This was the food cupboard on the 1st of May ...
... and this was it on the 3rd June.
I decided to put these photos on a post more for my benefit really so I can see how I'm doing. I've been really trying not to move things around when spaces appear, but the urge is great and a few things seem to have switched places.
Nothing has been added to the cupboard except my latest prescription of Vitamin D tablets and the baking potato in the little white bag, it needed to be out of the basket and the light and in a darker place as it was starting to sprout.
Oh, and I have just spotted a single pack of Aldi Wheat Biscuits, Weetabix by any other name. My little tin only holds two and a half of the inner packs and I topped it up the other day from the box on the little drawer unit.
There is also one jar of Lemon Marmalade missing from the cupboard since the photo was taken as I opened it for a slice of toast yesterday, before we set off for Morecambe and the annual Vegan Food Fair. Once opened it lives in the fridge ... due to it being three years old now.
Happy Birthday Little Miss Marmalade, you're still as delicious as the day that I made you. 🎂
Sue xx
I've got a few jars of homemade jam and chutneys that are 4 or 5 years old in one of my larder cupboards....not sure whether they'd still be edible. We hardly ever eat any of that nowadays. I'm a bit dubious about giving it away when it's so old, but it seems a shame to bin it.
ReplyDeleteSee below for ideas to use them up!
DeleteI should imagine they would be fine, just check the top for mould and have a little taste. Alan's currently working his way through a 2018 jar of Fig jam that I made. :-)
DeleteWe often eat homemade jam and marmalade two or three years old. As long as it smells fine and has no smell. Oddly enough, we are eating some commercial jam a year after it’s date and it is practically tasteless.
ReplyDeleteI have to go on taste alone these days as I have no sense of smell at all. But when in doubt I ask Alan to have a sniff. Thank goodness I do have a sense of taste. Yes, weirdly shop-bought jam, except for the ones with alcohol in, do lose their flavour don't they.
DeleteMy home-made marmalades and chutneys seem to last well - but they go into the fridge once opened. I'm less likely to overlook them - or push them to the back of the cupboard. I think it was Jamie O who suggested putting a dollop of chutney into casseroles and other meat dishes for added flavour. I also use Marmalade in cakes or as a topping for sponge puds. That way you don't have half used jars hanging about for ages
ReplyDeleteAny marmalade makes a lovely and less sickly sweet layer in a sponge cake doesn't it. Oh yes, sponge puds with marmalade or jam, and cooked quickly in the microwave are very tasty aren't they.
DeleteI used to like doing Spot The Difference in puzzle mags!
ReplyDeleteCoincidently I added a tin of orange home cook mamade to my shopping list yesterday as I'm on my last jar. I'm thinking of added crystallised ginger pieces for a change. The last lot had a tin of grapefruit - I never seem to make it just as it is anymore.
I find once I start I can't put down the puzzle until I have found all the differences. It's a really good idea to add to the Mamade and really make the marmalade your own. Didn't you do some with whisky last year?
DeleteThere is something very satisfying about a neatly arranged store cupboard, I really need to shop from mine this month as last month was an expensive one, having to walk everywhere for two weeks found me shopping at our local co-op, boy was that expensive but Phil can drive again now so I can go back to Aldi but as I have enjoyed the extra walking I will walk the mile there and he can pick me up as I couldn't carry the shopping. We love home made preserves and pickles, no jam or marmalade here but plenty of chutneys and pickled onions so a few ploughman's lunches this summer :)
ReplyDeleteYou can fit so much more in when it's all arranged neatly as well. :-)
DeleteSummer just calls for ploughman's lunches doesn't it.
I remember reading about a guy in America who decided that to lose weight he would walk the mile to his nearest store to get the makings of every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner, so there and back before eating any meal. Within a year he had lost a LOT of weight and gotten himself so much fitter.
Marmalade is one of those things that definitely improves over time. I keep my opened jars in the fridge too although maybe it isn't necessary - I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI love an organised cupboard. xx
I guess as long as you have used the right quantity of sugar to fruit it would still keep well out of the fridge while you worked through the opened jar. But seeing it in the fridge makes me want to use it up quicker. You can't beat a nice tidy cupboard can you. :-)
DeleteWell done, but definitely more to use up. You did very well. My opened jars of jam are stored in the fridge as well.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Yes, lots more to use up .. but I'm not complaining. :-)
DeleteIt's just easier having it there once it's open isn't it.
I see gaps!
ReplyDeleteWe eat anything that smells okay and doesn't have a layer of mould over it (although I have been known to scrape it off and eat it). I rarely eat veggie sausages but they're lovely cooked in the oven and tossed in a frying pan with some marmalade for the last few minutes. xxx
Haha ... yes there are gaps, at last!!
DeleteI don't have a sense of smell since Covid so I do have to be a bit more careful with some things, but even though I've tasted some out of date foods I'm still here .... for now. ;-)
Now sausages and marmalade sounds like a really good idea, I'll give that a try.
Home made marmalade definitely gets better with age. What I've had to learn to accept is that if I put my homemades into jars not quite set or overcooked no amount of storage will improve them!!!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
When mine don't set they just get tipped out back into the pan and re-boiled for five minutes. If by any chance they don't set after that they are not jam or marmalade, but now they sauce for pouring over ice-cream.
DeleteAs a child, I thought all jam and marmalade had a greenish/blue skin on the top that had to be scraped off before the jam could be used. My gran made jam of every kind and you were allowed butter or jam on a slice of bread but not both! Catriona
ReplyDeleteHaha, I remember cheese being stripped of it's outer edges to get rid of the 'green' too. I rarely have butter AND jam on a slice of toast together, it's one or the other for me. Lots of jam or marmalade straight on hot toast is delicious.
Delete