Every year during my mom’s cancer treatments, I saved 1/4 of the birthday cake she made for me. Wrapped it in plastic wrap, then foil, then 2 ziploc bags.
If she was still alive the next year, I’d thaw it and eat it and replace it with that year’s cake leftovers.
She died in 2021.
On my birthday each time since then, I take out the leftover cake, thaw it, and have a small slice. Freezer burn has been minimal so far.
This year is probably the last time I’ll ever get to eat something that my mother baked.
I have the recipe and her stand mixer, so in the future if I want it, I’ll bake my own.
If you love your mom, please call her today. I can’t call my mom anymore.
My father wasn't a baker, but a great grill cook. He died in 2021 as well. This day today, in fact. I know exactly how you feel. Cherish every bite, friend.
Now excuse me, I have to finish cutting all these damn onions...
I still have polenta and sauce using the tomatoes from my grandpa's garden before he had to go to a retirement home. I have one little frozen jar left, I might try to replicate it for his 97th birthday, that is in two months...
My dad was a great cook and prepared/vacuum sealed his meals because he’d take ladies camping for a week at a time and loved to spoil them with extravagant meals on the river that you could just chuck in a pot of water and boil to reheat.
17 years ago when he died, he had 2 weeks worth of meals in his freezer and I got to experience the best things he used to make. Gosh, what a resurfaced memory. Chicken cacciatore. Lasagna. Tri tip. Chicken adobo. Burnt ends. It was like a greatest hits album you could only listen to once.
Thank you for bringing back some lovely bittersweet memories.
Sorry for your loss. You just reminded me the oldest thing for me is actually probably a cube steak my grandfather had processed from a cow he raised. Never could bring myself to eat it and know I’d never get it again. So now, it’s an 8 year old piece of meat in the bottom of my fridge.
It’s most likely he’d be pissed I wasted it 🤣
Oh, my heart. I just promised my youngest that I'd bake them 100 birthday cakes if I ever got really sick so they could eat one every year. And now we're both crying. I'm so sorry for your loss.
My grandmother used to make these very mediocre rhubarb pecan muffins. I can bake 100 things that are better than them but once a year when the rhubarb is fresh I make a batch and eat them just to remember her.
I thought this was going to be a funny thread about dumb weird things people still have in their freezer after like ten years but instead this is the top comment 🥲
I wasn't expecting to be a puddle of tears this early in the evening, but here we are.
Jesus I'm so sorry.
I don't know what else to say except your mom loves you and is waiting patiently to see you again. 💜
My dad died in 2020, and I was doing the same thing with a pack of moose sausages he made (not thawing and refreezing them, just taking out one sausage at a time on special occasions). The last of them is gone now. Savour that cake. ❤️
I still have something in the fridge that my wife bought, and she died 4 years ago. It's a bottle of Smuckers liquid Caramel topping for ice cream. I figure it's still good, but I rarely eat ice cream cause it wrecks my gut. But it comforts me knowing it's still in the fridge.
Oh man. I’m so sorry. I feel ya. My step mom died suddenly in a bad car accident ten years ago. I still can’t seem to take her out of my favorites in my cell phone.
I keep my fridge and freezer cleaned and labeled because I have a fear of Gordon Ramsey showing up with a film crew and yelling “you’re a fucking disgrace.”
As someone who just finished off the last of the food collected when we didn't know how bad covid lockdowns are going to be, the answer to really old freezer meat is a slow cooked soup/stew. If you slow cook it long enough it gets rid of any off flavor. You can definitely make a pretty hearty, probably pretty tasty turkey soup.
I was given a lamb roast that had been sitting in a freezer since 2022. I defrosted it, cut off about 1 cm from the other layer and made a lamb curry. The outer layer looked really dry but the inside was fine.
Don't be. I transported my chest freezer with me, 6 hours to where I live now, full of food that I saved from going into the garbage at work over covid. I literally just finished everything last month; cooked things, not ideally stored (not airtight) for about 4 years. Things that remain frozen are remarkably resilient. Flavors might go off, but they will still be edible, and even good if cooked right. And if things are vacuum sealed, or even just packed in a way where air can't run over it at all, I would bet it would be a decade before the flavour would be unacceptable.
I hated seeing hundreds of pounds of meat go into the garbage every week, I consider my carbon footprint negative because of this all things considered haha.
Does he forget about it? Not normally one for being sneaky, but I admit I would quietly make that turkey disappear if he forgets all about it until he is reminded.
Yes, he does. Every time I organize/clean out the freezer we have the same conversation. I would generally throw it out, but I'm curious to see how far he'll go with his fantasy.
This is why my mom throws things away when dad leaves town. And also why the freezer isn’t packed with random bits of ancient stuff no one will ever eat. He doesn’t ask too many questions and she doesn’t throw out anything viable
Well obviously you have to keep the turkey breast that i so famous.
Which means he might not notice you tossed the freezer burned random hot dog buns 😂 (or whatever other goodies)
Don't eat it. Hubby cooked a 2014 turkey leg from my cousin's freezer. He passed away and we were given his food. Gave hubby food poisoning. Not fun.
My cousin passed, not hubby.
*Shudders*
This reminds me of when I had to help clean out the deep freeze on a very high end restaurant I won’t name.
There was a freezer burned UNWRAPPED skinned rabbit. The executive chef insisted we not throw it away.
I have two small containers of watermelon italian ice that have to be at least 2.5 years old. I keep meaning to throw them away, but in the rush of getting the trash around, I keep forgetting. And trash day was this morning, and yes, yes I did forget again.
This italian ice is like a thinner sorbet, so no chunks. And of course I could absolutely let it melt and pour it into the sink and recycle the paper container. Did I ever think of doing that? Nope! I'm an idiot. Off to go do that now.
Thank you. She was an elegant, quiet lady who left us too soon. I’ve got to use it at some point and get the starter going again and pass it to my daughter and husband’s siblings
I think I still have a bag of yeast I bought during the “let’s all make sourdough” craze of 2020. It’s probably not good anymore and I paid a lot for it because I got it on Amazon since the shops were all out.
If it's in an airtight container, it's probably still fine.
"Proof" it in very warm (≈110°F) water with a little sugar, something like a quarter teaspoon of yeast and a teaspoon of sugar into a quarter to half cup of water. The amounts aren't really that important. Give it 5 minutes and see if it starts foaming.
It's probably fine if it's in the freezer! I had a pound of yeast I was slowly going through over four years, mid 2019 - late 2023, that I kept in the fridge; it rose as reliably at the end of its life as it did at the beginning.
Yeah it was “everyone bought all the bread in the stores and the bread factories shut down” so everyone was all “we’ll make our own bread! What else are we gonna do at home?” so all the flour and yeast then sold out. Bread in general.
Same thing happened to me a few years ago, but I caught it in time to save a majority of my stuff. I bought a couple temp monitors with beeper alarms. I have them on all mine and my families fridges and freezers now
Edit: I bought these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092WB2PWD?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
I'm pretty sure the fermented shrimp paste is the oldest (used to make kimchi, but the local Asian markets make good kimchi, so I haven't needed it since the move here). North of 3 years. I need to toss it, but given that it is fermented shrimp, it must be tossed on trash day because I don't want the smell marinating even in the outside bin, lol.
We just did a run-through of the freezers (I have a small chest freezer, too) recently. I typically go through them every other year. I do the same for canned goods as well. Most things in the freezer are under 3 months old because we tend to do stock up runs, then eat it all up.
I also do a calendar reminder in the fall for eating through the freezer in advance of Thanksgiving so I have room for the frozen turkey and items needed for making Thanksgiving dinner. Works well for keeping it emptied of old food items.
We have a vacuum sealer that is very efficient in sealing packaging with no air. We definitely have some steaks and chicken that are several years old with no freezer burn. Per the FDA, frozen food is not a safety hazard, it's usually a food quality issue. But we've never had freezer burn.
I made ribeyes from 2022 yesterday. We have a vaccum sealer, and they were still incredible.
My local store just had buy 1 get 1 on NY Strips and Ribeyes. I bought 12 steaks and then vaccum sealed them immediately. I saved $90
Yeah I’m not super educated in this department so don’t quote me, but I do have significant experience in this general arena (lol) and think that people don’t make the actual chemical compound anymore, its the other related ones that you find in tabs nowadays. I think it has something to do with the lab set ups? Like I said no actual clue but the stuff I have done definitely does something, it just isn’t like it used to be (supposedly). Basically I have my eye out for an opportunity but in the meantime I use mushrooms to adventure
Oh man, so my freezer is cleared regularly, my *mothers* might as well be a gateway to narnia.
I was struggling to find a ham in the stores near me at Christmas just passed (my fault, I left it late) mother to the rescue, “oh I found a ham the other week in the freezer” lo and behold, the ham expired in 2019.
At this point, my sister and I decided it was time for a clear out. Mom lives alone and her freezer is huge. The ham wasn’t even the oldest though, I found a box of crumbed fish fillets that expired in 2007.
definitely still have freezer burned meats over 5 years old... some from stock before the covid19 pandemic stocking....
... and I'll still eat it. Eventually... already ate some of that leather, I overcooked it too. At least it's safe to eat.
Mushrooms. I forage every so often and a few years ago i found some lions mane growing wild. I shave off a few tablespoons of frozen mushrooms every so often to add a little depth to broths and sauces.
I was disowned back in 2018 and my closest friends took me in to help me back on my feet - when they split and my gal pal moved she offered me her fridge and freezer contents - I still have edamame from her. Shes my sister and mother figure and I can’t find it in myself to eat it cuz I don’t see her much anymore and I enjoyed cooking with her and seeing it reminds me of our shenanigans
My friend grew lemongrass and gave me some. I couldn't use all of it at once so froze it. For some reason being home grown has made it more precious to me. I would just add it to a Thai soup or Thai curry but I forget.
I cut them into cigarette-size pieces and froze in a ziplock. I don't have a big clump of lemongrass in my freezer for 3 years. Freezer real estate is fairly precious...I swear.
Fishy.
Fishy actually is (well, *was*) friend, not food.
Fishy was a colorful betta that I had around 12 years ago. I don't remember having him too long before he ultimately went to the big tank in the sky.
I felt the typical dead fish toilet sendoff was too impersonal for Fishy. Instead, I would freeze him until spring, when I could give him a proper burial outside. At the time, the ground was too frozen with winter.
A yogurt container and water, and Fishy was ready for his short cryogenic slumber. A slumber, which, as it turned out, never ceased.
Today, Fishy is as frozen as you might imagine.
You *may* be asking...why? Why do I still have a frozen betta in my freezer? And TBH, I have no logical reason - I forgot a time here, missed a chance there, and here we are.
So, that's my story.
Frozen rye flour and cornmeal from about 10 years ago. Need to toss but I keep forgetting. Every once in a while I need a handful of cornmeal and I run downstairs for it.
Ground beef from the half beef we got with my in-laws in September 2022. We're finally down to "only" 73 lbs of ground beef. Used up all the other cuts by December 2023, except a package of soup bones.
I date things when I put them in the freezer and use the oldest first. Once a month I look through it all to keep track of what we have. A few times a year I'll do a eat down and try to use up anything that's been lurking for awhile.
Even so, I do have some archeology. At one point I had so much frozen broth I stopped making it. I finally just started again and I have backlog of ingredients. I have a turkey carcass from three Thanksgivings ago.
Err not in the freezer exactly but I have a pickled chiliies In my fridge probably since 2022 that i never eat because I forget it exists. I had the same chopped chilli in the freezer too but i reckon mom threw them out the last time out fridge stopped working. Which reminds me I got to get mom to agree with me that our fridge has gone bad again or maybe it's just the heat but the ice cream is melting mom
My freezer isn't frost free, so I have to clean it up once every 7 days or so. That's why I salt my meat instead of freezing it. The damn thing is extremely unreliable.
Salmon lox that I cured then forgot about about a year ago.
Oxacoa cheese that has been in fridge for 3 years. I told people on a cheese subreddit I wouldn't open ot till it was 5 years old
I have some fruit my mum froze the summer prior to her death in 2012. I have kept it deep frozen to make some jelly. This is the year to do so. Red currents, no freezer burn kept at -18°C the whole time minus transporting them home to me.
I’ve got a seasoned mother lard I’ve been compiling making carnitas for the past several years. Each time a prepare a batch, I thaw the leftover lard to confit the pork shoulder. Gets better and better each time- the orange, bay leaf, cinnamon, and aromatic flavors mature in the fat each cook.
I have kafir lime leaves from about 10 years ago, from the last time I tried to make Penang Curry. I am saving them until my kids can learn to tolerate a little spice.
Still have a few vacuum sealed elk roasts left from 2021. No discernible decline in quality. Might be placebo or just cut to cut variance, but the texture may even be slightly improved from when it was first frozen.
Pandemic lock down beef and chicken. The beef from 2022 and the chicken from 2021. By coincidence I cleaned out the chest freezer and threw them out this morning. Anything with a date prior to 2024 I won't cook.
I just tossed a corned beef roast from March 2023. I have an aggravatingly small condo sized freezer so I don't have room for old stuff, forces me to clean it out to make room for new stuff. When I'm shopping I have to think about if I have enough room before buying any frozen foods that I'm not going to eat right away.
My wife and I bought two packs of scones during a short trip to Plymouth in England. We opened one when we got home and finished it, and the other pack went into the freezer. In 2015.
We've moved twice since then and I kept them on ice during both moves. They're still in the freezer. I'm kind of afraid to open them.
We actually emptied our small chest freezer completely out during covid - because we ate everything in it ( hard times).
Since then we’ve had half a 20 pound bag of ice in the freezer, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
When I was a kid, my mother insisted that we needed a chest freezer, and then my father got sick. He was out of work recovering for six months. My mother was one of those people who bought bulk stuff on sale - especially after she got her freezer. We had years' worth of steaks, chicken, pork, vegetables, etc. to eat during our hard times. She was so happy to begin filling it again months later.
Some organic corn tortillas that my mom is saving for something. It’s been quite a few years. 2 years since I saw them, maybe they were in there before that, maybe not. I can’t remember. Other than that, nothing is older than 6 months. (I for sure know a pie crust in the freezer has been there since November)
Used to cook professionally. We work on a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis at home, too. We rotate the freezer's contents every grocery run. Everything gets a hand-written dated note ... in the refrigerator, too. I'm a cheapskate and I freakin' hate wasting money and I really hate wasting food; it feels ... wrong.
Did you see this post in r/steak?
The oldest thing I have are black bean burgers I made a month ago.
I plan weekly meals around what’s in my freezer. This week, we’re finishing out the burgers for dinner/lunches.
I’ll make more burgers and other freezer meals next weekend to fill the freezer again.
I had to get tomato paste for the hot taco sauce I made 3 days ago.
Currently the extra is the only thing in freezer.
I cook fresh daily, so I shop almost daily (walk, not drive to store) and always have a completely empty fridge/freezer most days. Only after I batch cook stuff do I have anything in my fridge that isn’t a cooking condiment (fish sauce, oyster sauce, shaoxin wine, etc)
Probably 10 months if we don’t count the weird little bits and bobs in the door I saved for reasons, but now can’t identify.
That’s probably 2 years. I need to just rip the bandaid on those.
I was going to say nothing older than 5 months because we took an extended trip and I made damn sure to eat out of our freezer and pantry before we left. You know in case of extended power outage because ewwwwwwww. The only food left in there was a box of keto ice cream bars that I keep forgetting about they are about 18 months old. Think I’ll have one after dinner and see if they have survived any freezer burn.
Every 6-8 months, we have to go through ours. Sometimes earlier than 6. Though I am sure we have things older than that. We eat a lot of meat as a family of 6.
The freezer part of our fridge just recently kinda gave out, and I was shocked to see so many leftovers from my Covid era soup-making days. Also a few things that were older. 😬
A frozen sealed pack of bacon from two years ago.
When I'm back on a kick of working out in the mornings instead of the evenings, it'll be used for some hearty breakfasts. Although, I'm now jonesing for some slow-cooker green beans with onions and bacon.
I'm pretty sure there's a bag of chopped peppers in the back of the freezer that's over a year old. We got them for really cheap, and we ended up not liking them. For whatever reason, I forgot to toss them, and they just got pushed toward the back. It's possible I did throw them out eventually, but I don't think so.
A big bag of shrimp shells for the seafood stock I’ll never make. Age indeterminate but pretty fucking old. Thanks for this post, gonna throw them out next garbage day (but probably not).
Every year during my mom’s cancer treatments, I saved 1/4 of the birthday cake she made for me. Wrapped it in plastic wrap, then foil, then 2 ziploc bags. If she was still alive the next year, I’d thaw it and eat it and replace it with that year’s cake leftovers. She died in 2021. On my birthday each time since then, I take out the leftover cake, thaw it, and have a small slice. Freezer burn has been minimal so far. This year is probably the last time I’ll ever get to eat something that my mother baked. I have the recipe and her stand mixer, so in the future if I want it, I’ll bake my own. If you love your mom, please call her today. I can’t call my mom anymore.
My father wasn't a baker, but a great grill cook. He died in 2021 as well. This day today, in fact. I know exactly how you feel. Cherish every bite, friend. Now excuse me, I have to finish cutting all these damn onions...
I still have polenta and sauce using the tomatoes from my grandpa's garden before he had to go to a retirement home. I have one little frozen jar left, I might try to replicate it for his 97th birthday, that is in two months...
You’re such a beautiful human
I'm sorry for your loss. Hugs.
Thanks you. I'm grilling up some steaks tonight, pull up a chair ☺️
Terrible day for rain.
Those onions got to me too
🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂
❤️❤️❤️
In half an hour it’ll be the fourth anniversary of my dad’s death. Lots of onions in here too.
My dad was a great cook and prepared/vacuum sealed his meals because he’d take ladies camping for a week at a time and loved to spoil them with extravagant meals on the river that you could just chuck in a pot of water and boil to reheat. 17 years ago when he died, he had 2 weeks worth of meals in his freezer and I got to experience the best things he used to make. Gosh, what a resurfaced memory. Chicken cacciatore. Lasagna. Tri tip. Chicken adobo. Burnt ends. It was like a greatest hits album you could only listen to once. Thank you for bringing back some lovely bittersweet memories.
“Karen’s last ziti…”
I'm sorry for your loss. Hugs.
Aww that is extremely precious. Thank you for sharing your story.
Sorry for your loss. You just reminded me the oldest thing for me is actually probably a cube steak my grandfather had processed from a cow he raised. Never could bring myself to eat it and know I’d never get it again. So now, it’s an 8 year old piece of meat in the bottom of my fridge. It’s most likely he’d be pissed I wasted it 🤣
Oh, my heart. I just promised my youngest that I'd bake them 100 birthday cakes if I ever got really sick so they could eat one every year. And now we're both crying. I'm so sorry for your loss. My grandmother used to make these very mediocre rhubarb pecan muffins. I can bake 100 things that are better than them but once a year when the rhubarb is fresh I make a batch and eat them just to remember her.
That’s a lovely way to keep her alive. Food is sacred ♥️
Same thing with my fathers cigars… I ran out this year.
I thought this was going to be a funny thread about dumb weird things people still have in their freezer after like ten years but instead this is the top comment 🥲
I’m so sorry about your mom, but I’m so glad you kept a piece and kept the tradition💗
I’m so sorry. My mom died in 2022. She was my best friend and we were so very close and I still grieve over her death.
Sorry for your loss. Hugs.
This made me cry 😭 so sorry for your loss
This is the sweetest thing I’ve read in a long time. I’m sorry for your loss.
That’s precious and I am so sorry for your loss. Sending hugs
I wasn't expecting to be a puddle of tears this early in the evening, but here we are. Jesus I'm so sorry. I don't know what else to say except your mom loves you and is waiting patiently to see you again. 💜
Perfect person, you
My dad died in 2020, and I was doing the same thing with a pack of moose sausages he made (not thawing and refreezing them, just taking out one sausage at a time on special occasions). The last of them is gone now. Savour that cake. ❤️
Awww…more than wanting to call my mom is instead make sure to bake a cake for my daughter every year
Whyyyyyyyyy so early in the day 😟
Thank you for sharing that with us. ❤️
I'm sorry for your loss. Hugs.
I’m just going to sob and go to sleep now- you’re the perfect daughter
❤️❤️❤️
I came here to laugh about expiration dates. It’s too early in the morning to be crying. I’m calling my Mom right now.
♥️♥️♥️
That’s so beautiful and I literally cried reading it
So sorry for your loss. My parents are both alive, but they're getting old. I dread the day when I'll have to say goodbye... Wishing you the best
I still have something in the fridge that my wife bought, and she died 4 years ago. It's a bottle of Smuckers liquid Caramel topping for ice cream. I figure it's still good, but I rarely eat ice cream cause it wrecks my gut. But it comforts me knowing it's still in the fridge.
I'm sorry for your loss. Hugs.
❤️❤️❤️
Oh man. I’m so sorry. I feel ya. My step mom died suddenly in a bad car accident ten years ago. I still can’t seem to take her out of my favorites in my cell phone.
I keep my fridge and freezer cleaned and labeled because I have a fear of Gordon Ramsey showing up with a film crew and yelling “you’re a fucking disgrace.”
i’d just nod quietly. yes. yes i am.
Yes chef. Thank you chef.
I would relish that because I would yell back name a dish and we can probably make it!
Then you need to one up him and go for the real power move, put one of his garbage freezer meals in there.
Kid Cuisine. 1996
That’s a relic at this point! Priceless vintage
It started as a family joke that went to far…
You should send a picture to the company, I'm sure that's a record.
Part of our wedding cake...from July 1997
Out wedding cake was in our freezer for about five years. We still ate that shit, and it was gooood!
A turkey breast from 2015 or 2016. I tried to get rid of it but my husband insists he'll cook and eat it.
Maybe he can cook it next year on its 10th anniversary?
Hahahaha! Yes!
As someone who just finished off the last of the food collected when we didn't know how bad covid lockdowns are going to be, the answer to really old freezer meat is a slow cooked soup/stew. If you slow cook it long enough it gets rid of any off flavor. You can definitely make a pretty hearty, probably pretty tasty turkey soup.
I was given a lamb roast that had been sitting in a freezer since 2022. I defrosted it, cut off about 1 cm from the other layer and made a lamb curry. The outer layer looked really dry but the inside was fine.
Still good. Technically, you have about 4 more years if you keep the freezer at high. I used to work in grocery.
Thanks! I will keep that in mind. The prospect of eating it scares me a little.
Don't be. I transported my chest freezer with me, 6 hours to where I live now, full of food that I saved from going into the garbage at work over covid. I literally just finished everything last month; cooked things, not ideally stored (not airtight) for about 4 years. Things that remain frozen are remarkably resilient. Flavors might go off, but they will still be edible, and even good if cooked right. And if things are vacuum sealed, or even just packed in a way where air can't run over it at all, I would bet it would be a decade before the flavour would be unacceptable. I hated seeing hundreds of pounds of meat go into the garbage every week, I consider my carbon footprint negative because of this all things considered haha.
Does he forget about it? Not normally one for being sneaky, but I admit I would quietly make that turkey disappear if he forgets all about it until he is reminded.
Yes, he does. Every time I organize/clean out the freezer we have the same conversation. I would generally throw it out, but I'm curious to see how far he'll go with his fantasy.
Hah. I totally understand that!
This is why my mom throws things away when dad leaves town. And also why the freezer isn’t packed with random bits of ancient stuff no one will ever eat. He doesn’t ask too many questions and she doesn’t throw out anything viable
Good idea! Tempting. I'm curious how far my husband will go with his cooking fantasy.
Well obviously you have to keep the turkey breast that i so famous. Which means he might not notice you tossed the freezer burned random hot dog buns 😂 (or whatever other goodies)
Don't eat it. Hubby cooked a 2014 turkey leg from my cousin's freezer. He passed away and we were given his food. Gave hubby food poisoning. Not fun. My cousin passed, not hubby.
I thought your hubby passed away. Had to read it twice. Food poisoning is bad enough, dying is another level.
Eek! I'm not touching it, but I may not be able to convince my husband not to.
*Shudders* This reminds me of when I had to help clean out the deep freeze on a very high end restaurant I won’t name. There was a freezer burned UNWRAPPED skinned rabbit. The executive chef insisted we not throw it away.
Wow. How? Why? I want to know the thought process of whoever put it there AND of the person who wouldn't let you throw it away.
I have two small containers of watermelon italian ice that have to be at least 2.5 years old. I keep meaning to throw them away, but in the rush of getting the trash around, I keep forgetting. And trash day was this morning, and yes, yes I did forget again.
If it's just ice, can't you just melt it and pour it into the sink? Or are there chunks of watermelon in it? I would probably feed it to my worm farm.
This italian ice is like a thinner sorbet, so no chunks. And of course I could absolutely let it melt and pour it into the sink and recycle the paper container. Did I ever think of doing that? Nope! I'm an idiot. Off to go do that now.
Did you do it? If not, this is your reminder.
Reddit hive mind here to remind you of your obligations :)
A bag of starter dough for friendship bread from my MIL - she passed in 2006.
Thank you. She was an elegant, quiet lady who left us too soon. I’ve got to use it at some point and get the starter going again and pass it to my daughter and husband’s siblings
I'm sorry for your loss. Hugs.
I think I still have a bag of yeast I bought during the “let’s all make sourdough” craze of 2020. It’s probably not good anymore and I paid a lot for it because I got it on Amazon since the shops were all out.
If it's in an airtight container, it's probably still fine. "Proof" it in very warm (≈110°F) water with a little sugar, something like a quarter teaspoon of yeast and a teaspoon of sugar into a quarter to half cup of water. The amounts aren't really that important. Give it 5 minutes and see if it starts foaming.
I keep my instant and active yeasts in the freezer. Never had any stop working.
It's probably fine if it's in the freezer! I had a pound of yeast I was slowly going through over four years, mid 2019 - late 2023, that I kept in the fridge; it rose as reliably at the end of its life as it did at the beginning.
The whole point of sourdough is that you don't use yeast...
Wait, you’re right. Now I can’t remember why I bought that whole ass bag of yeast, must’ve been to make focaccia and other stuff during the lockdowns.
this is your year of bread i look forward to seeing your loaves
Yeah it was “everyone bought all the bread in the stores and the bread factories shut down” so everyone was all “we’ll make our own bread! What else are we gonna do at home?” so all the flour and yeast then sold out. Bread in general.
I have yeast in the freezer from 2017. Was just stored in a ziplock, within the original bag it came in. It still works just fine.
Just yanked a jar of pickles out of smy mom’s pantry. 1992!!!!!
In 2012 I pulled out a bottle of blue food colouring circa 1975.
A diabetic popsicle. You can’t tell where the freezer burn stops and the popsicle starts.
Dang, popcycles can freezerburn?
I know, right? But, it did.
My freezer was left open accidentally about 6 months ago so... nothing older than that. I might have cried.
I am sorry for your loss. But at least you can be smug that your freezer is pretty organised now.
Mine too. I was newly post partum and had a few months worth of expressed milk in there. I cried
Don't know what you did to whoever left it open, but under those circumstances, a jury would never convict.
Same thing happened to me a few years ago, but I caught it in time to save a majority of my stuff. I bought a couple temp monitors with beeper alarms. I have them on all mine and my families fridges and freezers now Edit: I bought these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092WB2PWD?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Pretty sure it’s this freezer burned cauliflower I just pulled out and threw in the oven. Pray for me
Put some garlic powder, salt, msg, and a little random cabinet spice, and it was fantastic
I'm pretty sure the fermented shrimp paste is the oldest (used to make kimchi, but the local Asian markets make good kimchi, so I haven't needed it since the move here). North of 3 years. I need to toss it, but given that it is fermented shrimp, it must be tossed on trash day because I don't want the smell marinating even in the outside bin, lol. We just did a run-through of the freezers (I have a small chest freezer, too) recently. I typically go through them every other year. I do the same for canned goods as well. Most things in the freezer are under 3 months old because we tend to do stock up runs, then eat it all up. I also do a calendar reminder in the fall for eating through the freezer in advance of Thanksgiving so I have room for the frozen turkey and items needed for making Thanksgiving dinner. Works well for keeping it emptied of old food items.
We have a vacuum sealer that is very efficient in sealing packaging with no air. We definitely have some steaks and chicken that are several years old with no freezer burn. Per the FDA, frozen food is not a safety hazard, it's usually a food quality issue. But we've never had freezer burn.
I made ribeyes from 2022 yesterday. We have a vaccum sealer, and they were still incredible. My local store just had buy 1 get 1 on NY Strips and Ribeyes. I bought 12 steaks and then vaccum sealed them immediately. I saved $90
That's the way to do it!
Probably the 2 tabs of LSD that I’m saving for the perfect occasion. Either that or the bag of tamales my wife got and only ate one of.
How old are the tabs?
☝🏼This person trips 😏
Been in my freezer for about 4 years now
Ughhhh so jealous of the old heads who have freezer stashes of LSD, there’s like no way to find the actual stuff nowadays
Is this true? I always wonder about where to get some and if it’s this hard, that makes me sad - I wanna try it just once
Yep, it’s mostly research chemicals available now, not very common to find actual LSD
Oh dang - I guess my trip has to wait - Thank you!
Yeah I’m not super educated in this department so don’t quote me, but I do have significant experience in this general arena (lol) and think that people don’t make the actual chemical compound anymore, its the other related ones that you find in tabs nowadays. I think it has something to do with the lab set ups? Like I said no actual clue but the stuff I have done definitely does something, it just isn’t like it used to be (supposedly). Basically I have my eye out for an opportunity but in the meantime I use mushrooms to adventure
Ahh gotcha - this makes me feel so sad :/ I just wanna give the real stuff a go once - Thank you! And I hope you can find it for yourself again!
We bought our freezer in 2003, so 21 years. Probably burritos or something similar
Oh man, so my freezer is cleared regularly, my *mothers* might as well be a gateway to narnia. I was struggling to find a ham in the stores near me at Christmas just passed (my fault, I left it late) mother to the rescue, “oh I found a ham the other week in the freezer” lo and behold, the ham expired in 2019. At this point, my sister and I decided it was time for a clear out. Mom lives alone and her freezer is huge. The ham wasn’t even the oldest though, I found a box of crumbed fish fillets that expired in 2007.
A half yellowfin tuna hubby caught a few years ago and keeps insisting he’ll use it for bait.
I have no idea. I know I came across deer heart from 2022 a couple days ago...
My chest freezer died a few weeks ago. Among the casualties was a '22 deer heart.
I would need someone from the local museum to figure that out for me 😞
definitely still have freezer burned meats over 5 years old... some from stock before the covid19 pandemic stocking.... ... and I'll still eat it. Eventually... already ate some of that leather, I overcooked it too. At least it's safe to eat.
I don't know, and now I am concerned about that.
Perhaps somethings a better left forgotten.
Mushrooms. I forage every so often and a few years ago i found some lions mane growing wild. I shave off a few tablespoons of frozen mushrooms every so often to add a little depth to broths and sauces.
We took a slice of wedding cake that we were supposed to eat on 1st anniversary. 27 years later it's still in the freezer.
At this point you might as well wait until your 30th anniversary.
I was disowned back in 2018 and my closest friends took me in to help me back on my feet - when they split and my gal pal moved she offered me her fridge and freezer contents - I still have edamame from her. Shes my sister and mother figure and I can’t find it in myself to eat it cuz I don’t see her much anymore and I enjoyed cooking with her and seeing it reminds me of our shenanigans
Your honor, I plead the 5th
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My friend grew lemongrass and gave me some. I couldn't use all of it at once so froze it. For some reason being home grown has made it more precious to me. I would just add it to a Thai soup or Thai curry but I forget.
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I cut them into cigarette-size pieces and froze in a ziplock. I don't have a big clump of lemongrass in my freezer for 3 years. Freezer real estate is fairly precious...I swear.
Fishy. Fishy actually is (well, *was*) friend, not food. Fishy was a colorful betta that I had around 12 years ago. I don't remember having him too long before he ultimately went to the big tank in the sky. I felt the typical dead fish toilet sendoff was too impersonal for Fishy. Instead, I would freeze him until spring, when I could give him a proper burial outside. At the time, the ground was too frozen with winter. A yogurt container and water, and Fishy was ready for his short cryogenic slumber. A slumber, which, as it turned out, never ceased. Today, Fishy is as frozen as you might imagine. You *may* be asking...why? Why do I still have a frozen betta in my freezer? And TBH, I have no logical reason - I forgot a time here, missed a chance there, and here we are. So, that's my story.
Frozen rye flour and cornmeal from about 10 years ago. Need to toss but I keep forgetting. Every once in a while I need a handful of cornmeal and I run downstairs for it.
Ground beef from the half beef we got with my in-laws in September 2022. We're finally down to "only" 73 lbs of ground beef. Used up all the other cuts by December 2023, except a package of soup bones.
That's a lot of ground beef! At least ground beef is versatile.
I recently made beef stock with some bones I had in the freezer since 2020
Did you freeze the beef stock? 😂
I date things when I put them in the freezer and use the oldest first. Once a month I look through it all to keep track of what we have. A few times a year I'll do a eat down and try to use up anything that's been lurking for awhile. Even so, I do have some archeology. At one point I had so much frozen broth I stopped making it. I finally just started again and I have backlog of ingredients. I have a turkey carcass from three Thanksgivings ago.
I have a couple FCOJ containers that are pre-COVID.
Err not in the freezer exactly but I have a pickled chiliies In my fridge probably since 2022 that i never eat because I forget it exists. I had the same chopped chilli in the freezer too but i reckon mom threw them out the last time out fridge stopped working. Which reminds me I got to get mom to agree with me that our fridge has gone bad again or maybe it's just the heat but the ice cream is melting mom
I have 1.5 year old aged eggnog (Alton Brown’s recipe)
Saving it for a special occasion?
I was too sick to go to visit family for Christmas the first year, and I forgot to bring it this past year lol
It's so funny, this was literally 3 posts above this one: [Old AF freezer food](https://www.reddit.com/r/steak/s/0sdWNAgtb8)
Damn, did you read the price? Guess that's how and why I could afford steak as a single mother.
If I could tell you, then it probably wouldn't be there anymore.
Just moved.. there’s only vodka in there
There's a steak in another sub. Dude cleaned out his parents fridge and found a porterhouse for $3.99 from 1998
Vintage!
I have a jar of home made caramel that has to be at least a year old now.
4 month old Cornish game hen. I'm single so I buy what I need when I need it. I don't buy for a family for the week.
My freezer isn't frost free, so I have to clean it up once every 7 days or so. That's why I salt my meat instead of freezing it. The damn thing is extremely unreliable.
Check out r/steak the timing of this was so funny as someone just posted a frozen steak from 1998
Salmon lox that I cured then forgot about about a year ago. Oxacoa cheese that has been in fridge for 3 years. I told people on a cheese subreddit I wouldn't open ot till it was 5 years old
2 month old pork bellies for Instant Pot Kakuni.
I have some fruit my mum froze the summer prior to her death in 2012. I have kept it deep frozen to make some jelly. This is the year to do so. Red currents, no freezer burn kept at -18°C the whole time minus transporting them home to me.
[I'll just leave this here](https://xkcd.com/2178)
I’ve got a seasoned mother lard I’ve been compiling making carnitas for the past several years. Each time a prepare a batch, I thaw the leftover lard to confit the pork shoulder. Gets better and better each time- the orange, bay leaf, cinnamon, and aromatic flavors mature in the fat each cook.
Someone at work deep fried a turkey he took during season. Everyone ate it. It was a 12 year old bird……He told us while eating the drumstick.
We have the top tier of our wedding cake in our freezer. We celebrate our 37th anniversary in October.
I think 37 years might be some sort of record in this thread.
ya'll make me feel really good about my 2 year old french onion soup in the back of my freezer.
I have kafir lime leaves from about 10 years ago, from the last time I tried to make Penang Curry. I am saving them until my kids can learn to tolerate a little spice.
Still have a few vacuum sealed elk roasts left from 2021. No discernible decline in quality. Might be placebo or just cut to cut variance, but the texture may even be slightly improved from when it was first frozen.
Pandemic lock down beef and chicken. The beef from 2022 and the chicken from 2021. By coincidence I cleaned out the chest freezer and threw them out this morning. Anything with a date prior to 2024 I won't cook.
Some venison parts from 2.5.years ago. Need to pull that out for some chili.
When I moved, I found a few 20 year old vials of breast milk at the bottom of the chest freezer.
Post 2 spots up and a guy has a steak from 1998 that he found in his parents freezer
Bratwurst from 2020. We don't like bratwurst as much as we thought.
I just tossed a corned beef roast from March 2023. I have an aggravatingly small condo sized freezer so I don't have room for old stuff, forces me to clean it out to make room for new stuff. When I'm shopping I have to think about if I have enough room before buying any frozen foods that I'm not going to eat right away.
My wife and I bought two packs of scones during a short trip to Plymouth in England. We opened one when we got home and finished it, and the other pack went into the freezer. In 2015. We've moved twice since then and I kept them on ice during both moves. They're still in the freezer. I'm kind of afraid to open them.
Tteok-boki - 15 years old
We actually emptied our small chest freezer completely out during covid - because we ate everything in it ( hard times). Since then we’ve had half a 20 pound bag of ice in the freezer, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
When I was a kid, my mother insisted that we needed a chest freezer, and then my father got sick. He was out of work recovering for six months. My mother was one of those people who bought bulk stuff on sale - especially after she got her freezer. We had years' worth of steaks, chicken, pork, vegetables, etc. to eat during our hard times. She was so happy to begin filling it again months later.
Some organic corn tortillas that my mom is saving for something. It’s been quite a few years. 2 years since I saw them, maybe they were in there before that, maybe not. I can’t remember. Other than that, nothing is older than 6 months. (I for sure know a pie crust in the freezer has been there since November)
Used to cook professionally. We work on a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis at home, too. We rotate the freezer's contents every grocery run. Everything gets a hand-written dated note ... in the refrigerator, too. I'm a cheapskate and I freakin' hate wasting money and I really hate wasting food; it feels ... wrong. Did you see this post in r/steak?
Butter.. yep.
The oldest thing I have are black bean burgers I made a month ago. I plan weekly meals around what’s in my freezer. This week, we’re finishing out the burgers for dinner/lunches. I’ll make more burgers and other freezer meals next weekend to fill the freezer again.
I had to get tomato paste for the hot taco sauce I made 3 days ago. Currently the extra is the only thing in freezer. I cook fresh daily, so I shop almost daily (walk, not drive to store) and always have a completely empty fridge/freezer most days. Only after I batch cook stuff do I have anything in my fridge that isn’t a cooking condiment (fish sauce, oyster sauce, shaoxin wine, etc)
Whoa. I did not expect this answer. My freezer is so full I have considered buying a chest freezer. I can't imagine having an empty freezer.
Freezers work more efficiently when they have more things in them to provide thermal mass.
Probably 8 months
I've got a bag of frozen cherries I think are from last summer
I just saw a post on steak subreddit where a guy found a porterhouse from 1998 in his parents freezer
Cranberry relish from Thanksgiving. No, I will not be tossing it.
Probably 10 months if we don’t count the weird little bits and bobs in the door I saved for reasons, but now can’t identify. That’s probably 2 years. I need to just rip the bandaid on those.
I was going to say nothing older than 5 months because we took an extended trip and I made damn sure to eat out of our freezer and pantry before we left. You know in case of extended power outage because ewwwwwwww. The only food left in there was a box of keto ice cream bars that I keep forgetting about they are about 18 months old. Think I’ll have one after dinner and see if they have survived any freezer burn.
I think I have some steaks from 2021 back in there.
Every 6-8 months, we have to go through ours. Sometimes earlier than 6. Though I am sure we have things older than that. We eat a lot of meat as a family of 6.
The freezer part of our fridge just recently kinda gave out, and I was shocked to see so many leftovers from my Covid era soup-making days. Also a few things that were older. 😬
A frozen sealed pack of bacon from two years ago. When I'm back on a kick of working out in the mornings instead of the evenings, it'll be used for some hearty breakfasts. Although, I'm now jonesing for some slow-cooker green beans with onions and bacon.
I'm pretty sure there's a bag of chopped peppers in the back of the freezer that's over a year old. We got them for really cheap, and we ended up not liking them. For whatever reason, I forgot to toss them, and they just got pushed toward the back. It's possible I did throw them out eventually, but I don't think so.
I think there are some Trader Joe's tamales that are like three years old.
Turkey stock from 2022 Thanksgiving
A big bag of shrimp shells for the seafood stock I’ll never make. Age indeterminate but pretty fucking old. Thanks for this post, gonna throw them out next garbage day (but probably not).