Sweetened condensed milk dated 1998

[Darcie B]

If it's any consolation, I had a can of scm that was just shy of a year past its expiration date. I decided to give it a shot in the bars I was baking. It did not seem as though the seal had been compromised, but the scm had darkened and developed a nasty off flavor. I suspect that it had gotten hot at some point(s) in its several years of sitting on the shelf. It was too yucky to use, albeit probably safe to eat.

My friend's grandmother canned many foods, and she would keep them forever. She once ate some canned peaches that had turned nearly black and were from the 1970s (this was in the 90s). She lived to be 106.

[DanM]

I chose the side of caution and threw out the can. Regret it now. Guess I'll have to get another and store it for 13 years. Stay tuned. And thanks for the opinions.

I'd say skip the can of sweetened condensed milk and replace it with a nice bottle of wine or beer that will appreciate 13 years of neglect.

Dan

[ScoopKW]

I chose the side of caution and threw out the can. Regret it now. Guess I'll have to get another and store it for 13 years. Stay tuned. And thanks for the opinions.

I'd say skip the can of sweetened condensed milk and replace it with a nice bottle of wine or beer that will appreciate 13 years of neglect.

Dan

Port.

I've kept bottles of port lying neglected in my parent's basement for decades.

Port's the best control for this particular experiment.

[Kajikit]

In my experience condensed milk never dies. It just caramelises in the tin. The longer you keep it, the darker brown and thicker it gets. But it's otherwise unaffected. I haven't kept any for 13 years though - the oldest I've used it is about five! After 13 years I'd expect it to be a solid mass of caramel.

[andiesenji]

While delving into the stuff in my secondary pantry I found a sealed gallon pail of sorghum molasses from my family's farm that was processed in 1994. Peeled off the plastic sleeve, pried open the lid and found the molasses is still in excellent condition, not even a little crystallization. It's in a SS can which is still shiny inside and out. I've transferred the contents to a gallon jug for easier access.

I mixed some with butter to put on my biscuits earlier and it tastes as good as the stuff I purchased last fall, maybe better.

When I was a child, my grandfather had a cellar that held a lot of wines, some brought from England when he came to America in 1919 and which he managed to hold on to during prohibition.

Some of the port was from 1898 - I remember that date because those bottles were brought out on very special occasions - such as VE day and VJ day in 1945.

[paulraphael]

I'd actually be really interested to know what potential contaminants we are worried about here (yeah, so I'm a nerd...). I would think that the extreme temperature SCM is processed at would eliminate any c. botulinin spores, and really pretty much anything else. What are the potential contaminants here?

I'd assume that the chance of contamination is almost zero. But there is a possibility of chemical reactions that happen very slowly. Compounds break down into smaller ones, smaller ones sometimes recombine into larger ones. I think the most likely risk is that the stuff would taste a little off. I'd be very surprised if there was any health hazard.

My inclination would be to buy a new can and taste them side by side.

There are some black beans in my pantry that might predate the condensed milk. Maybe we should pool our resources and have an antique food potluck.

[Butterfly173173173]

Found an expired evaporated milk can in my grandma's house (2013) and the Walmart Stores Inc says copyright 1998 on the label. Does that mean it's from 1998? Found this forum and decided to open it alongside an unexpired Walmart evaporated milk. Tasted both of them and they taste pretty much the same. The older one was darker in color and had more clumping on the lid, but otherwise seems fine.

[andiesenji]

Found an expired evaporated milk can in my grandma's house (2013) and the Walmart Stores Inc says copyright 1998 on the label. Does that mean it's from 1998? Found this forum and decided to open it alongside an unexpired Walmart evaporated milk. Tasted both of them and they taste pretty much the same. The older one was darker in color and had more clumping on the lid, but otherwise seems fine.

 

In 1957 I joined the WACS, basic training at Ft. McClellan in Alabama.  On my KP rota the cook had me opening several BIG cans of sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand) and the date stamped on the cans was 1948!  It was used, nobody got sick and the pies (coconut cream) tasted fine.  We had a lot of "stockpiled" military food - in the olive-drab colored cans - some even older, including some cans of fruit preserves.  I came across one big jar of pickles from 1944. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Civil War sweetened condensed milk might still be good if you don't mind a little lead.  Some say it won the war.  I suspect those 1948 cans were sealed with lead as well.  I may have been served condensed milk in 1948, but if so it was probably in a glass bottle with a rubber nipple.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I also had a can of sweetened condensed milk that had expired by many years. I had made a "key" lime pie with it one Christmas to top off a big lobster dinner. I like having pantry staples on the shelf, but why I feel the need to do this for something I use rarely is a mystery to me. I have to buy fresh limes anyway, when I get ready to make the pie. 

 

Then many years later, the next time I got ready to make this pie, I was making out my grocery list and realized how past date my pantry can was, so I bought another fresh one. I opened the old one first, and it had a disturbing dark color, much darker than Butterfly's photo. I washed the can opener meticulously, and opened the fresh can, and it was quite white, so that's the one I used. I wasn't brave enough to taste the expired one, even though it may not have hurt me. The pie turned out excellent again. I'm firmly in the meringue camp, especially, because my pie recipe (Joy of Cooking) calls for just enough yolks to have leftover whites for a tall meringue.

 

I had a big can of tomatoes that had got pushed to the back of the shelf. I think it was old enough to not even have an expiration date, That one was bulging, so it got thrown away unopened.

 

I'm thrifty (cheap?) but not to the point where I'll take a risk like that! I loved ScoopKW's no-brainer risk/reward assessment on page one.

 

I'm happy to say also that I no longer stock pantry items that I don't use much and require fresh ingredients anyway to realize a recipe. This old dog can apparently learn a few new tricks from her mistakes.