(no subject)

[ksmith]

How long can food keep in a regular freezer?

Last August or September, I made some chicken-leek stew, and froze the leftovers. In the process of cleaning out the freezer today, I excavated two containers of it. Should I dump it?

Comments

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

I would dump it. At the very least, it probably will have a funky taste from the freezer burn.

[naomikritzer]

I'd eat it and wouldn't worry about it but I'd probably plan to add a little broth, because stuff dries out over time.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I'd probably dump it because I usually dump freezer stuff that old, but otoh I was just reading a thing a couple days ago that talked about being able to store higher-fat meat in a freezer for a year without worrying, and lower-fat meat for six months easily. I'd assume chicken stew went on the lower-fat end of that, but it's really probably fine. :)

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Depends how well you stored it. Does your freezer periodically thaw spontaneously? Was the stew in an airtight container?

If the answers are respectively "no" and "yes," then I'd eat it. I would heat it aggressively for fifteen minutes at full boil. Anything that could survive the cold would not survive that heat.

Of course, I eat eggs that are six months past their expiry date. My stomach flora defend their turf.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Eggs (and frozen stuff) do *not* expire easily. The expiry dates are mostly decorative. At around 3 months past, eggs in a dry climate will be starting to dry out, so they don't work well for baking (repeats to herself "Los Angeles is a desert, Los Angeles is a desert"). And around a year, stuff might be freezerburnt enough to be irritating, or it might be losing flavor.

As long as the freezer hasn't been left open for the night or anything similarly entertaining, it should still be edible.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The freezer never went wonky. Even during the few times that the power went off for several hours, I kept the door closed.

Thanks for the info about the eggs. I often use them past their date, but I still wonder.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I eat eggs past their expiry date, too, but I usually hard boil them.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I'd defrost it and see how it smells, and go from there. :-)

I'm pretty sure I've thawed and eaten stuff approaching a year old out of my freezer ...