House In Order, day 26

[cjsmith]

Fridge Purge!

Ham from 2004. Onion dip from 2003. Yogurt from February (a guest had left it). Homemade jelly that seemed to be crystallizing, or something... something terrifying, anyway. I don't know what it was but I got it out of there.

Plus some progress on a Not-So-Ancient Unfinished Project: transform a pair of geta into replacements for my rapidly dissolving post-op shoes. So far, I have pulled the Y-shaped strap out.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

You should have donated it to a SJ State or DeAnza biology lab. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's what I should have done with one of the packets of ham from 12/2004. It was... no longer structurally sound.

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

You had onion dip from 3 years ago? I'm impressed. That had to be some kind of record.

Yeah, jams and jellies will do that when they get old. My mother used to have a name for that, but I've forgotten what she called it. Anyway, jams and jellies basically try to return to the sugar from whence they came. Honey will crystallize, too, if you ever need to know that.

My mother always scolded when my father or I tried to throw away crystallized jam or honey. It's wasteful, you know - if you just heat the jar for a while, it turns back into jam/honey. *shudder*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm *pretty* sure it was from 3 years ago. It was store-bought dip, so it had a code stamped on it, but I'm not sure I decoded it properly. Oddly enough it looked and smelled just fine but I was not going to chance it.

My jelly was not old (grump grump). I don't know why it was crystallizing when much older jellies have not. Oh well - I made a lot of both kinds, so I have more that hasn't been opened. I just wonder what I should have done differently when making it.

I knew honey would do that, but I'd never seen jelly do it! Interesting! And of course brown sugar needs a gentle bit of microwaving sometimes, to transform it back from granite.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

My mother always scolded when my father or I tried to throw away crystallized jam or honey. It's wasteful, you know - if you just heat the jar for a while, it turns back into jam/honey. *shudder*

I dunno about jam, but it really is all right to do it with honey. Honey's crystallization has nothing to do with its age, but its temperature. When I lived in a very cold house in Berkeley that none of us could afford to heat, we had to microwave the honey almost every morning during the winter.

Jam, though, that's a new one on me. It can't be the chill because it's supposed to refrigerated once you open the seal. I've had some old jam before, but it molded. For some reason, that creeped me out, seeing mold on jam. It was just ... wrong.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

New one on me, too. It had indeed been refrigerated. I'm not SURE this effect wasn't mold, but it was... crunchy, delicately crunchy, like the insides of chocolate liqueur candies that have sat for a while. I figured it was the sugar separating and crystallizing. Maybe. Best guess. Very, very odd. I wonder what I did wrong.