Sunday night had run away from me and I hadn’t eaten because I was still feeling full from a big breakfast. Midnight was less than an hour away and I think I read somewhere that you shouldn’t eat late at night, but the chances are I would be up for hours yet so I didn’t think having a light supper would hurt.
‘Soup,’ I thought. ‘That would be perfect.’ I still had a bit of a baguette left and, accompanied with a glass of wine, the meal would indeed hit the spot. My favorite soup is home made broccoli and stilton, but as I’ve never cooked it myself the ready made variety will do just fine as long you add a little more stilton cheese.
I didn’t have any of that soup in my refrigerator but I was sure there was a tin of something at the back of my cupboard behind the baked beans, peeled plum tomatoes, and jars of Lloyd Grossman’s pasta sauce (which had recently been on a 2-for-1 offer at the store).
Sure enough, in the corner and under a tin of beans was a can of Campbell’s ‘double the value’ vegetable soup. ‘That should do the trick,’ I thought to myself as I reached into the cupboard. My wrist negotiated its way around the jars and tins like a snake through long grass.
As I lifted the can of Campbell’s I noticed the label seemed a little faded and somewhat grimy. I didn’t remember buying this can of soup especially since vegetable isn’t a variety I’m particularly fond of anyway. But, with the baguette and remaining wine from the bottle my brother and I drank yesterday, this soup would be perfect.
I rummaged through the kitchen drawers for a can opener. Locating one, I placed the can on the counter-top then stopped just as I was about to open it. ‘This isn’t dirty,’ I thought to myself as I went in for a closer look. ‘This can is rusty!’
I figured that if the can had been sitting in the back of my cupboard long enough to accumulate a fair degree of rust then there was a high probability that the product may well have passed its ‘use by’ date. On the base of the can, stamped in generic dotted typface, was ‘04 1999.’ It wasn’t merely out of date, it was from another century!
I picked it up and inspected the label that was discolored by the grime and rust. ‘Does soup get better with age? Does it mature like whisky or wine?’ The picture of the soup on the label sure looked tasty, and I had heard from somewhere that canned food never really goes off, so it had to be fine, right?
I opened the antique and examined the contents like a hazmat officer. I sniffed it, trusting that my nose would detect all traces of imperfections that my eyes might fail to notice. It smelled exactly like soup from a can. ‘It’s fine!’ I told myself as I poured it into a saucepan already filled with the stated amount of water.
Minutes later my soup from a bygone era was steaming and ready to be enjoyed. It looked just like the picture on the label, and while the taste hadn’t particularly improved in its maturity, the soup that was ten years out of date was every bit as good as it would have been back in the 90’s.
—
There’s more… Read what I had for desert!
Best before
Restaurant review
Food for thought
Do Food Expiration Dates Really Matter?
The Truth About Food Expiration Dates
If it smells okay, can I still eat it?
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 7:29 am
Did you really have it?! Oh my…
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 8:27 am
Mmmmmm.. cream of rusted campbells can. Tasty.
At least you won’t have an iron deficiency.
How could you resort to the soup when there was all that cheese in the fridge that we bought and never ate!!
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 9:32 am
LOL!!!
I think you need to clean out the cupboards.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Simon, If you’re that hard for cash, we have plenty of spare tins of soup. (They are not out of date either)……!!
I would probably gone and got a takeout, soup thats 10 YEARS OLD, is probably best in the bin.
Surely it has a use by date for a reason???
: )
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Oh that’s nasty! I don’t eat anything out of date at all, ever, no exceptions! They put a date on those things for a reason Simon. But come on, it was 10 years out of date. 10 YEARS!!!!!!!
I hope you don’t get sick.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Okay, so what I didn’t write in the post is what I ad for desert!
After finishing the soup from the last century I had a yogurt , except this had also passed the expiration date. In fact I bought it on the day of it’s ‘sell by date’ so it was super cheap!
It was the last one of a six pack of yogurts that I had already consumed and I couldn’t remember how long it had been in the fridge. But I didn’t worry about that. I’ve had plenty of expired yogurts and I’m still alive so I was sure this would be fine too.
I was watching TV as I peeled back the lid of the yogurt pot. Without looking at it I indulged in my somewhat uncouth habit of licking the yogurt from the underside of the lid.
‘That tasted a little funny.’ I thought to myself as I swallowed it down. Then I looked at the remaining yogurt on the lid. It was covered in blue furry mould that looked like a bad hair do from a 1970’s pop video!
I looked at the pot to see if it had the same mould – it did. ‘Damn!’ I thought. ‘I really wanted this yogurt.’
I gave it a closer inspection and saw that the blue furry mold was just around the rim of the pot and therefore, if I were careful, I would be able to scoop it out of the pot without contaminating the rest of the yogurt.
I thought about how this might not be a great idea, but then I figured that I’d just consumed a 10 year old can of soup, so really, how bad could it be! With that I removed the blue furry mould, stirred the yogurt (with the same spoon) then sat back and began eating it.
Today I feel just fine, Heather tells me that Botchulism can take up to six days to present, but I’ll be fine. I’m a man, I have a man stomach, and man stomachs can eat out of date food.
PS. I had already had some of the cheese Peter (my brother) mentioned, so I was in the mood for something different. :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 3:50 pm
ohhh yuck! did you really eat that!?? as if the soup wasn’t bad enough. simon, this is just ultra- gross!! I almost dont believe it!!!
i agree w/ bella. i throw out anything that is even the day after expiration.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 5:02 pm
wow. you are a brave soul. the yogurt is above and beyond.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 5:39 pm
This is a huge difference between men and women and I wonder where it comes from. Women throw stuff out based on its date, men sniff it and if it smells ok, they eat it. I have never gotten ill by eating out of date food.
Having said that, I doubt I’d have eaten the yoghurt :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 7:07 pm
iron stomach. crazy.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 7:08 pm
:-D
what a great story.
i wonder how much time you gave yourself to decide wheater to eat or not both yoghurt and soup….
i’m always eating things that are out of date, i mean it’s the ‘best before’-date, it doesnt mean it’s bad afterwards ;-)
what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, i’d advice everybody to eat the food they sell on the streets in whatever country you happen to be in, and to at least try the water…
one exception though: the ganges’ water in varanasi :-D
Wrote the following comment on Apr 27, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Way to go Mira, do you drink lager too :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 1:20 am
Oh dear Lord! Simon, you need a good woman in your life! :)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 1:57 am
I was dating a good woman for a while back there Sindy, but unfortunately the last date we had was apparently my expiration. On the bright side though, while I might be an out of date lover, I don’t yet have furry blue hair :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 4:32 am
i just have to say, this is my favorite post of yours… the yogurt being the best part.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 5:41 am
And who doesn’t rely on the ‘sniff test?’ I also use ‘the 5 second rule‘ in which anything is still safe to eat after it has been dropped on the floor as long as its picked up within 5 seconds. For extra safety the ‘blow safe’ decontamination method should be used, where you blow germs off any food you drop on the floor with one quick and carefully directed puff of air.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Sadly i have just been informed Simon has turned into one of the furry blue creatures from sesame street!
God rest his soul!
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Picture the scene, you’re a “good woman” (as per Sindy’s comment) and Simon has invited you over for dinner. You know he has a blog so prior to the date you decide to take a look at it. You then see this post.
Would you call off the date, or risk salmonella for love?
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 2:24 pm
mira-
drink the water?! are you crazy?
i’ve eaten street food before, it was delicious, but there’s no way i’d tempt fate and drink unclean,unflitered, unboiled water. maybe it’s because so many of my friends have and gotten really sick.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 6:19 pm
simon u r not out of date lover – u r hawt!! but i dont like out of date food like you.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Ron, I thought the very same thing :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 7:11 pm
well of course you need to be carefull with water. but if everybody around is drinking it it can’t be THAT bad. well maybe i’ll soon change my mind, so far i haven’t made any bad experiences with having a cup of dodgy water now and then…
@wilvo: i prefer guinness :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Well, as way of contrast, I’ve just cooked smoked haddock, spinach, and poached egg with a holandaise sauce :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 28, 2009 at 10:46 pm
As an aside, has Max figured out how to make gravitars bigger yet :-)
Wrote the following comment on Apr 29, 2009 at 12:27 am
mira- ok ok. you’ve been in a situation where others were drinking the water. i haven’t. the only country i’ve been to where water concerns were really high was china, and when i was there i didn’t see anybody drinking unfiltered water.
later on, back in america, i was tutoring chinese students and gave them a tour of the university. when i told them about water fountains they were horrified, but then i drank from one and they couldn’t believe it was safe!
other than that, simon’s post made me realize i haven’t had a hamburger in ten years.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 29, 2009 at 1:32 am
@Ron – For the record I would like it to be a matter of public record that I do not make a habit of eating food that is out of date or covered in mold. Anyone who is invited to my apartment for a meal, be that romantically or otherwise, has no reason to fear any kind of unwanted health effects as a result of my cooking.
@Yin – Thank you for the boost there Yin. And again, to be clear, I do not “like” out of date food.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 29, 2009 at 2:20 am
“I was dating a good woman for a while back there Sindy, but unfortunately the last date we had was apparently my expiration.”
Her loss Simon, her loss!
Wrote the following comment on Apr 29, 2009 at 4:25 am
Geez! So much buzz about you eating rotten food! I just want to know one thing….are you still alive? Has it been six days yet? May I give advise? A generous swig of that MS coconut moonshine and you will be cured…of everything!I’m not worried for you… You survived my meals! Even the ones cooked in the “caustic”FEMA trailer!
Wrote the following comment on Apr 29, 2009 at 10:40 pm
What a funny post. Ten year old canned soup I could handle, but the yogurt, dude that’s just wrong!
Wrote the following comment on May 12, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I know that this comment is a bit late in coming, but I have to expose the conspiracy and say that dates on cans and other food products is a way for manufacturers to bilk the people. They don’t want you hording up and thereby stop buying their products for awhile. So, they put dates on food to force you to eat it or throw it out so that in the end you are regularly buying their stuff. Everything is either made to perish, or it is packaged so that it looks like it will soon perish. In this way we all are kept in a consuming mode, and thereby are lining the pockets of the greedy manufacturers.
Don’t by into their evil plot! Citizens of the world unite. Say no to pseudo due dates, and say yes to food that has perished!
Wrote the following comment on Jun 18, 2010 at 2:33 pm
And today I drank a old bottle of Jones Soda Root Beer purchased 11 years ago in Beverly Massachusetts! It’s been sitting on a shelf for 11 years because it is ‘Jones Soda’ which I thought was cool (because that’s my name – dah!). But after a little clear out I was about to toss it when I thought maybe I should just drink it. After a few days in the fridge I can happily report that Jones Soda even tastes good when it’s more than 11 years old! :-)