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prunes — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:11:56 -0800

Can I store my leftover seafood outside overnight without it spoiling? I'm staying in a hotel in Denver, where today it was 35 F during the day. I have some delicious leftover Vietnamese food that has a lot of seafood in it, but no room for me to put it in my minibar. Can I keep this on my window ledge outside overnight and eat it in the morning without having to worry about spoilage?

For sale: Jenn-Air High Speed Food Rotter

CommonSense — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:45:01 -0800

Why are things suddenly starting to go bad/sour/rotten in my fridge much sooner than they used to? In the last couple of weeks, I've noticed that time seems to be running faster inside my refrigerator. Last night, I discovered that a bottle of V-8 (the low-sodium variet, if it matters) that I bought about 10 days ago looked kind of distended, and when I unscrewed the lid, a lot of air burst out -- fermentation of some sort, I figured. Still, only (about) 10 days after purchase? I've bought V-8 before, and I've been able to open it, use some, store it in the fridge -- rinse and repeat -- for something like two months without a hint of it "turning," let alone fermenting!

Another mysterious thing: There's this carton of "O Organic" 2% milk (Safeway store brand, also known as Von's, Genuardi's, etc. depending where you live) that has an expiration date sometime in mid-September. I'm always amazed at how far out their expiration dates are, and they tend to be accurate. Just this morning, I noticed it's smelling a little. Already. I bought it with the V-8, about 10 days ago, on the same shopping trip.

A little "thing" of yogurt, also from the same shopping trip, with an expiration date some time in early September, looked "fat" also -- the foil lid was rounded instead of flat, as if filled with air. Fermentation of some sort also.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that some not-yet-at-expiration-date cream cheese was starting to show spots of discoloration/mold prematurely as well.

What the hell's going on? All of a sudden, things are going bad sooner, and as a single person who goes through food slowly, this is especially inconvenient.

A few bits of info, if it helps: I have a bit of a fruit fly problem in the kitchen, so I relocated a small bowl of fruit (previously on the counter) into the kitchen about a week ago to keep it away from those little buggers. Also, the icemaker on the freezer side has gotten really fussy lately -- it just plain stopped making ice about two weeks ago, but for some reason, toying with the little water pipe thing on the inside, and pulling the fridge out from the wall a couple of feet, made it work again. Also, at one point last week, there was a mildly foul/rotting smell in the fridge for about half a day, but it went away soon after I threw out a half-tomato in a Ziploc bag that had begun to go bad.

Is there some kind of . . . "contagion" effect? That is, if one or two things start to go bad in a fridge, then even if you remove them and throw them out, do . . . THINGS linger in the air of the fridge, attacking other things, even prematurely? I don't get it. It's like there's some kind of food-rotting ghost in the damn thing, and it's irritating me . . .

Still safe to eat?

werty — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:19:33 -0800

"Refrigerate after opening," says the tomato sauce. Unfortunately, it wasn't. This was roughly 48 hours ago. (It was closed.) Still safe to eat?

Cooking Challenge Part 2: Food Allergies + No Kitchen for 3 Days

sdis — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 23:32:49 -0800

Cooking Challenge Part 2: Food Allergy + No Kitchen for 3 Days! Tips needed for keeping food fresh, for making food that doesn't go bad, and for getting all my nutrients! (And Davis, CA suggestions for restaurants! See inside) After some helpful info from Cooking Challenge Part 1, I have gone a good 22 days with this crazy allergy-elimination diet [rules described in Part 1 and summarized below], but am a bit lost without a kitchen.

I have a plane trip to Davis, CA from 1pm Thursday to 9pm Saturday. I need to keep myself fed during this time. I can probably bring a cooler as one of my checked-in bags, and I'll be staying at a Motel 6, which maybe(?) has an ice dispenser? (anyone know?)

So.

•Staple #1: Dried fruit/honey/almond butter balls.
These are good, and 200 calories a piece, but I imagine eating more than 4 of these a day will cause unfortunate intestinal distress, so I'm gonna need something else. Also, not much protein in these.

•Staple #2: Turkey meatballs: I'll eat 'em cold, if I can keep them from going bad. How long can I keep these safe in a cooler if I don't have ice? Do Motel 6's have ice?

*Staple #3: Assorted fruits and nuts. Avocados. Also wary of eating too much of these for same reason as Staple #1.

Remaining needs:
•How do I make vegetables edible without a kitchen? Which vegetables? Can I cook something in advance that will be somewhat palatable cold and last in the (potentially ice-less) cooler?

•Some restaurants in Davis that would be willing to grill me some orange roughy, halibut, or salmon without anything but lemon and salt and maybe an herb or two? (No pepper or non-olive-oil, for example)

•Any road-trip recipes that will help me through these few days. I've gotten pretty good at substitutions, though a recipe that is based upon a forbidden ingredient doesn't really work (garlic crusted broccoli, when garlic is a no-go, will be hard to substitute)

Elimination diet rule recap
Meats: Turkey, Lamb, Deep ocean fish, wild game. Nothing else
No grains(rice, wheat, anything)
No milk products
No tomato, apple, garlic, onion, legumes (including peanuts), peppers, soy
No fermented products or mushrooms
Other fruits and veggies OK
Tree nuts OK

Milk Spoilage

ssmith — Sat, 02 Oct 2004 06:02:27 -0800

Does milk go bad faster if you drink straight from the container? [Moo inside] Ok, so I lied, there's no more inside. I just couldn't resist the tagline.