If cans have been bashed about, and especially if you see dents or similar damage, it is possible that they have been punctured by a tiny hole you can't see - tread carefully with these ... although most will still be intact.

Serious question: is curry powder a better preservative than basil or is that a myth too?
Before canned goods, europeans fermented foods, added salt or dried the food to increase shelf-life.
I just found a christmas pudding that has been languishing at the back of a cupboard for years. Outer packaging has gone , so no use by date available, but my mummy told me christmas pudding gets better with age. Was she right? I am going to cook it and see

Well it's clear that you're not likely to rethink it anyway, as you just seem to ignore anything that says it's OK and revert to your "It must be bad" dogma. Fine, good for you, but please don't try to lecture someone else about what constitutes an "intellectual argument".

I've also found a small mini Christmas pudding, 5 years out of date, I'll eat it tonight and report back. If you don't hear from me clearly I didn't survive!

Well, I also "convinced" my mom to get rid of some stuff and I found everything at their usual place when I visited again.

You're not going to do it, are you?

This thread reminded me that, three or four years ago, I brought some toffees home, telling myself they'd be a nice souvenir of a good holiday. So I went and dug around and, yay, they're here!

It's the packaging that's gone a little brittle, so that's a bit annoying, but the toffees? They're great.

Not sure about preserving with curry, or basil for that matter, but tap your antique christmas pud with your fingernail, it may be a cannonball.

Christmas pudding eaten and no ill effects at all!

TBH, five years out of date isn't really that unusual. We've had xmas puddings for that length of time on a few occasions, difficult as they are to reliably source, such that they're bought whenever we see them and then often forgotten about for xmas dinner and a more recent one bought and consumed.

My neighbor only buys cheese that are close to the expiry date. They taste better according to him (due to being more mature - I have no idea) and are usually cheaper

You probably won‘t notice the genetic damage for a while.

Probably most of us have had food poisoning after eating out, but this is unlikely to be related to the kitchen using out-of-date cans. More like bad hygiene.

I'm sure that's an apocryphal tale. There is a museum I was reading about a while back that exhibits a cracker from the Civil War. I expect these stories have become intertwined somehow.

You seem quite agitated about this topic. I don't think anyone's suggesting you must, or even should, eat food that's out of date. In most cases it's quite wasteful if you don't, but that's your decision.

Whatever happened to common sense? I regularly eat cheese, yogurts, and other dairy produce days or even weeks past their 'best by' date. It's quite simple. If it looks/smells bad, I chuck it. If it looks/smells/tastes fine then I eat it. Same with vegetables. Surely people don't think 'Oh no, these carrots are past their best by date, I'd better throw them out'? If they're still firm and look good, then you eat them. You don't even look at the date.

In the great majority of cases, old tins are not going to poison you, but their contents may go a bit funny. We opened a tin of veg recently dated 2012 that we found at the back of the cupboard. The contents were a bit mushy but they were only to go in a stew so we threw them in. They were perfectly edible. Ancient Marmite (more than 5 years old, say) tends to go a bit hard but will still spread OK on toast and tastes fine.

For most processed foodstuffs, the producer has no real idea of the optimum date to put on the packaging. Flour always has a best before/sell-by date but as far as I know it will last forever.

Just use your brains. Fresh veg, fruit, meat and fish will make it very clear when they're past their best. Packaged/processed stuff is mostly fine for quite a long time.

There is actually a youtube vid of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga5JrN9DrVI
Having said that a cracker that survived the sinking of the Titanic was sold for 24.000 USD.

I usually go to the waste containers. You can get a good meal together there

Curry, yes. Basil, no.
The coriander and cumin in curry powder are anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, so often used to preserve meat. This is one of the reasons the Spice Route was so profitable. Has nobody here ever marinated meat to make it last a little longer?

Before spices were common in Europe, ice, smoking, drying and salt were the main ways of preserving meat and fish, and alcohol was often used to preserve fruit and meat. You only have to look at places like Salzburg and Hallein to see how wealthy salt mining made them when it was more valuable than gold.

That would likely be the alcohol content that preserved it.

Reading this thread, I can't help but think that a few people are confusing 'use by' dates with 'best before' dates on food packaging.
A best before day on Himalayan rock salt?!!
https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygie...d-use-by-dates

Are you sure that's the spice? Raw meat stays well in the fridge for a couple weeks or so if it's (bathed and) covered in oil as that keeps the air's oxygene away, doesn't take a marinade for that.

Come to think of it I tried marinating meat in balsamico vinegar and soysauce, a bit of pepper and one or two other odds and sods, thinking that a stirfry was in order.
However I forgot about it when I went out to customer for a few days. I found it again and gave it a sniff and a fondle, it seemed ok so I did my stirfry and it was the best stirfry I have ever made.
SInce then balsamic marinade for meat has become standard in the Slammerkitchen.

Ditto the rum source was even better but I had to go and buy a bottle specially

Personally, I wouldn't marinate poultry for longer than overnight, but other meats can last for up to 5 days in a marinade in the fridge. A lot depends on the quality of the meat and how fresh it was in the first place.

When I did my food hygiene exams, an entire section was about changing the format of meat before re-freezing to extend the usable 'life' of it. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-wel...and-leftovers/