What is it with women in their 80's & 90's who will keep food in the refrigerator till it's unrecognizable?

When I first moved in, my parents had hoards of food dating back to 1990 -- maybe before. At first she fought me tooth and claw about throwing the old stuff out. But I persisted. Now I throw out questionable stuff without consulting first. My field is biology and I know about all the little beasties that can grow in food. I also know that, even if it doesn't spoil, food kept in the freezer 100 years doesn't taste good.

The funniest thing I ran across was a sweet potato pie from 1990. I told my mother I was tossing it. She said no, no, it's still good. Well, personally I don't eat sweet potato pie. Nor did my father. So I asked my mother if she was going to eat it. No. I asked her if Dad was going to eat it. No. I said I wasn't, either. And into the trash it went.

I don't think it is a depression era thing. I really think it is an "out of sight, out of mind" and "too lazy to clean the freezer and refrigerator" thing. There was so much old food in the refrigerator, freezer, and cabinets, there wasn't enough room for good food.

I got a 75 yr old dad that does the same thing... "mindset of scarcity?" I say, You Betcha! He saves Everything, and he and I have this "Groundhog Day" discussion all the time about how he needs to eat up his fresh food in the fridge, or it will go bad... and how he can't buy family packs of bologna in bulk, and expect it won't go bad... Now, I just do the shopping... and the covert cleaning out of the fridge when he isn't aware... He says he can "tell if something is bad," I say "why chance it?" But yeah... doesn't throw anything away, even if its growing green funk and looking like a science project gone awry.

I am guilty of cutting the mold off cheese and buy most of my meat with one day to go on the use by date. I grew up during WW11 and rationing in the UK meant that nothing was wasted. We didn't have a fridge so I think we were just immune to the usual bugs and rarely got sick, well not from food poisoning but suffered all the childhood illnesses. Anything wild caught was always "hung" to tenderize - no marinades in those days!

E, sometimes I do that now. lol I've come up with some pretty interesting soups and stews that way...they were good, too. lol I sent you a link on your wall, vintage recipes...I might have to try some of them myself they sound so good... :)

When I was kid, we used to have Friday stew. Any leftovers from the week went into a pot, were seasoned with a hefty dollup of burgundy and served. A perfect solution to old food. Very seldom did we have anyone complaining about it. I think it was the burgundy lol.

I tend to try to eat our leftovers within 3 days. If we haven't eaten it by then, we're probably sick of it. I have been known, however, with a large roast, to freeze part of the leftovers for later.

I don't like decomposing meat Captain. I like mine nice and red. When it starts turning brown or gets that little bit of a smell to it, it's just nasty to me. One step above maggots. Sorry. I won't eat fuzzy food, either, unless it's peaches. My MIL insists both are fine, along with sour milk. Blech!

No ambulance was needed for the cinammon rolls. But both of them took really long naps LOL.

I don't believe in wasting anything, either, but yeah, if something is just plain moldy or smells really rotten, it's got to go... But otherwise, no. I shop for good sales, especially meats, I most certainly do eat leftovers...any body that knows their way around a kitchen knows that some recipes taste BETTER the next day, and the next day.. soups, stews, chowders come to mind...

Spoony, yup, I'm the same way... Captain, oh yeah, I don't slap a steak on the grill unless it's room temperature and has been sitting out awhile... Assandache, that post made me lol...and I bet that works, too...

I used to work as a server at Golden Corral. Omg, the waste... You would not, can not, believe waste on that kind of scale. After awhile I became kind of numb to it, but still... it never failed to boggle my mind... People that piled their plates to overflowing with food...then pushed the plate aside, barely even touched, only to go get another... I mean...what? And these were grown adults! I was trashing whole chicken legs and breasts, piles of vegetables and salads, mounds of mac and cheese, rolls with a single bite out of it... And most of the leftover stuff at the end of the night went into the garbage. I asked my manager if we couldn't box up the food in clean containers, bag it up in several layers of bags, and leave it close to the dumpsters at night, for anyone homeless that might appreciate that untouched food not going in the garbage...he said no, it was against the law... Lawd! What a world... If it's not bad, we eat it around here, period.

If they are 80 and 90 they were very young during the Great Depression (1929-1938). We cannot fathom the starvation, homelessness and death that they witnessed. They will never throw food away. Mom will cook pasta with bugs in it, just skim them off as they float up, because that was what it took to survive then. Nana had a compost heap and mulched kitchen scraps into a vegetable garden. They will never forget the hard times, never waste and hide the food if they think you will toss it.

Let me know when you figure this one out. My grandmother (85) does this, along with 3-4 huge tubs of margarine on the go at any given time. I have no idea why she is so concerned with running out of margarine. And why the giant jars of everything, that'll take a couple years to get through?

I've got one that tops it all: a jar of oregano from 1961. Granted, herbs & spices do have a longer shelf life, but not that long!!!

sigh
i have a female friend who wastes more food than i could ever eat. she always profoundly states that " joey wont eat leftovers " . bullshit. joey would eat backhand if he were my spawn..

Excellent conversation! Thanks for making me laugh....the "sniffing" and saving the "good stuff" Just cleaned out 2 kitchen drawers in my mom's house...she had 12 paring knives, 3 can openers, 10 or so steak knives, 3 candy thermometers, goes on and on. She let me put some of it in the basement for "when she will need it", so the next time I go to visit, I'll take it out of the basement and give it to Goodwill. I'll start on the fridge again next visit...probably 5 bottles of barbeque sauce in there!

It's the "sniffing" that bugs the crap out of me, then she'll ask me to smell it, "does this smell alright to you"? Ugh.. Get that old food out of my face!

I tell her it might give her "the runs", so she'll throw it out!!

But then again she's still alive at 91.....

I am 62 and am pretty much the same way. No my food doesn't get spoiled, but I do not mind eating leftovers, or purchasing food at a discounted price that has been a bit past expiration date. I sometimes cook large amounts and store the balance in the freezer; then for a while I don't have to cook at all.

It irritates me quite a bit watching my older brother throwing away good food for the reason of not having enough room in the fridge. God knows there's plenty of room, but he does just that, and then he goes on complaining of the high prices. I keep my mouth shut as this is his house. But this isn't happening at my place, oh no.

Everything to his own, I guess.

Two years ago my nieces cleaned out my MIL's refrigerator at Christmas and threw out the outdated food. When my MIL fell the following April and went to the NH my daughter and I cleaned out her refrigerator and threw out outdated food. I asked my niece about the really old food we'd found since they'd cleaned out the refrig several months earlier. She clearly recalled throwing out the Smuckers pancake syrup I mentioned (outdated in 2000). My nieces' visit ended the day before garbage day. Seems my MIL retrieved the items from her garbage before the garbage went out to the curb. The napkins and nightgowns mentioned in earlier posts are familiar to me also with my MIL. She's saved things "for good" so many times that I want to ask "When is good?"

Rebecca, your mom and my mom must be sisters separated at birth, LOL. My mom reuses napkins over and over and washes out plastic food storage bags and gives them back to me to reuse. I've picked up a bit of that from her, but I'll get rid of stuff before it goes bad. My father used to grab a fistful of napkins whenever we ate out, but then he'd use the same ones over and over again. I'm sure it's from their Depression-era upbringing.

My mom also "saves" her good nightgown for the time she might go to the hospital. I keep saying, "Mom, you're almost 94. You've been to the hospital many times. When did you ever use that gown? Start wearing it at home!!" She also saves her good address labels and uses the free ones they send her in the mail. I tell her when she goes, I'll have 5,000 very nice address labels of hers I can't use. You just have to laugh about it.

according to the fda ( best when used by ) dates are malarky and should be ignored. every type of food has the uncanny ability to stink to high heaven when its spoiled. the fda's advice is, if it smells good dont worry about it. in the case of beef, its considerably better tasting if you split the packaging and leave it on the counter all night or day to brown and age a bit. aging amounts to decomposition and it makes beef and venison delicious and tender.

I'm only 66 also and, gee, do I hate to throw out good food, but am getting better at it. That's just how I was raised, you don't throw out good food. I was playing cards at a friend's house years ago in Denver and at the end of the night, my friend started to throw away all this very good cut up cheese. OMG, I was shocked. I knew her well enough to say: what are you doing? She said we don't eat leftovers. I'm stunned. I said, well, I do and took it home. I guess I looked like a cheapo. But she got the cheese only for the party and just cut it up that evening, so...!

But you also have to remember that older people in that age bracket lived during the depression and didn't throw anything away and used it two or three times if they could. My 92 year old Mother, if she uses a paper towel to wipe up water, will let it dry to re-use it, sometimes more than once. When she had cookouts or something, it drove me nuts that she'd wash the plastic utensils to use another time. They are much more frugal than we are today. While it hurts me a bit, I know it is best, but lately I've been throwing away tons of food at Mother's because she just isn't eating. Oh, if she had her right mind, she'd be mortified at the amount of food she has been wasting. I go over and will find 4 or 5 dirty paper towels folded that she's intending to use again. I just toss them.

If our economy got much worse than it is, that older generation would survive much better than today's younger generation. They've been through it before.

I'm only 66, but I'm a little like that. I would never expect to get sick from baked goods that didn't have mold on them, especially something that will be baked before eating.

I think it's partly a personality trait. I'm kind of a hoarder, and I hate to waste things. I have to get my daughter to throw stuff out, because it sort of hurts.

These women did grow up in the early days of refrigeration. They remember when lots of foods were stored in the cupboard, not the fridge. Mustard, peanut butter, bread. They were probably raised in homes where any food that came into the house disappeared pretty quickly down someone's throat, because they had less food available. They are less likely to be germ-phobic.

Then there's this method of deciding if a left-over has spoiled. Leave it in the refrigerator for two weeks, and then you'll be able to tell if you should throw it out! Ya gotta laugh. Good luck.