CONFESS!! How old is that bottle of Soy Sauce in your refrigerator?

[underpants]

Does soy sauce go bad?

[GOPisEvil]

1. I believe it can go bad.

There is a "use by" date.

I had a bad experience once...

[LynneSin]

15. I think "Used by Dates" are a ploy from the Soy Sauce Lobbyists

because if there was no "Used By" date then we'd all keep the same bottle of Soy Sauce throughout our entire life.

It's a conspiracy I tells ya!!
:tinfoilhat:

[elfwitch]

2. Are you supposed to keep it refigerated?!?!

I don't. Will I die a horrible death?

[underpants]

9. I/we always have

Since when I was a kid we always had it in the fridge.

:shrug:

[rkc3]

25. My in-laws put nothing in the fridge -

Not ketchup, mustard, relish, jelly - nothing.

My father-in-law (aside from being a right-wing and religious nuttie)is very particular about his condiments - they can't be cold.

I can only imagine the botulism has affected his reasoning abilities.

[AlCzervik]

3. I just chucked mine last week

i bet it was at least 2 years old.

[bif]

4. I don't keep it in the fridge

I keep it on the shelf. The bottle itself is about 20 years old. We buy soy by the gallon and refill the small bottle.

[underpants]

7. by the gallon?

Yikes! Eat a lot of Chinese food do you?

[bif]

29. You betchya!

We probably have stir fry about once a week. Especially in the winter. And that's the way it comes at Costco. Unfortunately, I'm supposed to cut down on the sodium so I'm going to have to start buying the low sodium soy, and I don't think it comes in gallons.

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. ketchup packets go bad

they turn purple and smell nasty. Don't keep little ketchup packets for longer than a year.

[underpants]

11. How will you know when this one goes bad?

Oh yeah the smell.

[yellowcanine]

6. I don't even refrigerate it. I believe it has too much salt in it to

worry about it actually going bad. But maybe it tastes better fresh?

[ewagner]

8. Just checked

"Use by" date:

03/01

....there's an unopened spare in the pantry......

[GOPisEvil]

10. The Table of Condiments that Periodically Go Bad

http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/www/Info/condiments.html

Soy Sauce: 1 year.

[Lavender Brown]

12. omg

How did I live without that before? That's going up on my fridge for my sell-by-date challenged roommate. :D :thumbsup:

[underpants]

Yikes!

That is pretty cool thanks. I guess I am checking everything when I get home.

[GOPisEvil]

23. Cheez-Wiz: N/A

My favortie part of that chart are the condiments with NO expiration date!

[yellowcanine]

39. Cheeses of Nazareth. Somebody had way too much time on their hands.

.

[eyesroll]

13. Most condiments, in and of themselves, don't go bad quickly

The acidity or the salt acts as a preservative.

The only truly immortal food is honey -- archaeologists have found edible honey in the pyramids. But other foods -- especially acidic condiments such as hot sauce or ketchup -- take forever to turn.

BUT: The packaging isn't designed to last forever. Plastic can deteriorate. Glass can have manufacturing defects. Foreign substances can end up in the bottle and go bad themselves. That's why you have expiration dates on things like vinegar and bottled water -- the vinegar and water don't usually go bad, but the plastic isn't designed to hold them forever.

Soy sauce -- real soy sauce, anyway -- takes a long, long time to go bad. It more often gunks up, making dispensing difficult, or it takes on some of the other flavors from the fridge if the packaging isn't good.

That said, our soy sauce is only a few months old; we don't use it all that often, but often enough.

[m-jean03]

14. I use so much soy sauce

I'm refilling the bottle at the Co-op all the time. :9

[SheilaT]

16. Old soy sauce gets dark

and strongly flavored and very salty. It's best when new.

[Voice_of_Europe]

17. not old.. but old looking and stained...

I think It takes a loooong time until it turns bad...
Thinking of it, it's almost pure SALT and salt is use to conserve stuff.

Does too much salt make me a conservative?

[shaolinmonkey]

18. It's supposed to be refrigerated?

Ack!

[iconoclastic cat]

19. Oh, crap--it's supposed to be refrigerated?

[underpants]

21. See post #9

:shrug: we always have :shrug:

[hlthe2b]

38. It says so on the bottle, but I never have....

Cold soy sauce-- yuck!

I'm about to go through my first bottle in years, albeit a "fresh" bottle (only a few months old)-- I like it on brown rice with just a tiny bit of "butter" (canola).

[Blue-Jay]

20. It was there when I moved in.

Seriously. I'd hate to guess how old it is. Still tastes OK, though.

[underpants]

24. I had a can of Yams like that once

a BIG a** can of Yams was in the cabinet when I moved into an apartment 8 years ago. I took them to Baltimore with me for the year I lived there and then got rid of them. I thought it was funny.

[Blue-Jay]

26. Also still left over from when I moved in 1.5 yrs ago:

Some frozen kraut.
A package of chicken parts.
Jar of unopened pickles.
A frozen cornish game hen.
Tub of sugar.
Various bottles of salad dressing.

Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. I figure I can use the frozen game hen as a projectile weapon if someone breaks in.

Ya, know..... maybe I should clean out my freezer.

[BearFlagDemocrat]

22. I imagine...

I think it does go bad after awhile. We make a lot of stir-frys, so we use soy sauce (actually, we buy Tamari...oooooo) regularly.

The bottle of Fish Sauce we have is looking a bit old, though. We usually only use it when making Nigella Lawson's kedgeree recipie.

[ScreamingMeemie]

27. It's brand spanking new!!!

My family loves soy sauce and even use it on non Chinese fare. I use it in my special Grumpy meatloaf recipe.

I think I read in Real Simple that soy sauce (opened) has a shelf life of 3-5 years when refrigerated. :hi:

[ScreamingMeemie]

28. I researched!!!!

http://www.rexanne.com/shelflife.html

They say three months. I guess I've been poisoning my family because I buy the big jug from Costco....

No ill effects though. :7

[underpants]

31. Months/years

Eeeh! what's the difference?

[ScreamingMeemie]

32. So, you wanna come over for Chinese tonight???

;)

And I must have misread Real Simple, because that's where the webmaster says she got her info from.

Time to get my glasses checked before I inadvertantly kill my family...

[Kellanved]

30. just a few weeks

I go through a bottle in about six weeks.

[southpaw]

35. MMMMMMMmmmmmm... Kikkoman Lite

If God had made anything better, he would have kept it for himself.

[woofless]

33. Let's put it this way,

there's no bar code on it.

[underpants]

34. Retro!

SO cool so chic so deadly

[funkybutt]

36. oh shit! i was supposed to keep it in the fridge??

[Reverend_Smitty]

37. I think I win on the all time old nasty food left in the fridge

I had an old Slovak great-grandmother who loved lekvar (a prune paste) well apparently she was the only one because when she died in 1987, a bottle of lekvar was left in the fridge from 87ish to 1995 when we bought a new refrigerator. It was buried in the corner and it achieved a somewhat cult status in my house. It was a sad day when we finally pitched it