please empty your brain below
Tsk! Pies in a tin (specifically Frey Bentos steak and kidney) are the food of the gods...

Baldassaro | 07.06.20 - 7:15 a.m. | #

cup-a-soup - could try substituting soya milk (or just normal milk) for some, or all of the water.

I think that there is an element of sneering about tinned food, Jack Monroe is doing a good thing.

Still Anon | 07.06.20 - 7:45 a.m. | #

Time to get out more, lockdown is nearly over.

Coffin Dodger | 07.06.20 - 8:38 a.m. | #

I'm with Baldassaro on this one, Fray Bentos steak & Kidney pies are the best. Difficult to get at the moment.

Mike | 07.06.20 - 8:57 a.m. | #

Snack in a Pot Roast Onion Mash sounds absolutely delicious, though that may partly be due to the fact that I haven't had breakfast.

My in-laws have loads of out of date chocolate, it is almost a running joke whenever we see them. There is a Mars Bar I have reserved for December 2021, when it will be 10 years out of date. I'm looking forward to it!

Friar Sven | 07.06.20 - 8:58 a.m. | #

smithsonianmag.com/arctic-explorers-uncover-60-year-old-food-stash

I am sure that this can be beaten! (Although rumours of eating frozen mammoth meat may be inventions).

Half a physicist | 07.06.20 - 9:30 a.m. | #

B&M still sell squeezy mint sauce...

Kirk | 07.06.20 - 9:41 a.m. | #

At the start of lockdown I did a big review of what we had and what should be used up. Oldest thing was some dried mint (BB 2014) but I did manage to use up lots of different things that had been floating around the kitchen for quite some time

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 07.06.20 - 9:52 a.m. | #

I too agree with the Fray Bentos pie in a tin fans. This is like a culinary slice of the 60s sealed in a can. I'm getting memories of flaky pastry with a hint of sogginess around the edges. You're a very lucky man to even posses such an exquisite treat.

SteveSpam | 07.06.20 - 9:59 a.m. | #

Quite jealous of that Heinz pudding - I’ve never tried any of their tinned puddings other than the syrup sponge, which used to be a cupboard staple for me. Sadly Heinz seem to have discontinued all of their tinned puddings. Strange that over the last decade, despite the anti-plastic campaigns, we’ve still seen a lot of products which had somehow remained plasticless shift to plastic.

Alan R | 07.06.20 - 10:09 a.m. | #

My worst offender is flour. Once upon a time in the distant past (when the kids were at home) I used to do a lot of baking. Now, never. But when I checked my cupboard I found no less than 5 partially used bags of Self Raising Flour. But what I wanted to cook last week needed Plain Flour, so a sixth bag of flour joined the club and will probably sit there part used for years.

Caz | 07.06.20 - 10:25 a.m. | #

I'm a sucker for buying jars of mincemeat when reduced after Christmas, so I can make my own little pies of yummyness when you can no longer find them in the shop.
I haven't done so in over 8 years (even though my kids will only eat homemade) so what makes me think I will start now is anyone's guess!!

Cornish Cockney | 07.06.20 - 10:38 a.m. | #

RE squirty mint sauce: Crucials do bottles of squirty mint sauce. According to their website they sell them at Nisa and The Range. In fact I'm heading to The Range now to pick up some of their tikka mayo.

TheLupineOne | 07.06.20 - 10:47 a.m. | #

By way of yet another amazing coincidence (serendipity writ large) my family is making 'rogaliki' this morning (a Polish sweet treat) using a 7g sachet of dried yeast with a use by date of Dec 2004.

My older daughter has worked out that we bought a pack (four more sachets remain) for a school cookery project for her younger sister. And she has now made the moment by bursting into a rendition of "Yeasterday" - I have to admit that was a good one (now I kneed to rest - d'oh!).

Update: The rogaliki my daughter made tasted real good, both savoury, cheese, and sweet, jam.

Ken | 07.06.20 - 10:51 a.m. | #

Time for a dinner party me thinks. I'll bring the Vesta chicken curries.

Milo | 07.06.20 - 11:19 a.m. | #

Don't stop buying, just rotate! They laughed at my Braxit stockpile, but I am *so* glad of it now.

And best before means just what it says - if it could turn in any way dangerous, it would have a 'use by date'. So the worst that could happen would be that it wasn't very nice (which frankly was probably the case when many of those products were brand new)

Sarah | Homepage | 07.06.20 - 11:35 a.m. | #

‘One day you’l be glad you’ve got some’ will be if we do break off trade relations with our major food supplier. Good to keep an eye on things during December....

RogerB | 07.06.20 - 12:22 p.m. | #

This is what keeps me coming back to DG, and will likely help clock up 10 million visits.

My oldest ingredients go back to 1996 - some spices, with the packs priced in D-Marks. These are surpassed by an unopened can of Brisbane Commonwealth Games edition Castlemaine XXXX from 1982. It has an old-style ring-pull and depicts the old diesel train at Milton station, but I don't think these were the reason not to have drunk it sooner. It's always lived in its contemporary stubby holder.

NickW | 07.06.20 - 12:32 p.m. | #

Back in the mid 90s, my Nan went into a residential home and we had to clear out the house. In the kitchen cupboard we found tins of Chesswood mushrooms and evaporated milk with pre-decimal price stickers on them (2 1/2 d)!!
I don't think they even had best before dates in those days.

Gary | 07.06.20 - 1:32 p.m. | #

Sorry, DG, those Knorr stock cubes are indeed cuboids. It’s cubes that they aren’t.
Trying not to be a pedant.

dg writes: Updated, pah, thanks.

Vee Jay Em | 07.06.20 - 2:25 p.m. | #

Anyone interested in this sort of thing should head to YouTube and check out a truly fascinating channel called Steve1989MREInfo, wherein military ration packs both old and new are opened and eaten. 1863 Civil War hardtack, anyone?

Sir Garence | 07.06.20 - 2:32 p.m. | #

About two years ago, when I was visiting my father, I had occasion to need some paracetomol. The packet he offered me had a use-by date of 1997.

Clearing his house after he died last year (not from using out of date medicines!) we found some Kaliber nonalcohlic beer with a use by date of 1994. I didn't risk that either - and being non-alcoholic I didn't think it would be effective in the slug trap.

timbo | 07.06.20 - 2:45 p.m. | #

I'm afraid you're just a beginner in the 'stuff in the cupboard past its sell-by date' stakes. Someone donated a 50-year-old tin of soup to a food bank a couple of years ago.

Nails UK | 07.06.20 - 3:10 p.m. | #

Another fan of Fray Bentos Steak & Kidney pies, saw me through uni in the late 60s along with Vesta Chow Mein and Paella, in the early days when the latter had proper freeze-dried chicken and prawns. My oldest comestibles in current use are a tub of Schwarz Salad Seasoning with a use-by date of November 1999, and a bottle of Vov with no date but whose contents are dark brown and lumpy but still mixable, and I've no idea when I bought it but I think it was last century.

Strabismus | 07.06.20 - 5:22 p.m. | #

Made up one sachet of the [Aug 2009] jelly. Very tasty.

Looking forward to the other sachet (maybe with the [Dec 2011] mandarin segments).

diamond geezer | Homepage | 07.06.20 - 8:09 p.m. | #

I fear your ironic death, choking on a cinnamon tic tac.

Lux | 07.06.20 - 8:14 p.m. | #

Yet another vote for Fray Bentos pies.

FB | 07.06.20 - 9:06 p.m. | #

This week, I finally warmed up a packet of tomato soup with a best before date of May 2011. It was edible, looked more like oxtail, but I can confirm it's best before date was well before June 2020.

Plastic Man | 07.06.20 - 9:23 p.m. | #

I'd chuck the herbs. If you didn't like them then, the only advantage is that, now, they probably don't taste of anything. Otherwise, all sounds pretty good.

Z | Homepage | 07.06.20 - 9:49 p.m. | #

I have always had the feeling that Mars Bars get smaller and smaller over the years.

Could you check the stated weight on your item and put my worries to rest?

dg writes: Added.

Temp | 07.06.20 - 10:22 p.m. | #

My Mars tonight 51g

Timeline evaporation 3g.
That is 1.095kg annually if you eat one a day to help you work, rest and play.

scrumpy | 07.06.20 - 11:27 p.m. | #

I think this post is full of product placement! However you haven’t done a great job of promoting those products !!

Brian | 08.06.20 - 12:56 a.m. | #

The first thing that caught my eye about the post was the picture, and that the design of the Tesco packaging was several generations old. I should get out more, but I don't really have anywhere to go.

martin | 08.06.20 - 6:39 a.m. | #

Great stuff DG. Should you ever be looking to get rid of the tins entirely, do let me know - I would be very interested (for the purposes of my own blog, "The Tin Cannoisseur") to see what state they are in!

TTC | Homepage | 08.06.20 - 9:20 a.m. | #

Pies and puddings in tins are indeed excellent. And I echo Still Anon's thoughts about the work of Jack Monroe.

Hadn't spotted Lessons Learned no.3 when I posted earlier- yes indeed!

TTC | Homepage | 08.06.20 - 9:27 a.m. | #

I found a carton of apple juice dated Feb 2012 in the back of cupboard last week. Tried it. It tasted a bit strange but not as bad as I thought it might.

Neil | 08.06.20 - 10:52 a.m. | #

I have also bern sorting my cupboards during lockdown. I am always surprised to find things with a use by date from before we moved in.

NickW, I remember being disappointed as a child when the XXXX cans went back to normal after the Comm games were over.

gt | 08.06.20 - 11:57 a.m. | #

I don't understand those Fray Bentos tinned pies - there's nothing in them, just pastry, gravy on the inside of the pastry, and maybe a small lump of meat or two. They don't taste particularly good either.

On the other hand, I guess you get what you pay for - they are cheap and often half price.

Sykobee | 08.06.20 - 1:33 p.m. | #

How is Neil today?

Brian | 08.06.20 - 11:23 p.m. | #

Slightly harsh on Knorr to describe them as an OXO rip off. Knorr were founded first in 1838. Looks like they propduced their first cube in 1912 to OXO's 1910 so they did come slightly later but I'd think they were more a rival company that a rip off merchant.

I don't have stock in this fight though!

Mark | 09.06.20 - 9:17 a.m. | #

I noticed my mum had a jar of Tiptrees Jam with 4/6d on it. "That's bloody expensive" I thought, "must be good jam" Then I remembered 4/6d is about 45p.

Jenny | 10.06.20 - 9:40 a.m. | #

In new money 4/6d is 22.5 pence.

David Cook | 14.06.20 - 9:13 a.m. | #











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