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The oldest ingredient in your kitchen that you're still using?


Shalmanese

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The oldest comdiment in your fridge thread has revealed a number of frighteningly old bottles that are sitting around in benign neglect but I'm more curious about the ingredients we're still "using", even if it may be only once in a blue moon.

I have a packet of hickory smoked salt I bought 5 years ago which I'm only now working through. I rarely use ketchup so I have a bottle of ketchup which I think is 3 years old at this point which is still half full. I have some chinese chilli sauce that I only use for one particular dish so it's also at least 3 years old but it still tastes the same.

What sorts of crazy old stuff do others have?

PS: I am a guy.

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A chipotle-based pickle I made with my old man (family recipe) back when Nirvana was the coolest thing ever.

There's gallons of the stuff and it seems to get better with age. Fairly sure I'm set for life on this one ingredient, bar a natural disaster or something.

This is my skillet. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My skillet is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my skillet is useless. Without my skillet, I am useless. I must season my skillet well. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My skillet and myself are the makers of my meal. We are the masters of our kitchen. So be it, until there are no ingredients, but dinner. Amen.

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I have some black "forbidden" rice that was aged when I got a 25-pound container about fifteen or so years ago and the tag on the bag suggested that the rice could be aged much longer in an airtight container "for best results" so I have been using it all these years and it is still excellent.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Very entertaining topics!

I've got a lump of honeycomb from a local apiary in the back of my fridge. I bought the slab-in-a-tub probably eight or nine years ago and its giving the gift. I'm not sure honey ever expires, or if it éven needs to be refrigerated.

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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A packet of mushroom seasoning from Taiwan that has to be 12 or more years old. I transfer small amounts to a glass jar so that the package does not get opened too often. Not as fragrant as new but still adds a "hit" to many dishes.

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A variety of cake sprinkles that I use very occasionally, mostly on birthday cakes requested by other people, lurk behind the herbs and spices in the cabinet. They've been with us for two moves (over six years), and I have no idea of where they came from, no recollection of buying them. They just sort of... manifested.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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I still have a the remnants of a bad tiny dried hot peppers that I bought from a street vendor in Naples, Italy, in 1993. These are some of the strongest, and most flavorful hot peppers I've ever had, since two little tiny inch-long ones are enough to add noticeable heat to an entire kettle of tomato sauce. The bag had maybe 700 peppers in it. Sometime in 1999 I move the remaining peppers to a small gladware container, and I still use them on occasion. There's probably another 50 left, before I need to go back to Naples...

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That would be a bottle of balsamic vinegar. I can count on one hand how many times I've used it.

Same here. Manicardi Aceto Balsamico di Modena 6. I probably bought it ten years ago, or more, and it's still 3/4 full. Just never got into it.

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Found this old one!

A bottle of Falernum I purchased when I still lived in Reseda (San Fernando Valley) and before the Vendome liquor store burned down in 1987. (Falernum was not easy to find.)

I know the Sazerac Co. stopped production quite a few years ago but this is the original stuff.

So this bottle is at least 24 years old and I have used it sparingly. :laugh:

Falernum2.JPG Falernum.JPG

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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  • 7 years later...

My Chinese fermented black beans were in a jar and at least 18. Suddenly they got a touch of mold so I replaced recently. I must have accidentally contaminated them at last use. My S & B Oriental Curry Powder tin from Japan has a best by date of 12-24-2004. Still fragrant. I used a smidge in a cauliflower soup last week.

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