Bacon Expiration Question

Chubbs · March 2015

So some of you know I did 30 lbs of bacon a few months back. It was a lot to keep up with to say the least. I keep a hefty amount of beer in my second fridge, and this is the same fridge I cure my bacon in. Well, I had some folks over and we went through a large amount of beer and behind the section I found another pack of my bacon, cured, and unsliced.

Question-- is this still good? It has been in the fridge a few months. Not in freezer. It is whole slab, cured, but not sliced.

I don't really want to make my pregnant wife sick with breakfast tomorrow if I decide to cook it.

Eggcelsior · March 2015

Does it smell/look funny?

The sliced packs of store bought bacon say to use them within 7 days but I go 2 months sometimes, no problem. DILLIGAF. Plus, with the cold mass you had in that fridge that slab stated nice and consistently cold.

Chubbs · March 2015

Eggcelsior said:

Does it smell/look funny?

The sliced packs of store bought bacon say to use them within 7 days but I go 2 months sometimes, no problem. DILLIGAF. Plus, with the cold mass you had in that fridge that slab stated nice and consistently cold.

Haven't smelled it. It looks fine other than a little condensation on the inside of the large ziploc

st¡ke · March 2015

A little bombast to start with: no food expires. No food requires an expiration date.

On to the bacon. What seriously could happen to it? It's cured. If you want, and this is no exaggeration, hang it from the ceiling in your livingroom for a few months. It can't become dangerous. 'Bad'

it was cured orginally not because people liked bacon, but because they had a lot of pork and needed to store it long term

it's not possible for your bacon to be bad in terms of healthfulness, safety.

It's also highly unlikely that it's bad in terms of "this tastes like crap", which is the only "bad" food we can really achieve in a fridge. Bad quality, sure. Bad as in deadly? Make you sick? Nah

remember, you didnt make pancetta, right? What's pancetta though. The same exact thing you made, only hung for a few weeks at room temperature.

Why can i hang cured pork belly in my open air room for a month, but the second i put that same exact meat in the fridge and call it bacon, it might "go bad"?

it's fine

i think we need to put a jar on the counter in the kitchen and whenever anybody uses the words "expiration date", they drop in a five dollar bill. Unless you are talking about baby formula (dry, not jarred), there is no such thing as an expiration date.

"use by " dates, which do exist, concern quality only. Just about every food is safe to eat weeks after the sell by date. Eggs? The scariest frikkin salmonella laden product out there? USDA advises 6 to 8 WEEKS after sell by

but when you purposefully change the meat by curing so it will keep, you can go years. You did more to cure that bacon than they do for prosciutto. And you refrigerated it too, something prosciutto doesn't enjoy either. And they hang it for two years before they call it "good".

how's yer bacon gonna go bad before their prosciutto becomes good?

fishlessman · March 2015

slice a piece off and try it, if it still tastes good, fry some up

theres something hard to do, getting them to eat raw bacon

Ozzie_Isaac · March 2015

@st¡ke very interesting write up. Looks like I have some learning to do. It makes sense but I never thought of it that way.

Also on the egg topic, stores don't toss expired eggs. They send them back and they get restamped. I don't know how often but at least a few times before they are tossed.

lowandslow · March 2015

Bacon expires?

MelSharples · March 2015

I always go by the sight and smell test, if it smells and looks good, eat it. Also, according to the USDA cured meats are not required to be labeled with a sell by date, so if Uncle Sam doesn't care how long it's been sitting around, neither should you...

KiterTodd · March 2015

Finish the beer.
Cook the bacon.

In that order.

st¡ke · March 2015

Ozzie: five buck in the 'expired' jar!

i used to work at a grocery store. In the dairy dept, we'd take month old eggs out of the cartons and put them into new ones. Standard operating procedure.

I dont think that's kosher frankly, because they aren't fresh. And there is a difference obviously.

piney · March 2015

st¡ke said:

A little bombast to start with: no food expires. No food requires an expiration date.

On to the bacon. What seriously could happen to it? It's cured. If you want, and this is no exaggeration, hang it from the ceiling in your livingroom for a few months. It can't become dangerous. 'Bad'

it was cured orginally not because people liked bacon, but because they had a lot of pork and needed to store it long term

it's not possible for your bacon to be bad in terms of healthfulness, safety.

It's also highly unlikely that it's bad in terms of "this tastes like crap", which is the only "bad" food we can really achieve in a fridge. Bad quality, sure. Bad as in deadly? Make you sick? Nah

remember, you didnt make pancetta, right? What's pancetta though. The same exact thing you made, only hung for a few weeks at room temperature.

Why can i hang cured pork belly in my open air room for a month, but the second i put that same exact meat in the fridge and call it bacon, it might "go bad"?

it's fine

i think we need to put a jar on the counter in the kitchen and whenever anybody uses the words "expiration date", they drop in a five dollar bill. Unless you are talking about baby formula (dry, not jarred), there is no such thing as an expiration date.

"use by " dates, which do exist, concern quality only. Just about every food is safe to eat weeks after the sell by date. Eggs? The scariest frikkin salmonella laden product out there? USDA advises 6 to 8 WEEKS after sell by

but when you purposefully change the meat by curing so it will keep, you can go years. You did more to cure that bacon than they do for prosciutto. And you refrigerated it too, something prosciutto doesn't enjoy either. And they hang it for two years before they call it "good".

how's yer bacon gonna go bad before their prosciutto becomes good?

Glad to see you back!

berndcrisp · March 2015

Back to the eggs. I put any eggs I am going to cook in a glass of water. If they FLoat they are FouL and I won't use them. This has always proved safe for me. including eggs that are 4 weeks past the date.

If the bacon smells bad, toss it!

Zmokin · March 2015

berndcrisp said:

Back to the eggs. I put any eggs I am going to cook in a glass of water. If they FLoat they are FouL and I won't use them. This has always proved safe for me. including eggs that are 4 weeks past the date.
If the bacon smells bad, toss it!

old eggs make better hard-boiled eggs. The shell peels off easier if you use older eggs to make your hard-boiled eggs.

Fireman_Joe · March 2015

@st¡ke , I like your write ups ! I remember my grandfather going out to his smoke house and cutting a slab off a belly and slicing it up for breakfast. Who knows how long he kept it and ate it but I know he was a very frugal man that would not let anything go to waste.

Bacon Expiration Question

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