This isn’t a stop the presses big deal, but mustard definitely has a shelf life.
This past weekend, I was making a vinaigrette with two different kinds of mustards. The Grey Poupon Dijon mustard I had just bought was fine. Then, I reached into the fridge for a jar of Grey Poupon coarse grainy country mustard. I was just about to add it to the bowl when I decide to check the “best if used by” date on the lid.
It said 2004.
2004! Geez, Louise, that’s three long years past its prime.
I’m usually really good about making frequent clean sweeps of the fridge, so I’m not sure how this happened. What’s really strange is I moved a year ago. So I’m guessing this mustard came with me. But I can’t remember if the jar sat on my pantry shelf for a long time and I recently opened it or it was hanging around my other fridge.
Skeeved out, I went into Psycho Woman cleaning mode and checked the date on every single jar in the fridge and on my pantry shelves. All was fine. Whew!
Now, here’s what’s a little scary: The mustard looked and smelled fine.
But there was no way I was going to use it. I checked the Kraft Foods web site and they say: “We don’t recommend consuming Grey Poupon after the “best when used by” date because the taste and texture quality may no longer be ideal.”
No kidding.
No comments:
Post a Comment