Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Sniff test.

Some people seem to be inveterate food sniffers. Everything they pull out of the fridge has to get whiffed before use.

I rarely do this, probably because so many of my favorite foods and condiments, like pastrami, sauerkraut, horseradish, Emmentaler Swiss, all smell like salt & vinegar flavored gym socks...

19 comments:

Chronos said...

MMMMMMM Makes me want a Rueben w/ bacon on it!

BobG said...

I'm a big fan of kimchi, and anyone who doesn't like it swears it has gone bad.

Justin said...

Milk is the only thing that gets sniffed with me. Everything else, well, let's just say that bacteria doesn't stand a chance with my prefered spiciness.

Joanna said...

Oddly enough, my lunch today didn't pass the sniff test. I ate my emergency can of soup, instead.

And now I have a jones for pastrami with horseradish. Thanks for that.

Justthisguy said...

OMG, I love kimchi. Am salivating right now. Ex-sweety did insist that I not eat any, any later than 2 days before visiting her.

og said...

How the hell do you even TELL when Kimchi goes bad?

Tam said...

When it makes the garum taste funny...

charles said...

It's starting to go bad if you eat it and your lips go numb and come back tingly, but not from heat. It's probably still ok for a good bit after that.

Anonymous said...

How the hell do you even TELL when Kimchi goes bad?

This usually occurs just before it becomes sentient, possibly as a defense mechanism.

Ed Foster said...

Pastrami, sauerkraut, horseradish, Emmenthaler... Are you my long lost sister?

Fenris said...

*Laughs* I sniff every bite of food before I move to ingest. No idea why, I just do.

BobG said...

I don't know how you tell when it gets bad, but if you get too much in one place it will probably reach critical mass and explode.

og said...

I always thought kimchi was like yoghurt or cottage cheese. If it hadn't gone bad, it wouldn't be what it is.

Dr. StrangeGun said...

be wary not what smells ill, be wary what smells *wrong*.

Muenster had a bit of a pungency to it too, as with swiss... it smells 'bad' when it's new. It's when it starts to smell a little sicky-sweet that you turn it over to find a nice glaze of blue/white fuzz.

Heck, my sniffiness saved my... tongue, one day. I caught myself sniffing a freshly opened can of soup before I put it in the bowl to nuke. Good thing I did too, as the can must have had a pinhole and the brothy brew smelled just a wee bit like rotten eggs. I probably would have boiled that right off and/or masked it with the freshly heated chicken broth... god knows what even that first spoonfull could have done, there wasn't any pressure on the can when I opened it but soups are ripe (hah) for botulism....

OA said...

Botulism is anaerobic.

Dr. StrangeGun said...

Botulism, salmonella, eschericia coli, mycoplasms, whatever... the apparently well-sealed prepared and pack-sterilized soup was the opposite of a cheery 'spoon full of sugar'.

Just because a bacterium is anaerobic doesn't mean that a contaminant was hidden in an ingredient of the soup, or there was a pinhole that sealed itself, or any number of things could/did happen. I sniffed what is supposed to be one of the safest complete food products ever invented (behind twinkies and a few other things) and it just happened to be rotten.

My faith in the food industry is shattered... wait, no it isn't, I don't have any :)

Gewehr98 said...

I have two big dogs. If I find something in the fridge I cannot identify, I let them sniff it. If they walk or even run away from it, then it ain't goin' in my pie hole, either.

Justthisguy said...

There was a Far Side cartoon years ago, with the title "When Potato Salad Goes Bad." The potato salad was armed, and terrorizing the other food in the reefer.

(I think)

WV: andes. OH yummy choclit mints. Wish I had one now.

Justthisguy said...

Oh, Gewehr, that's in the category of "necessary but not sufficient." Dogs eat lots of stuff which is quite revolting, and may well be bad for humans. I remember Sally Jane, an English Setter I used to know. She maintained the kitty's sandbox right well; the cat turds did not have an opportunity to reach room temperature before Sally gobbled them up.