How old is the oldest food in your kitchen cupboard
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
July 20, 2018 7:39am CST
I'm not well known for my kitchen cupboard discipline so things tend to get stuck in the back of the cupboard and stay there.
For many years I had a can of chestnut puree. It was a gift from my old college flatmate (or room mate for the American English speakers). He had a cookery book that was supposed to be 'How to make things from stuff everybody has in their cupboard'. We fell about laughing at the suggestion that ANYBODY had canned chestnuts in their cupboard. I never ate them and I never cooked with them - for all I know they might still be in there somewhere.
I had a jar of American kosher pickles for more than 10 years. That's how long it took me to find somebody strong enough to get the lid off. Sadly when I did, they'd long gone soft so we had to throw them out.
At the moment (if the chestnuts are no longer there) I suspect my record holding can is a large flat round can of anchovies that I believe I bought in Portugal though the writing on the can is in Greek. It has a 'best before date' of June 1995 - three and a half years before I met my husband (and we've been married 20 years).
I caught my cleaner about to throw them away but I made her put them back. I'm a firm believer that anything in a can is good to the end of time and these anchovies have moved house with me at least 3 times.
I would have eaten them long ago (I LOVE anchovies) but I've never had a time when I thought I'd be able to eat them all before the opened can went bad. So there they sit and may well do so for decades more.
What's the oldest thing in your kitchen cupboards?
19 people like this
18 responses
@Friendlypink (3805)
•
20 Jul 18
Oh my. Ha ha. Well, I am kinda organized when it comes to stocking food ans doing my grocery. I always have a list on my phone of what to buy and what stock we still have. I use my phone for everything.
5 people like this
@LadyDuck (458091)
• Switzerland
20 Jul 18
You made me laugh about the chestnut puree. There was a can of chestnut puree in one of my mom's cupboards. Every time that my niece (now 33) visited, looked at it and said "this remind me when I did not yet went to kindergarten, it was already there". The oldest thing I have should be a jar of asparagus, that I bought 8 years ago.
3 people like this
@Inlemay (17714)
• South Africa
21 Jul 18
I have a pack of pompedoms that are about 5 years old and need tossing, but other than that nothing older than about 6 months - I don't stock up of groceries and food at all, I like to do fresh buy weekly and sometimes daily. My grocery store and the butcher is very close to my home
2 people like this
@pgntwo (22408)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
20 Jul 18
A can of sterilised cream was the oldest thing I retrieved from the back of the pantry cupboard lately, it expired in 2012. I think there's a bag of dried black-eye beans, along with a sachet the herbs and spices to make a refried bean recipe, from 1998 in there somewhere, if they have not sprouted and slunk away by now.
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (79730)
• United States
20 Jul 18
I think I have a can of pumpkin shoved way back in the pantry. If I dig it out I'm sure it's been expired for quite awhile.
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (79730)
• United States
20 Jul 18
@boiboing yes pumpkin pie or pumpkin muffins. I should have mentioned that. I had such good intentions of baking but never did 
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
20 Jul 18
@Marilynda1225 The road to heaven (and the back of our store cupboards) are paved with good intentions. Still the odd can isn't doing anybody any harm, is it?
@amitkokiladitya (171936)
• Agra, India
20 Jul 18
I think the oldest ones are the pickles. But it is said the older they are the better they taste
2 people like this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
20 Jul 18
@amitkokiladitya and @Sojourn - I think the pickles you're talking about DO get better with age. A bit like some of our jams. Sadly my pickles were whole small cucumber type pickles - they don't improve. A good jar of Indian pickle can be handed from generation to generation
1 person likes this
@amitkokiladitya (171936)
• Agra, India
20 Jul 18
@Sojourn yep....otherwise I discard things as soon as they expire
1 person likes this
@KrauseHome (36448)
• United States
25 Jul 18
I know we have things in our house that are old as well. Not sure i know anything about how old or long, We have thrown out outdated stuff many times
1 person likes this
@marguicha (215424)
• Chile
20 Jul 18
Some jams I make are not eaten by us during the proper time. But as I´m afraid of getting any sort of food poisoning, I throw away many things that look too old.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (215424)
• Chile
20 Jul 18
@boiboing I don´t think so. But they dry up some.
2 people like this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
20 Jul 18
@marguicha Jam doesn't last long in my house. My husband loves it.
2 people like this
@allknowing (130066)
• India
21 Jul 18
I am famous for that. - but it is mostly in the fridge. I have loads in there may be even more than a year old. I had preserved some figs from our tree and I still find some there - just one of several!!
1 person likes this
@allknowing (130066)
• India
21 Jul 18
@boiboing Too bad your cat likes the fig branches. Can she or he not find anything else in the garden?
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
21 Jul 18
I have some unopened packs of Thai Tom Yum paste living in the back of the fridge but I'm confident they are good for years.
My fig trees are still young and not making figs yet - but it doesn't help that my cat likes to chew the branches.
1 person likes this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
21 Jul 18
@allknowing He just has a taste for the fig. We've not had any fruit yet so my husband is going to take one of them out of the large planter and put it directly in the ground. But I know figs can go absolutely crazy.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
20 Jul 18
some tinned foods dating back weeks but nothing really old
1 person likes this
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
20 Jul 18
Emergency sardines to go with my emergency end-of-the-world anchovies. We can have a party.
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
21 Jul 18
Ha ha.. I suppose if I dig around I may find some antiques too but I am too lazy.
1 person likes this
@Jessabuma (31700)
• Baguio, Philippines
21 Jul 18
OMG! Hehe!!! That's pretty old kitchen cupboard..
.... I have some old Himalayan brandy within a dagger shaped glass jar that my family bought back in 1995 in a tour.
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
20 Jul 18
Things like teas go bad very quickly but canned food is always good for a lot longer than the cans say.
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
20 Jul 18
Not too old as I pay attention to expiration dates.
@Spontaneo (14703)
• United States
21 Jul 18
Cake mix. I no longer bake in the oven. However, I am keeping them for one day when I can make a dump cake in the crockpot. So far, my attempts have been disastrous. Directions state to dump the pie filling into the crockpot. Then, pour the cake mix on top. Do I mix the cake mix with egg and oil then pour in crockpot or simply use the mix alone when making a crockpot dump cake? Recipes state to cook on HIGH 4 hours. I need the myLot crockpot experts out there!
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
20 Jul 18
Do you put dates on the pickles when they are made or is it just guesswork how old they are?
