bet you do this sort of thing all the time.

Notanumber - just seen your other thread and so will surmise that you are capable of puking at the thought of all sorts of things that are perfectly lovely to eat

Even the smallest bit will give you stomach pain if it is off.

Why not just make custard if you want something on the pie?

I would just put a dusting of Icing sugar on the pies and bin the cream.

"Even the smallest bit will give you stomach pain if it is off"

Eh? that's the miracle of saliva and spitting stuff out if it tastes rank. Why would she swallow it and make herself ill if its off?

It's a mad unreal world of fear out there.

Sure it might not taste nice (rum and raisin generally doesn't), but this is a bit of past-it cream, not a sheep's corpse riddled with anthrax.

Obviously I was assuming she wouldn't spit it out.

It won't be off unless it was off before you froze it. Frozen food does deteriorate over time from water penetration and freezer burn, but cream that is frozen solid cannot go off.

When you defrost it there is a good chance it will split, especially with added ingredients, but might be savable with whisking.

I've got 6 months out of date brandy butter (from Fortnums no less ) which was a present last Christmas

ate some today, tasted fine.

Defrost, try it, reject if yuk.

Don't use the microwave to defrost it though, don't want to encourage the bugs.

It's frozen, you're fine. I'm assuming you've the wit to spit it out if it tastes yukky, so no worries.

Well it tasted fine and I'm still here to tell the tale! I've got some brandy cream in the freezer still, might serve that up on Xmas day