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:

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

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

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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

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  7. When it makes the garum taste funny...

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  8. 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.

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

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

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

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

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  12. 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.

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

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  14. 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....

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  15. Botulism is anaerobic.

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  16. 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 :)

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  17. 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.

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  18. 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.

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  19. 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.

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