# Will I Die?



## a pine tree (Jun 20, 2010)

...well, not die, but will I spend an evening on the toilet?

I found a package of Tollhouse cookie dough in the back of my fridge with:
BETTER BY 6 JULY 2010
Notice it reads "better," not "best" or "use by." The dough doesn't smell/look/taste funny, but I've never eaten this stuff before so I don't know what to look for... It contains egg and milk.

What say ye?


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## ZachGranstrom (Mar 11, 2010)

You should be OK..... However, just in case anything does happen, here is a list of funeral homes: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&...roup&ct=more-results&resnum=6&ved=0CF8QtQMwBQ

-Zach


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## a pine tree (Jun 20, 2010)

Quite reassuring!


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

You'll be okay. 

I cheated recently myself and used pre-packaged cookie dough... and then got a good thrashing for it from my girlfriend. Don't mess with someone whose parents were trained as professional chefs.


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## Miket61 (Mar 1, 2008)

I wouldn't eat it raw, but baking it you should be fine.

Expiration dates mean different things for different products. Some lose their effectiveness, some spoil, and some just aren't as good as they should be. Sounds like your refrigerated cookie dough falls into the latter category.

Personally, I make cookies from scratch. Butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, vanilla, chocolate chips, and nuts. Bring the butter and eggs to room temperature, throw everything in a bowl and stir it up, then put little blobs of it on a cooke sheet.


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## a pine tree (Jun 20, 2010)

Jovan/Mike- I certainly didn't buy it, I didn't even know it was there! I'm a "make everything from scratch" guy myself, but hey, it was near midnight and I wanted a hot cookie. 
They taste awful by the way, but I can't tell if it is because they are slightly old or if it is that lovely "factory homemade" Tollhouse taste (ie too much butter, too much sugar, and just a hint of plastic).
Delicious.


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

The ones I made (much to my s/o's chagrin) were Publix house brand and they weren't too bad. There's something about homemade that trumps it, however. Perhaps, if I were to get corny, it's the love put into them?


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## a pine tree (Jun 20, 2010)

Jovan said:


> The ones I made (much to my s/o's chagrin) were Publix house brand and they weren't too bad. There's something about homemade that trumps it, however. *Perhaps, if I were to get corny, it's the love put into them?*


Agreed. Plus, homemade sweets don't taste as generic.


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## ZachGranstrom (Mar 11, 2010)

^^^^
Wait......you're still alive? (just kidding)


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## a pine tree (Jun 20, 2010)

I actually just met my sister in the park and gave her the entire batch. Although, I didn't tell her the dough had expired :devil:. She loved them (and so did the pigeons).


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

"Best before" and "use by" dates on tinned, conserved and packaged dry-goods are so consumer-safe as to be questionable. (Fresh produce is another thing altogether) The subject has been very much in discussion recently in Sweden, in that the Swedish Consumer Agency is challenging the food industry to explain why dates on certain foods are so short, for example, instant coffee, tinned fruit and veg. Obviosuly the food industry earns more money by people buying food more often i.e. adhering rigidly to the best before dates through fear of food poisoning, the most obvious example is freeze dried instant coffee, which is still perfectly okay up to several years after best before date, I know that for a fact, so does the industry and so does the Swedish Consumer Agency. 
Marmite is another one, I have a jar at home, best before 2008, still perfectly edible...makes me wonder why and how though?


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## JJR512 (May 18, 2010)

The only commercially-packaged food product I know that has no (or at least, needs no) expiration date is honey. If it is sealed against moisture and kept in a temperature-stable area, honey will keep indefinitely. By "indefinitely", I mean that honey originally stored hundreds of years ago has been eaten with no ill effects and tested and found to be identical to fresh honey.


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## a pine tree (Jun 20, 2010)

Interesting. I just looked at the honey in my pantry and it "expires" in 2012. Good to know that it can't _really_ go bad. I remember finding an old jar of honey years back, it had almost completely crystalized into a honey-flavored hard candy!


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## JJR512 (May 18, 2010)

That's from exposure to moisture. I forget if it's safe to eat at that point or not, but I suspect that it is.


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