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| December 2021 dated |
Last night's dinner were burritos and nachos. I had pulled a small food sealed bag of shredded cheddar out to use, but I also remembered single cans of cheese in the 2-3 year pantry and I wanted to get those tested/rotated and used up so I decided to open and 'test' them.
Both were the same brand, but one is cheddar and the other white cheese. Both bought at the same time and both have the same 'best if used by' date of Dec. 2021. (Not an 'expiration' date - remember - if the seal is good, they are good. The quality taste or color may change with time but they are perfectly good and safe to eat).
First I opened the aged cheddar. It wasn't the bright orange color, and had faded to a more white color. That's fine, because cheddar is actually white and the orange/yellow color is an additive so it may have faded. It looked perfectly fine and the seal was good but the initial taste test brought out a taste of... tin can. I could certainly taste the can flavor had permeated the cheese sauce.
That one went into the trash.
I expected the same thing with the second can so I opened it quickly, only to find it was still the same off white color it always is, had the same texture and looked and smelled the same as a brand new, fresh can off the shelf.
Taste Test: no discernible flavor of the tin can taste the cheddar sauce had. This one was pretty much still 100% in color, taste and texture. I used it for the burritos and the nachos.
Granted, processed cheese sauce isn't my 'go to' normally, because I don't like the chemical taste of processed cheese foods - but I had picked up a few random cans on one of my previous shopping trips over the past few years strictly for the 2-3 year storage pantry, so it was nice to get a chance to use them up.
The last time I opened one of them to test for use was in July and it had also been the cheddar cheese sauce version - and I didn't use it as it was a darker burnt orange color at the time so I just threw it out. We weren't living on food storage at that time and I was just randomly opening it to 'test' and use it up to rotate it out if I could.
Interesting that the aged cheddar cheese sauce is now 0 for 2 but aged differently; one turned a dark burnt orange, the other faded to almost white. Neither were used. But the Queso Blanco white cheese sauce has been perfectly fine. It apparently stores better for longer term.
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| December 2021 dated |
