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Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 10:12 pm
by Gob
A tin of Heinz kidney soup dating back nearly 50 years has been donated to Cardiff Foodbank.
At 10 old pennies (10d), the tin would have set you back just shy of one shilling, the equivalent of roughly 5 new pennies (5p).
The particular brand of soup was discontinued by Heinz more than 35 years ago and the price label indicates it was first sold before 1971.
Cardiff Foodbank said it was the oldest item it has ever received.
Helen Bull, from the food bank, said: "It will probably still be in date, that's the funny thing, but will I eat it? Absolutely not."
The kidney soup is not the only considerably out-of-date item the food bank has received.
A tin of carrots with a 13p label, a tin of corn from 1982 and some pasta from the 1970s have all been collected previously.
Ms Bull added: "People's hearts are in the right place. Unfortunately when they are clearing out cupboards they do not always check the dates."
Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 3:21 am
by RayThom
Hmm, hmm, good! Nothing beats a great bout of botulism poisoning.
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:04 pm
by Big RR
It would acutlaly be interesting for Heinz or someone else to examine the contents and see if any contamination has occurred; the lid looks like it may be bulged, so it could be, but I'd like to know if standard canning practices could safely keep the food for 50+ years.
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:36 pm
by ex-khobar Andy
Was kidney soup ever good to eat?
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:54 pm
by RayThom
ex-khobar Andy wrote:Was kidney soup ever good to eat?
First get one fresh lamb's kidney... and boil the piss out of it.
I remember when my mom used to prepare this "delicacy" for my demanding Brit father. There wasn't a place in the house that escaped its nauseating stench. Gagging and throwing up in my mouth almost the entire time. And then my father would turn blue in the face while yelling at me to eat it. "Your mother slaves over a hot stove for hours and you refuse to eat what she makes for you? Go down to the cellar and don't come up until you finish it, you stupid, ungrateful, moron..."
Or how about vinegar, egg, and cheese? Does anyone here have any exposure to this stinky mess?
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:02 pm
by Big RR
I have to admit having eaten steak and kidney pie at several London pubs/restaurants and enjoying it, but I don't think I'd ever eat kidney soup if I had anything else to eat (well maybe I would if the other choice was marmite or vegemite, but not much else I can think of). so I would never question whether kidney soup is "good" to eat.
And Ray, my grandmother used to make a Danish "delicacy" around Christmas called lutefisk--it was made from lye cured cod, and no matter how long you soaked it, it still tasted of lye and smelled up the house with its cooking. Around Christmas Eve I would eat a small piece of it (we all would) but I don't think anyone ever liked it--eating it was more of a duty to the "old country", it is the only thing my childhood dog would not eat so we couldn't slip it under the table to him.
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:10 pm
by BoSoxGal
I had to try lutefisk while living out in Montana, lots of Swedes and Norwegians and other Scandinavians out there - I was given some at a church dinner and nearly choked on it, disgusting stuff. Apparently it's very rarely eaten in Scandinavia - mostly consumed here in the US in church basements.
I cook liver once or twice a month for my dog and my client's dog - they LOVE it, but the stench is disgusting, so I can imagine how bad kidney smells.
I don't consider it 'good-hearted' to donate 50 year old canned food to the food bank - seems far more dismissive of poor people than anything else.
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 4:04 pm
by Crackpot
RayThom wrote:ex-khobar Andy wrote:Was kidney soup ever good to eat?
First get one fresh lamb's kidney... and boil the piss out of it.
Quite literally
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 4:16 pm
by Big RR
I don't consider it 'good-hearted' to donate 50 year old canned food to the food bank - seems far more dismissive of poor people than anything else.
when you think what sort of a person who would keep a can of soup for 50 years, I sincerely doubt anything negative was intended or even thought. My guess is it was a rather strange (possibly mentally challenged) person trying the "help out" or someone clearing mom's pantry (likely after she died) and placing everything in a box and bringing it to food bank without looking at it.
As for lutefisk, the only time we "ate" it was a Christmas eve dinner--I rarely even saw it in the stores except before Christmas. As I said, we looked at eating it as a duty to our ancestors (and we always joked the invented it just so they could laugh at our eating it when they watched from the great beyond).
Liver is a matter of personal taste, I like it if it's prepared right (mainly by me), but no one else in the family dies, including the dog, so I rarely eat it. Cooking it could raise a smell (less if you cooked it quickly), but I do think kidney would be worse because you probably have to cook it slowly to remove the piss.
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:55 pm
by Gob
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:56 pm
by Gob
Big RR wrote:
when you think what sort of a person who would keep a can of soup for 50 years, I sincerely doubt anything negative was intended or even thought.
I dread to think what my sister found when clearing out my late mother's kitchen cupboards....
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 11:02 pm
by rubato
On one of my visits to my dad last year I threw out a cupboard full of kitchen herbs and spices which had sat untouched for 45 years* and a bottle of 15-year old olive oil. There must be some state of decay of olive oil past 'rancid'; I know what it smells like but not what it is called.
yrs,
rubato
*When my mother went blind she stopped cooking.
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 11:12 pm
by MGMcAnick
Big RR wrote: but no one else in the family dies, including the dog, so I rarely eat it.
HUH?
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 1:40 am
by MajGenl.Meade
He likes hot dogs, cold
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:59 am
by Joe Guy
MGMcAnick wrote:Big RR wrote: but no one else in the family dies, including the dog, so I rarely eat it.
HUH?
I'm sure he meant
'Does' unless he likes his liver super fresh...
Re: Thanks, but no thanks...
Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:53 am
by Big RR
Indeed I did, but it is an interesting typo.