Most Out Of Date Item You've Found In Your Cupboards?

I was cooking last night and went to add a dash of pepper to the recipe I was working on to give it just that little bit of voom that would set it apart from the crowd, but on reaching for the grinder I discovered it was entirely devoid of peppercorns!

"Never fear," I thought to myself as I reached in to the cupboard to replenish the grinder with fresh fuel, "the peppercorns are here!"

After allowing myself a moment to recover from that fantastic jokette I noticed that the branding on the tub of peppercorns I had retrieved seemed a little off, surely Tescoses stopped using this packaging design ages ago?

Sure enough on closer inspection it seems that I had been holding on to these bad boys for quite a while now!

Given that I think these things are sold with several years on their "best before" dates it means I likely picked these up in 2009 or even 2008!

I've probably moved house twice since these bloody peppercorns went off, clearly I was so attached to these particular corns that I had to move them from Wales to England and then back again over the course of a decade! :lol:

Fortunately I'm pretty sure that peppercorns never really "go off" so the worst I have been doing over the last ten years is sticking a condiment into my meals that is adding no real flavour to them, but even so I was surprised at just how out of date they were!

So I turn to you guys to share details of your gastronomic hoarding mistakes. What items have you held on to long past their use by date? What prehistoric perishables have you found lodged at the back of a cupboard or shelf?

Not out of date as such but after my grandad died a few years ago, my dad was clearing out his house and found half a bottle of elderberry wine he'd made in 1978 (shortly before going to work in Saudi Arabia for 2 years) in the depths of the pantry.

Upon opening the bottle he discovered that it was not only drinkable but had somehow turned into a sherry like spirit which tasted amazing.

We all had a (very) small glass of it that new years eve in my grandads honour.

These weren't mine but I live in a shared house and there had been a lot of comings and goings one particular year meaning a lot of stuff was left in the fridge and cupboards that didn't seem to belong to anybody. The worst thing I found was a bottle of salad dressing in the fridge that was over a year out of date. The upshot was there were two bottles of unclaimed wine which I promptly drank.

Ironhide wrote:Not out of date as such but after my grandad died a few years ago, my dad was clearing out his house and found half a bottle of elderberry wine he'd made in 1978 (shortly before going to work in Saudi Arabia for 2 years) in the depths of the pantry.

Upon opening the bottle he discovered that it was not only drinkable but had somehow turned into a sherry like spirit which tasted amazing.

We all had a (very) small glass of it that new years eve in my grandads honour.

Nice way to toast your grandad. Fair play to your dad, I don't think I'd have even been brave enough to open the bottle, I've had enough home made elderberry wine that tasted terrible when it was first ready let alone decades later! :lol:

Jenuall wrote:
Ironhide wrote:Not out of date as such but after my grandad died a few years ago, my dad was clearing out his house and found half a bottle of elderberry wine he'd made in 1978 (shortly before going to work in Saudi Arabia for 2 years) in the depths of the pantry.

Upon opening the bottle he discovered that it was not only drinkable but had somehow turned into a sherry like spirit which tasted amazing.

We all had a (very) small glass of it that new years eve in my grandads honour.

Nice way to toast your grandad. Fair play to your dad, I don't think I'd have even been brave enough to open the bottle, I've had enough home made elderberry wine that tasted terrible when it was first ready let alone decades later!

It always tastes gooseberry fool when it's first made, supposedly takes a couple of years maturing in the bottle before it tastes good.

Or so i've heard.

Theres a jar of dried mint in my parents house, yes its still there, that expired in 1988. My parents have moved house twice since then meaning it has been packed and unpacked both times and still not thrown out.

I've just checked my peppercorns and they were BB Jun 2015.

Still smell like they've got plenty of kick left.

I can’t be arsed checking all the cupboards, but we have a pot of whole nutmegs with a best before of “November 2011”.

Jenuall wrote:Sure enough on closer inspection it seems that I had been holding on to these bad boys for quite a while now!

You must really like that 'pungent aroma'

On a separate unrelated note, shouldn't the staff have edited Jen's profile so that the displayed location is now Exeter?

I’ve got a couple of bottles of Chimay that date back to about 1995.

What the heck is Chimay?

Jenuall wrote:What the heck is Chimay?

Belgian beer, made by Trappist monks. Supposedly keeps well, but I think I may be pushing it a bit.

Most Out Of Date Item You've Found In Your Cupboards?

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