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Would you eat it?

(17 Posts)
POGS Wed 18-Sept-13 14:37:49

Keeping with the food theme. We love a certain chutney we buy every time we go to Devon. Either last xmas ,or the one before my dear niece bought us a 2.5kg tub of said chutney. It is now out-of-date. Now the tub, if it was full of emulsion would paint the lounge easily, that's how much the quantity is.

Would you:-

A) Throw it away as it is out-of-date and feel oh so very guilty you never used it.

B) Open it and if it looks OK, smells OK and tastes OK eat it.

C) Eat it and give some to friends to use it up quickly and hope you don't give them and yourselves galloping gut rot. Good friends would surely forgive you.grin

Anybody know how long a 'PRESERVE' is preserved for. Any W. I jam and pickle makers out there with a hardy view of use by dates???

janeainsworth Wed 18-Sept-13 14:42:53

POGS it will be fine. There's so much sugar and acid in chutney that no bacteria could possibly survive.
I made some green tomato chutney once. It took us 10 years to eat it all. grin

thatbags Wed 18-Sept-13 14:45:53

B because it will be fine.

thatbags Wed 18-Sept-13 14:46:43

We had a similar experience with my marrow chutney, jane. We were still eating it seven years later. I quite miss it now it's all gone.

simtib Wed 18-Sept-13 14:56:37

I would go for B and after a few days swap to C. With Chutney the date is often set by the quality deteriorating rather than it going off.

gracesmum Wed 18-Sept-13 15:00:46

B every time! (Scrape off any green bits and make sure nobody can see the best-by date!)

FlicketyB Wed 18-Sept-13 15:02:01

I am still eating chutney I made in 2008 without any harmful effects.

vampirequeen Wed 18-Sept-13 15:18:05

Definitely B. Chutney lasts forever (well OK maybe a slight exaggeration lol).

Anne58 Wed 18-Sept-13 15:30:17

I would eat it, but if it is in one BIG jar, perhaps once you have opened it, decant it into some smaller ones? (Properly sterilised, of course)

Stansgran Wed 18-Sept-13 15:57:26

Boil it up and put it in sterilized small jars.

Jendurham Wed 18-Sept-13 16:07:51

Nobody alive to say otherwise, Vampirequeen.

j08 Wed 18-Sept-13 16:10:45

I've never come across chutney in a container that'd big. Is it homemade? What sort of a tub is it?

yogagran Wed 18-Sept-13 16:26:16

Definitely B - it's a "preserve" which says it all

Grannyeggs Wed 18-Sept-13 17:08:31

I agree B,these things go on for ever. Could you put it in smaller jars and give some away,and if so would you tell friends and family it was a little out of date?

POGS Wed 18-Sept-13 21:08:17

Thanks for answering everyone..

I think I will eat it and give a few jars to friends to use up the quantity, I will tell them it is out-of-date.wink.

Deedaa Wed 18-Sept-13 21:55:16

I'd go for B which is how I approach my homemade jams and chutneys which obviously don't come with dates.

Flowerofthewest Thu 19-Sept-13 00:28:16

sniff it and if it smells Ok eat it, or try it on the cat! if the cat turns his/her nose up then chuck it. (not the cat - the food)