64 year old tin of lard is fit to eat...

[faceless]

Tin of lard found fit to eat after 64 years
1 Feb 2012
thelocal.de

A 64-year-old tin of American lard has been deemed fit for human consumption by food safety authorities in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Millions of tins of “Swift’s Bland Lard” – a pig fat which was used as a spread similar to butter or as a cooking fat – were distributed by US soldiers to West Germans after World War II in care packages that included other essentials like powdered milk, cheese and sugar. Some of those made their way to communist East Germany, including one to Hans Feldmeier, a pharmacist from the Baltic Sea town of Warnemünde who never opened the can.

Worried that the lard had passed its expiration date, the 87-year-old recently decided to turn it over to the state for a comprehensive inspection. The response was surprisingly positive. “Overall, the product has a degree of freshness and material composition necessary to be assessed to be satisfactory after 64 years,” according to the State Office for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Security.

The authorities did, however, find minor deficiencies in the lard’s smell and taste, discovering that it was slightly gritty and appeared old, meaning it could not compete with the quality of a fresh sample. Still, it appeared to be fit for human consumption, they said. The office credited the air-tight US can and preservatives for maintaining the lard in such pristine condition over the years.

Feldmeier promptly asked for his tin of lard back, calling it “beautiful” and saying he couldn't imagine parting with it. So the authorities sent it back to him – empty.

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the bastards kept it!

[pirtybirdy]

Yuck! lol To use it is a butter alternative? I'd rather eat a slice of bread dry! lol I wonder if he'll put the can over the mantel as his "centerpiece"? lol

[faceless]

Better with age: Overlooked in cooler, decades-old Wisconsin cheddar going for $10 an ounce
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 31, 2012

A recently discovered block of eastern Wisconsin cheddar cheese that dates back to the early '70s will be sold for $10 per ounce. Edward Zahn, 73, was in Z's Cheese Shoppe's walk-in cooler last month, preparing to shut down his Oconto store. He pushed aside stacks of cheese to reveal several wooden boxes that had been overlooked for years. Inside were blocks of unintentionally aged cheddar — 28, 34 and 40 years old — that, some experts say, might comprise the oldest collection of cheese ever assembled and sold to the public.

"It just got overlooked," Zahn told the Wisconsin State Journal of the 40-year-old cheese. "It looks just like the others except it's just a lot sharper. It's got character." Ken McNulty, who owns the Wisconsin Cheese Mart in Milwaukee, bought about 20 pounds of the 40-year-old cheddar and 120 pounds of 34-year cheddar. He declined to reveal the price he paid.

Cheese is often sold by the pound, but McNulty plans to sell the oldest cheese by the ounce so more people can get a taste. "Because there's so little, we didn't want to sell blocks of it on the Web," he told The Associated Press. "We just wanted people to sample it." He said an ounce would be just enough for two people to nibble on. He suggests sampling the vintage cheese by itself, not with a cracker or other food that would compete with the flavor. He said he found out about the cheese when Zahn's son called, told him his father was closing up shop and offered to sell some inventory. McNulty, long a fan of Zahn's cheesemaking expertise, said he wanted everything.

McNulty sampled the 40-year-old and 28-year-old blocks, pleasantly surprised that the milk in the cheese hadn't soured. He still hasn't tried the 34-year-old cheese, and acknowledges that he can't assume it will be edible. He plans to cut it open on Oct. 6 as part of a cheese-tasting event at his store.

So what does cheddar taste like when it's been sitting around since 1972, the year "The Godfather" was released and when gas was 55 cents per gallon? "If you get a piece close to the outside, it's all crystallization, so it's crunchy like Corn Flakes," McNulty said. "As you get closer to the interior, it's creamier and overwhelmingly sharp."

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The last two paragraphs contradict each other just a bit eh?