Chatfilter: in search of anecdata

September 7, 2023 11:40 PM

Have you ever asked a "can I eat this" style question on AskMefi? And if so: how did it go? More below the jump.

#metafilterfundraiser2023 So far, I've never mishandled food to the point of needing to find out whether or not it's still edible. And yet, given my general degree of clumsiness/incompetence, I feel like it's bound to happen someday.

When that day inevitably comes, I--like so many before me--will join in the age-old tradition of asking the green whether or not it is safe to Eat the Food. But... I'll also probably want to know how much I should, or shouldn't, rely on the answers I get.

One of these things I can find out in advance (at risk of chatfilter, but hey).

And so, mods willing, I would like to determine the hivemind's batting average. Did you, dear reader, ever ask a "Can I eat this" question? If so, was the consensus correct? Or did you end up with a stomach bug (or find out from some other source that the food you threw out was perfectly edible after all)? Any and all stories welcome--the more excessive the detail, the better.

posted by queen anne's remorse to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Best answer: The closest I've ever come to this was my question last winter about the weird mould growing on my homemade Christmas pudding. Turns out I'd misread the instructions for storage and thought it could be kept for six months at room temperature, when I was actually supposed to freeze it if I wanted to keep it for that length of time. We did not eat it and that was definitely the right decision.

I tend to trust my senses a lot when it comes to food spoilage, and I've been vegetarian for years and am now vegan, which cuts down on a lot of opportunities for food safety misadventure. I did eat some tofu in August that had a best before date of March this year and it was 100% fine, so now I feel a lot more confident about how long tofu will keep in the fridge.
posted by terretu at 1:53 AM on September 8, 2023

Best answer: I accidentally switched off the oven part way through roasting a chicken and took a while to notice before switching it back on. I was advised that it would be safe (albeit via at least one unnecessarily churlish comment implying I was being stupidly over-cautious).

It was safe, and it was also delicious.
posted by penguin pie at 2:21 AM on September 8, 2023

Best answer: I received a gift of charcuterie that ended up sitting in my stoop for more than a day due to miscommunication. I was concerned about the more perishable pâté, but people reassured me that, based on the ice pack situation (mostly water but some chunks), that it was still well chilled. I ate it and did not die.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:17 AM on September 8, 2023

Best answer: I asked about a dried bean soup mix. It was still perfectly safe, but the end result was not delicious. If memory serves, the beans remained tough. I’m not a great cook and so I’m sure some of the fail was on me.
posted by eirias at 4:49 AM on September 8, 2023

Best answer: There will probably be a degree of Survivorship Bias in this thread.
posted by snarfois at 5:22 AM on September 8, 2023 [44 favorites]

Best answer: I asked if it was ok to eat half a carton of eggs that had gotten soggy from being in a cooler with ice overnight while I defrosted the fridge. For some reason I could have sworn I read somewhere that it was bad for eggs to get wet, but most people here said that wasn't a thing. I ended up discarding them because they failed the float test, not because they had gotten wet.

I asked for recipes that would feature raw milk well and lots of people told me not to drink the raw milk even though I wasn't asking. I drank it and was fine.
posted by wheatlets at 6:42 AM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I asked about a jar of olives that were left out in the heat for a while and got polite replies that were essentially "Duh, they're olives, you're fine". Felt dumb for a little while, but then remembered I had a jar of olives that were safe to eat.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:43 AM on September 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Hahaha it was on an old account and the gist was "I ate half a package of food that made me extremely ill but tasted really good, can I eat the other half of the package? Maybe that half is fine?" and the unanimity of the DO NOT EAT THE STUFF THAT MADE YOU EXTREMELY SICK response really swayed me. Ah, youth!
posted by potrzebie at 7:31 AM on September 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I asked about throwing food out after a multi-day power outage with the complication that I’m immunocompromised. The consensus was that almost everything had to go. I kept the liquid smoke, which I found out doesn’t need refrigeration, and tossed everything else. I was sad about wasting food, but it was totally the right thing to do. Asking enabled me to get past the emotional difficulty and I was grateful for the help.

I still remember the person who wanted to eat grapes that had gone through the laundry. Someone offered to send money for more grapes. For me, that’s the best of MetaFilter.
posted by FencingGal at 8:10 AM on September 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

Best answer: I asked about a jar of preserved lemons that said to refrigerate after opening but had had the seal broken at some point in the store/on the way home. Consensus was that they're preserved, it would be fine to eat them. I have used them several times since then and still have them in the fridge. No ill effects.
posted by LadyOscar at 9:23 AM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I drank the Bailey's for like, three more years. It was delicious. I only stopped because there was no Bailey's left. Mmm, Bailey's.
posted by capricorn at 7:06 PM on September 8, 2023

Best answer: I ate the anchovy paste and it was delicious, but the poster who told me to spring for actual anchovies was not wrong. I also got some recipes out of the deal.
posted by dizziest at 2:07 PM on September 9, 2023