Canned Goods

We buy lots of canned goods when they are on sale. I take a marker and write the date on the top and stick it away. Although we some an attempt to rotate the cans by date it's just inevitable around here that some things just keep getting push to the end of the line. I've noticed that meat+vegetable items such as beef stew or chili just seem to lose something after awhile. I just opened a can of Poss's Beef Stew dated 5/2003. It's probably edible just disgusting. The fatty meat sauce doesn't un-gel and the meat, carrots and potatoes all taste the same. Chicken soup turns into a big lump after a few years. Probably has something to do with preservatives or enzymes or something else over my head. I've had canned (mason jar) homemade beef stew that was several years old and it was fine.

On the other hand single canned food items such as corn or a can of beans or green beans seem to last forever.

Any thoughts on this?

Canned goods have chemical additives in them to make them last for decades. That's not to say they will not taste like. . well . . . .lets just say taste bad after that period of time. I still have a can of beef stroganoff that is from the 90's . . .I'm kinda afraid to taste it, but the other can I used from the same time about 2 years ago wasnt tooooo bad. it was a bit gooey, but it was tolerable to eat and didnt make me sick. (I know, it's a wierd experiment)

I'm not sure what it is that they add to these canned goods but they last dam near forever in decent temperatures.

Im sure what they add is unhealthy, but it works.

Funny I'll bet it tastes goooder than leather. Lots of stories of people eating leather.

depending on the situation. . . .I'd eat my belt to survive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cheshiregriffin

depending on the situation. . . .I'd eat my belt to survive.

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Heck, enough hot sauce and a sharp knife and I'd eat that beef stew.

Here's is a Y2K article that has some good information on how long canned foods will last. Scroll down for the can goods.

http://aiki.pbwiki.com/Canned+Food+Storage+Tips

Every source that I found had similar lengths of time to the link that Rick posted. Another thing that can affect the shelf life of your stored items is temperature. Just like with MRE's (they're kind of a canned food in a bag) the shelf life will decrease if stored in warmer temps.

The rule of thumb I am accustom to is 6-7 years for meat most meats and 3-5 years for veggies. I'm calling BS on the 1 year experation date for tomato soup.

I'm was really hoping some of you highbrow edjumakaded typed could offer some opinions on why the meat+veggie foods seem to ruin before the just meat or veggies go bad. :(

I was hoping for something more along the lines of a can of tomato soup should have a PH of =(?). [or whatever]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sam Reeves

The rule of thumb I am accustom to is 6-7 years for meat most meats and 3-5 years for veggies. I'm calling BS on the 1 year experation date for tomato soup.

I'm was really hoping some of you highbrow edjumakaded typed could offer some opinions on why the meat+veggie foods seem to ruin before the just meat or veggies go bad. :(

I was hoping for something more along the lines of a can of tomato soup should have a PH of =(?). [or whatever]

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There is a commercial running in these parts about vegetables emitting a gas that causes them to spoil faster when the gas is trapped in a closed container, in this case those plastic produce sacks that the veggies come home in from the store. The commercial is selling some green tinted storage bags that have been treated with a chemical :eek: or process that lets the gas escape the bag through the plastic, claiming to keep the veggies fresher longer.

If that is true about the gas that the veggies emit, then I would imagine that there might be some of that going on inside even sealed canned veggies. But I am no scientist.

That is true Ridgewolf, I'm not sure if the bags work, but it is true that rotting fruits emit ethylene (sp?) gas, which in turn speeds up the process, which makes more gas, which speeds it up more, etc etc.

This is the origin of the phrase "one bad apple spoils the barrel" the colonists use to sink barrels of apples in lakes to eat in the spring, but if one bad apple was in the barrel it would start off the rotting/gas cycle and make all the other apples rot as well.

This can be used to your advantage, if you want say a mango to ripen faster, you stick it in a paper bag with an apple or something that is already ripe.

I don't think that is applicable once the food is cooked or otherwise preserved though.

There is somewhat funny but campy Kelsey Grammar movie called Down Periscope about an old decommissioned sub the military puts a bunch of misfits on. At one point the XO yells at the cook about stocking expired canned goods, and the cook opens one up and eats it and says "See, it still tastes like cream corn." and the XO says "But its supposed to be ham you idiot!"

My theory as to why things might gel in a can is because of gelatin. When collagen from meats (or pectin from plants) is released in cooking as it cools it forms gelatin, gelatin has a higher melting point that collagen or pectin, so even if you brought the stuff back up to the prior high temperature the gelatin may not melt. This is why stews often taste better/thicker the next day after sitting in the fridge overnight.

Maybe, in the can, the gelatin keeps getting more and more stable, slowly, until you open it up and it has solidified everything together.

Funny you should mention those green bags. Consumer Reports did a test on them and it is in the July edition (page 9).

"We saw green insede the Green Bags, but often it was mold. Blackberries become moldy after three weeks. Strawberries and basil after a month, and peppers and tomatoes after five weeks. It was a tough test, but the same foods stored in other ways nearly always had less mold or none after the same time.

Only bananas fared significantly better in Green Bags: After two weeks, they were firm and had not turned black."

And now you know.

Olá, eu vinha a tentar juntar algum dinheiro para pagar umas dívidas antigas, mas sempre aparecia algo que me fazia recomeçar do zero. Foi por acaso que encontrei o ivybet enquanto lia uns comentários e decidi testar sem esperar muito. Os bónus para jogadores da região Português tornaram tudo mais interessante quando comecei a jogar Gates of Olympus. Tive uma sequência de perdas que quase me fez desistir, mas arrisquei um pouco mais e acabei por acertar um prémio que me deu um grande alívio. No fim percebi que podia mesmo ser um empurrão útil e por isso deixo a recomendação.

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