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During the pandemic, I bought a lot of canned food that I have stored in my basement.
Unfortunately, much has "expired" (no, not really expired because what is expired is the "Best By" date. I have done some research on these dates because the general public doesn't understand them and I sometimes stock community pantry shelves. I know the food is still good, but it bugs me to see those dates.
How are these dates handled by you (and there are no real expiration dates on the items, just the "Best By" dates).
If I stockpile items like this, I'd make a point of incorporating them into my upcoming recipes/meal planning instead of continuing to buy newer stuff to cook with. Like rotating a grocery store's shelf stock. To keep them in my working grocery memory more easily, I'd keep a list (soonest best-by-date first) on the fridge and cross them off as used.
Last edited by Parnassia; 06-19-2023 at 05:18 PM..
Tomato and dairy products need to be consumed soon after their dates. Pretty much anything else will last as long as the can does, but the flavor, color, texture, and nutritional quality goes down over time. I'm also a big fan of rotating through these things, but I seldom eat canned food. Most the canned food I do eat is stuff I bought years ago, so yeah, past the dates.
If you have canned food that has become yucky, but it still safe to eat (a good example would be evaporated milk that is turning brown) you can feed it to something that makes food, like chickens.
Last edited by terracore; 06-19-2023 at 05:50 PM..
If I stockpile items like this, I'd make a point of incorporating them into my upcoming recipes/meal planning instead of continuing to buy newer stuff to cook with. Like rotating a grocery store's shelf stock. To keep them in my working grocery memory more easily, I'd keep a list (soonest best-by-date first) on the fridge and cross them off as used.
This isn't food I would normally eat (beans, canned pasta, tuna, etc.).
I do a basic First in, First out (FIFO), but I don't get too hung up over it. I have about one hundred items on my inventory, and for any particular item it is FIFO. I have canned chicken, tuna and black eyed peas that are older than my oldest can of ravioli, but I don't really care. I eat what I want, when I want. (A caveat on this, later.)
On the other hand (OTOH) I don't usually even look at the "best buy" date or anything of that sort. When the can or box arrives at my pantry, I code it with YYMM of the current date, in half inch numbers, and go by that. Quicker and easier to read (my eyes aren't the best, any more). I have been using this method for about six years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parnassia
So what? Modify or expand your everyday meal plans to include them until you get your stockpile under control.
This will work if "CFAM" is willing to do it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by considerforamoment
This isn't food I would normally eat (beans, canned pasta, tuna, etc.).
If you wouldn't eat them at all, you have bought yourself a basement of trouble. If anyone will take some of it off your hands, you might want to give some away, while they will take it.
One of the cardinal rules of stocking is to stock what you eat.
I do fudge on that, a bit. A lot of the stuff I stock is stuff I eat when the fresh version isn't around. For instance, I eat canned chicken, when it is too much trouble to drive an hour to the nearest KFC or Popeye's, but on a typical month, I am in their vicinity once or twice and will simply pick some up.
Consequently (and here is the caveat) as I go through my stocks, when I find items over two years old, I consider giving it away. I know a couple families that never question the food I give them, so that becomes convenient for both of us.
Other things, like dry beans, can be kept for several years, so I just move them further back in my stockpile. I have some beans that are over three years old, and I figure I will get around to eating them in another three years.
During the pandemic, I bought a lot of canned food that I have stored in my basement.
Unfortunately, much has "expired" (no, not really expired because what is expired is the "Best By" date. I have done some research on these dates because the general public doesn't understand them and I sometimes stock community pantry shelves. I know the food is still good, but it bugs me to see those dates.
How are these dates handled by you (and there are no real expiration dates on the items, just the "Best By" dates).
I think most people make this mistake when starting to prep.
Learn to cook with your stored foods. The other night I made pasta e fagioli soup - all from stored food. Canned kidney beans, dried pasta, canned tomatoes, packaged beef broth. A 1/4 onion, a couple of carrots and celery stalks were the only fresh items.
My canned tuna is from Italy and packed in olive oil. I always have jars of olives, capers, peperoncini, pickles, anchovies too. It makes a great Nicoise salad. https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/tuna-nicoise-salad. You don't need the green beans or eggs for it either.
The ideal canned food "prep" item should check a couple of boxes: Cheap, edible, long lasting, and as nutritionally complete as possible.
Canned green beans are really cheap and last long in a can, but they don't check any of the other boxes.
Canned meat is isn't cheap, but a can of protein is a lot more useful for your brain and body in a SHTF situation than a can of slimy canned green beans.
I think the products that check the most boxes are things like canned meat ravioli. And not surprisingly, Chef Boyardee used to be military rations. It has pasta (carbs), meat (protein), and a vegetable sauce. It's also really salty which most of us will need if we're sweating / burning a lot of calories in a SHTF situation. It's also really cheap at places like Costco or Walmart.
But like a lot of tomato-including canned items, the shelf life isn't amazing so it has to be something one is willing to eat on a rotational basis. It's harder to find, but they do make a variety with "extra meat" which would be the one I would choose.
There are other similar products too, like canned meat tamales, Dinty Moore stew, basically anything that contains meat, carbs, and vegetables in a single can.
Personally I prefer freeze dried meals but they have become so expensive I'm glad I bought them when I did. The up-front cost may be off-putting to a lot of people but considering that they last so long and they don't require rotation, maybe over the long term they aren't that expensive. It's not like you're going to be throwing it out, giving it away, or feeding it to chickens. And when they do expire, I actually like them so will enjoy eating them. 30 years after I bought them groceries will be so expensive that whatever I paid for them will seem like a bargain. The important thing is to pay for something you're actually going to want to eat (like Mountain House) and not a product that is mostly just dried milk and pasta / grains. You get what you pay for.
Edited to add: The chef boyardee product with extra meat is called "Overstuffed", and the "Italian Sausage" flavor is the most palatable product they make IMHO.
Last edited by terracore; 06-23-2023 at 08:25 PM..
Out of curiosity, what would you consider the shelf life of regular Chef Boyardee canned ravioli?
(Based mostly on nutritional, but some small consideration given to taste, etc.)
Based on past experience, several years at least, but there aren't great guidelines for canned food because it depends on the environment they are stored in. 10 degrees up or down over years makes a huge difference of what happens inside the can, and the humidity greatly affects what's happening on the outside of the can. When I was a kid our family canned food in jars but they had metal lids. I don't recall anybody ever tracking dates. If the food looked and smelled good, we ate it.
I'm going through an old pantry now. I found a fairly rusty looking can of diced tomatoes and assumed they would be bad. I opened them up and they smelled like I bought them yesterday. The interior of the can was lined with something like plastic. Since I didn't have a need for diced tomatoes I fed them to the chickens.
I've had canned ravioli that was years past the "date" on the can. I honestly couldn't tell any difference. It's not very good regardless of how old it is.
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