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Message |
    
Newneighbor
Citizen
Username: Newneighbor
Post Number: 115
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 10:01 am: | 
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Once I open a pint of cottage cheese, how long does it keep? |
Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 2042
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 10:13 am: |
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until it grows mold?
sorry, that wasn't very helpful, but that's basically how long it lasts in my house.... |
Eats Shoots & Leaves
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 3206
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 10:22 am: |
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Tip from my ex-step-mother-in-law:
Store the container upside down on its lid in the refrigerator. Makes a tighter seal so less air gets in and it stays fresher longer. Works great with sour cream and yogurt, also. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1568
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 10:46 am: |
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ESL: Just a thought, but when you open the container to use the product, wouldn't that the be time that the bacteria would enter? So when you turn the container upside down, the air (where the bad stuff lives) is now in contact with the bottom of the cheese/sour cream. So if mold is going to grow it will grow on the bottom. Now when you take the container out of the fridge, you flip it over and open it and all you see is the top, where there wasn't air in constant contact with the cheese, so it appears to be fine. But at the bottom, I suspect will be mold, but you won't see it, unless you push your spoon down to the bottom or stir it.
I'm fine with this. I often cut the mold off of a block of cheese and keep eating it. I'm not so fine scooping out mold off of sour cream and continuing to use it, however. If you are going to do this, just be aware that the upside down trick probably isn't giving you more shelf life, but instead is just hiding the problem. That's my theory anyway, and I'm sticking to it, until it's properly debunked. |
Pdg
Citizen
Username: Pdg
Post Number: 810
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 10:58 am: |
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Here's a useful link which provides all sorts of guidance regarding food.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Food_Product_Dating/index.asp
In addition to these guidelines, I always follow my dad's advice, "When in doubt, throw it out!"
I suffered through two weeks of salmonella food poisoning while in college and lost 17 pounds within one week (and I was slender to begin with). I was poisoned through take-out food, but my point in mentioning it is you NEVER want to risk getting food poisoning! 
Another tip re: cottage cheese. To make sure we have fresher cottage cheese, because nto everyone in our family eats it, I buy the little red single-serve 4 packs - I think it is Breakstone's brand. |
BGS
Citizen
Username: Bgs
Post Number: 859
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 11:25 am: |
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ESL- I always do this with cottage cheese, pot(ricotta) cheese, sour cream and yogurt... I believe the upside down thing does extend the lifespan of these items. It works for me!
BGS |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 13416
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 11:36 am: |
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If you leave sour cream out too long, does it go good?
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Eats Shoots & Leaves
Citizen
Username: Mfpark
Post Number: 3207
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 11:39 am: |
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Cute, Tom. Very Stephen Wrightish.
Alley, I can't explain it, but it always has worked for us. I agree it is illogical, and I posited the better seal only because I can think of no other reason why it works. And BGS has had the same experience. Some things I just have to accept on faith. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 13418
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 11:41 am: |
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I think it works because it prevents intake of new air and exhaust of old air. The change of the air allows introduction of more bacteria.
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Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1573
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 12:49 pm: |
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I agree that more air is bad, but the lid prevents air flow I would think. Also I think enough bad stuff enters into it the first time you open it as soon as you break the seal for it to go bad. Each time you open it (or leave it out of the fridge for any extended period of time) just makes it go bad faster.
Did you guys understand my theory? I'm suggesting that the mold is growing in the upside down container, but you just don't see it, because the mold gets covered when you flip it over to eat some. You wouldn't know the mold was there unless you stirred it up, which I suspect you guys don't do. It would be a cheap, fun and easy science project, don't you think?
While I'm sure mold isn't good for you to eat, I suspect I've eaten my fair share of it over the years and I can't remember getting sick from it. Let's not forget the old adage, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And my other personal favorite that I say after I've obeyed the 3 second rule and someone protests, "we all eat a pinch of dirt before we die". |
CLK
Supporter
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 2125
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 1:31 pm: |
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Look here for a list of how long different foods will keep in the fridge:
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC3520.htm
# soft cheese (such as brie, feta), cottage cheese, ricotta, milk -- 1 week
# yogurt -- 7 to 14 days. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1578
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 2:02 pm: |
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OK, Feta lasts a VERY long time in the fridge. Same with Brie. If Brie gets hairy, I just chop off the hairy part and continue to use it. I will not however do the same thing with Sour Cream. |
HOMMELL
Citizen
Username: Hommell
Post Number: 100
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 2:09 pm: |
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To quote Chef Blackstock, they're all just "Gone off milk and bugs living together in perfect harmony."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009NSCTY/qid=1144260526/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002 -4830927-9564863?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130 |
BGS
Citizen
Username: Bgs
Post Number: 870
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 2:20 pm: |
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Alleygater-When my children were little and something fell, I brushed it off and used to tell my father in law that you eat a pound of dirt before you die.He retorted once that at the rate they were going, it would be a pound of dirt before they were five...That was some 20 years ago and they are healthier for it I believe!!!
I also chop mold off cheese... |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2792
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 2:23 pm: |
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I thought you eat a pound of dirt a year? And a few spiders... |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1580
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 3:23 pm: |
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BGS: pound or pinch it's the same sentiment.  |
BGS
Citizen
Username: Bgs
Post Number: 881
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 4:12 pm: |
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I agree....
I think that I changed it to a pound because it seemed that we were always dropping something and the pinch was used up very quickly so I had to make it more than a pinch...
Good memories though with that expression.... |
Newneighbor
Citizen
Username: Newneighbor
Post Number: 116
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 8:44 pm: |
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LOL - back to the original question: once opened, sounds like you can keep cottage cheese about a week???? |
Pdg
Citizen
Username: Pdg
Post Number: 823
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - 10:24 pm: |
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My mom said it was a "peck of dirt before you die." (I still don't know what a peck is...) |
BGS
Citizen
Username: Bgs
Post Number: 887
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 6:29 am: |
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Pdg- A peck is something like a bushel basket...far more than a pound or a pinch...I like that even better!!!! ;-) B |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 13444
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 8:25 am: |
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two pecks equals one bushel
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Pdg
Citizen
Username: Pdg
Post Number: 824
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 8:55 am: |
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But - do you know how many pickled peppers will fit into a peck? 
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greenetree
Supporter
Username: Greenetree
Post Number: 7157
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, April 6, 2006 - 9:13 am: |
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My mother is the queen of "there's nothing wrong with that". My brothers and I have contests to see who can find the oldest thing in her fridge/freezer/pantry. She's of the opinion that years ago, before all the 'germ freaks' started making headlines, people were just fine.
I'm talking 10 y/o cream cheese in the freezer, 3 month old yogurt in the fridge. Since she now has to be careful with anything that could give her a bacterial infection (chemo immunosupression issues) she has reluctantly agreed to throw things out "a little sooner".
She comes by it honestly. In March, my grandmother offered me milk for my tea that had a sell-by date of December. "But it isn't opened so it should be fine" she said.
Because of our "delicate tummy" issues growing up, my brothers and I are all obsessed with throwing out old food. One won't eat leftovers at all. I give Chinese food and cooked meat 24 hours. Non-meat leftovers get 3 days. Dairy goes when it has been open 7 days, even if it doesn't smell or look like it is starting to go. I will keep hard cheese & cut the mold off. Bread goes when it is open two weeks, even if there is no sign of mold.
Some of my greatest battles with TS are over my cleaning out the fridge. |
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