Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on January 25, 2022, 01:31:38 PM
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Holy Guacamole Batman!
So I was just getting out the fixins to make some chicken burritos. I grabbed the salsa container - an unopened 3lb container that I picked from the refrigerated deli section at Costco last week. The plastic container was totally bulged out. When I unscrewed the lid, the plastic seal bubbled up like an inch, and tight as a drum. I obviously wasn't going to eat it, but I figured I would poke a hole in the plastic to release the pressure so it wouldn't explode or something when it warmed up in the trash can.
I barely touched the tip of a knife to it and BAM! Holy hell - my ears are still ringing. The thing blew like a hand grenade and there were even salsa chunks on the ceiling in the kitchen. The container itself didn't burst, but when the plastic film did, it was like a gunshot. I'm actually lucky in that not all that much salsa shot out. It could have been a real mess, but for whatever reason, only maybe a few ounces shot out. Still made a mess though.
I'm really curious as to what caused the gas build up. It was in the 20s when I was at Costco, so it's not like it sat in a hot car on the drive home. I guess I'm lucky it did what it did, or I would have eaten it and maybe gotten food poisoning.
Anyway, who knew that salsa could be a destructive device?
Did I mention that my ears are still ringing?
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That salsa was going bad long before you bought it.
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What Fly said.
And Flies KNOW rotted food... :rofl:
I've gotten more than my fair share of... very questionable products... at Costco before. Sour milk, moldy yogurt, rotted fresh vegetables...
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What Fly said.
And Flies KNOW rotted food... :rofl:
I've gotten more than my fair share of... very questionable products... at Costco before. Sour milk, moldy yogurt, rotted fresh vegetables...
I had a free Costco membership for about a year - only went there a couple of times and didn't renew the membership. The veggies at the local store ALWAYS were rotted and moldy. A bag of russet potatoes shouldn't look like they stuffed wads of cotton inside - the white fuzzy mold looked THAT bad.
And they stank. [barf]
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I've actually never gotten a bad food item at Costco up until now. Meaning nothing spoiled or rotten - I've obviously tried stuff that even fresh was not to my taste, but that can happen anywhere. I end up getting the sour dairy and bad veggie treatment way more at my little local market. They used to be good, but ever since the covid, their quality has gone way down regarding fresh items.
The only spoilage problems I've ever had at Costco was from buying more than I could eat before it goes bad.
My ears are still ringing.
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Never had a bad food item from Costco.
Had trash bags that weren’t sealed and toilet bowl cleaner with faulty spouts but those were returned and replaced without issue.
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I'm really curious as to what caused the gas build up.
This is about a different type of packaging, but I think the mechanism is the same.
https://www.standuppouches.net/blog/why-does-food-packaging-bloat
Bloating is a clear indication that bacteria are present inside the packet. Bacteria feed on the contents of the pouch and produce gas. Since this gas cannot escape from the sealed packet, it accumulates inside and causes the pouch to bloat.
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This is about a different type of packaging, but I think the mechanism is the same.
https://www.standuppouches.net/blog/why-does-food-packaging-bloat
Thanks.
This was the Jack's salsa BTW, for any of you Costco shoppers. I usually get the mango salsa (cuz you know, still got a little cali left in me), but they were out of it.
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I bought salsa the other day and it just exploded in my face when I took it out of the fridge... why...?
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/xnkgx/i_bought_salsa_the_other_day_and_it_just_exploded/
Salsa explosion! Man wants answers!
https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2002/sep/05/salsa-explosion-man-wants-answers/
We dialed up Linda Harris, a UC Davis professor of microbes in consumer products. She said yeasts (maybe bacteria, more likely yeasts) in your salsa fermented, gave off their yeasty gasses, which blew up your container. What you bought (in plastic) was the so-called "fresh" salsa. It came from the refrigerated section of the store, over by the hot dogs and cheese. Remember? Guess not. And it says right on the label that you're supposed to store the stuff in your refrigerator. When fresh salsas are processed, they're not heated to temperatures that will destroy all microbes. They have a much shorter shelf life and must be stored in a refrigerator to slow the growth of whatever's in there.
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^
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Okay, yeast in salsa causing it is interesting. Also that it appears to be a not uncommon occurrence with the "keep refrigerated" stuff. Might be a good reason to pay proportionally more per ounce and buy in the smaller grocery store containers.
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^
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Okay, yeast in salsa causing it is interesting. Also that it appears to be a not uncommon occurrence with the "keep refrigerated" stuff. Might be a good reason to pay proportionally more per ounce and buy in the smaller grocery store containers.
Or just make your own fresh salsa as needed.
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Or just make your own fresh salsa as needed.
Now you're talkin'.
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Now you're talkin'.
Really basic fresh salsa
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/fresh_tomato_salsa/
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That actually looks good and fast to make.
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and if Ben kvetches about getting fresh tomatoes... Canned tomato restaurant recipe.
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-restaurant-salsa-in-a-blender-228222
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Then the tomatoes attack
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and if Ben kvetches about getting fresh tomatoes... Canned tomato restaurant recipe.
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-restaurant-salsa-in-a-blender-228222
Why would I complain about something that's in my fridge all the time?
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That actually looks good and fast to make.
I got the older version of this food processer, it makes the salsa even quicker, well since you are just so busy ;)
https://www.cuisinart.com/shopping/appliances/food_processors/fp-8svp1/
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Why would I complain about something that's in my fridge all the time?
because it's in your nature. :old: :old: :old: :old:
[popcorn]
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Or just make your own fresh salsa as needed.
Wife and daughter canned 23 pints of salsa last summer. Tomatoes, peppers and onions all out of my garden. Good stuff.
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"Okay, yeast in salsa causing it is interesting."
Yeast and Lactobacillus are present in just about every food. Lactobacillus is what makes sauerkraut.
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Wife and daughter canned 23 pints of salsa last summer. Tomatoes, peppers and onions all out of my garden. Good stuff.
it is the best
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My wife makes salsa from time to time. One of the reasons I keep her around.
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I had a roll of ground turkey fall unnoticed out of a grocery bag in the car. Didn't realize it until a couple of days, maybe a week, later it exploded with a rather loud bang.
I thought I had been hit by another car. They really seal those things up in their plastic wrap and aluminum seals at each end.
I had to use my gas mask to clean it up, and the car smelled like hell for a week and I had to drive with the windows open. No way to close off that back area in a station wagon.
I was going to complain that the receipt showed the turkey and it hadn't been packed by the sacker but I hadn't got around to it yet.
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"Okay, yeast in salsa causing it is interesting."
Yeast and Lactobacillus are present in just about every food. Lactobacillus is what makes sauerkraut.
I would expect that if the container was sitting out at non-refrigerated temperatures. I was surprised that it gassed up that quickly sitting in the fridge.
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I would expect that if the container was sitting out at non-refrigerated temperatures. I was surprised that it gassed up that quickly sitting in the fridge.
My guess?
It sat in the warehouse or on a loading dock, unrefrigerated, for a couple of hours or more, came far too close to room temperature, and that kicked everything into high gear.
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My guess?
It sat in the warehouse or on a loading dock, unrefrigerated, for a couple of hours or more, came far too close to room temperature, and that kicked everything into high gear.
Very likely.
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Have your ears stopped ringing yet, Ben?
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.67c9aed6192d559211e270f5931568e7?rik=ope9Ccg6D8dT1w&riu=http%3a%2f%2frockmyvegansocks.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2015%2f09%2fhannibal_lecter_1990.jpg&ehk=ef5oAGmqAidcVG31%2b8%2fPIgoNplaaVvI6MtwyORmkJDY%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
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I had a roll of ground turkey fall unnoticed out of a grocery bag in the car. Didn't realize it until a couple of days, maybe a week, later it exploded with a rather loud bang.
I thought I had been hit by another car. They really seal those things up in their plastic wrap and aluminum seals at each end.
I had to use my gas mask to clean it up, and the car smelled like hell for a week and I had to drive with the windows open. No way to close off that back area in a station wagon.
I was going to complain that the receipt showed the turkey and it hadn't been packed by the sacker but I hadn't got around to it yet.
Oh lord, that makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.
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Have your ears stopped ringing yet, Ben?
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.67c9aed6192d559211e270f5931568e7?rik=ope9Ccg6D8dT1w&riu=http%3a%2f%2frockmyvegansocks.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2015%2f09%2fhannibal_lecter_1990.jpg&ehk=ef5oAGmqAidcVG31%2b8%2fPIgoNplaaVvI6MtwyORmkJDY%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0)
:rofl:
Yup, back to just the regular tinnitus now. :laugh:
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One also can't know the storage conditions before one bought it. I cooked a frozen dinner that turned out to be a bit funky after microwaving it. I figured maybe it had gone through too many defrost cycles while in the store freezer.
Not supposed to happen, but you never know.
Garbage disposal time.
Terry, 230RN
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Not sure if I've ever told this story, but this is a good place to do it.
In 1971 I was in first grade at the elementary school in the town where I grew up.
It had been built in 1920 so it didn't have a kitchen for school lunches. They prepared those at the high school a few miles up the road and brought everything to our school in containers.
In September it was really warm, and someone set the big kettle of macaroni salad out early... WAY too early, and it went feral. SERIOUSLY feral.
After lunch everyone in the school -- students and staff -- who had eaten the mac salad, started vomiting. I was sitting next to my friend John and I turned my head and puked all over his sweater, which was hanging off the back of his chair. John was one of the few students whose Mom had packed his lunch that day, so he didn't get sick.
A lot of students and staff ended up in the hospital overnight because of it.
I can still remember that smell. It was awful, a couple hundred people vomiting in the school and outside on the school grounds.
The thing that always amazed me was how quickly it made everyone sick. Some of the students who ate last started vomiting probably no more than 30 minutes to an hour after eating. I can't remember how long the school was closed because of that, but I think it was at least several days because they had to do a room by room deep clean and disinfection of the entire school. And, everyone was still recovering.
I didn't eat macaroni salad for 40 years because of that. It's still a running joke at my class reunions. Invariably someone brings a tub of macaroni salad.
The interesting thing is, the other elementary school in the system, Duncannon, didn't get hit with it. Apparently the salad that went to them was properly handled.
When I was cleaning out Mom's house after she died, I found the newspapers from that that she had saved. I still have them.
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Had a similar situation with Italian food. We brought some home in NY from the summer house in New Jersey and I was hungry, so Mom spooned some out into a dish for me. It tasted "different," but I threw it all up a short time later.
Mom realized that Italian food did not travel well and flushed it all down the tubes.
I've always been a little leery of "kept" tomato based food since then, but after all, that stuff had traveled 100 miles.
Through New Jersey.
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Wife and daughter canned 23 pints of salsa last summer. Tomatoes, peppers and onions all out of my garden. Good stuff.
Piker.
We usually make close to 200 pints. The grandkids love it, and good salsa is around $6 per pint.
We have probably made thousands of quarts of dill pickles over the years, and a few went bad (maybe 1%). Usually they just cloud up and get thrown out, but a couple of them fizzed when you opened them. Bad juju.
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We also got in 30 pints of spaghetti sauce, 20 pints of pizza sauce and 25 pints of chili base as well. Plus there are dozens of quart bags of frozen tomatoes, peppers and onions in the big freezer.
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To be fair, I can't grow enough Romas of chiles for our salsa. We'll buy a bushel of roasted Pueblo Chiles and 50# of Romas from a local farm a few times in September, then spend the afternoon canning salsa.
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A few years ago, while in the middle of Santa season, I stopped at Wally World on the way home, bought a bag of frozen chicken wing appetizers.
Mistake.
Yeah, about 45 minutes or so, and there I was, sitting on Santa's white throne with my new friend, Mr. Bukkitt perched on my knee...
Santa called in at about 0200 and left a message that they didn't really want him to be around the next morning, and went back to his perusal of the bathroom... I think everything pretty much stopped about 0600... Was pretty rocky through the next day, and then the next day, was back at the gig...
After that... Nothing but McD's or similar for the whole season. Usually mall Chik-fil-a for lunch.
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A few years ago, while in the middle of Santa season, I stopped at Wally World on the way home, bought a bag of frozen chicken wing appetizers.
Mistake.
Yeah, about 45 minutes or so, and there I was, sitting on Santa's white throne with my new friend, Mr. Bukkitt perched on my knee...
Santa called in at about 0200 and left a message that they didn't really want him to be around the next morning, and went back to his perusal of the bathroom... I think everything pretty much stopped about 0600... Was pretty rocky through the next day, and then the next day, was back at the gig...
After that... Nothing but McD's or similar for the whole season. Usually mall Chik-fil-a for lunch.
Sounds like one of kids gave you rotovirus
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I got home at about 10:15 at night, mellowed in the kitchen, chowed, and was incapacitated around midnight. Both ends, sometimes simultaneously. I knew something was bad when the tummy started doing gymnastics shortly before... Was pretty much just fine, slept through most of the next day...
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Problem is a lot of the nasty stomach viruses really mimic a nasty case of food poisoning.
Back in the early 1990s two friends and I ate at a BBQ restaurant. We all had exactly the same thing BBQ chicken and ribs special.
The next day I got BRUTALLY sick. Not much vomiting (incredible nausea, though), but the other end? Express service. If I took something by mouth, it was exiting 10 to 15 minutes later.
It took 4 days to run its course and I had really bad problems staying hydrated to the point where I finally had to call my doctor.
My two friends didn't get sick, so I'm certain it was not food poisoning, just some rampaging virus.
The worst part about it? I couldn't eat BBQ for over a year. Just smelling BBQ sauce made me sick to my stomach.
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All I can say is, my first trip to Cane's Chicken is still my last. Stick with the Jesus chicken.