Cooking For Engineers

[Michael Chu]

[Joy]

I don't remember exactly where I got this fact but freshly squeezed orange juice looses 30 of its vitamin C the first five minutes it is exposed to the air and nearly all of it within a half hour. I'm pretty sure I got this from a juicing manual but I can't swear by it. I WILL drink the "not from concentrate" OJ but just knowing that all the vitamin C in there is man-made and added kind of bums me.

[Guest]

In a fit of thirst, I drank some orange juice from a tetrabrick box that had turned an unappetizing brown. It tasted ok but now this acid-y taste keeps burping up. Otherwise, no ill effects.

[chefzimz]

i just bought some orange juice from my local liquor store. After mixing it with a half pint of shmirnof blue label i noticed that the expiration date was more than six months ago. I thought about it then said screw it, its 2am and all liquor stores are closed so i drank it. Now i am worrying about whether or not I will become deathly ill so I looked it up on the internet and discovered this blog. I feel fine right now, but i am very drunk. the orange juice was dark brown and looked nothing like orange juice should. I will write another response tomaroww depending apon my condition. If none of you hear back from me you should assume that I have died.

chefzimz@yahoo.com

[PatrynXX]

Usually I end up with the bad milk end. Curdled milk, curdled scream.

Never ran into bad OJ. Shoulda known. Opened up the container (it was a frozen sort, mixed with water eventually) about 2 inches left. I opened it up and it inhaled air. Not a good sign, but smelled it and smelled fine. Poured a glass and gave a good swig. Might as well of drunk some vodka. It would have tasted better. Stung all the way down. 40 minutes later I still taste the aftertaste. Don't think I'm going to bed just yet. Maybe I should just drink half a bottle of newmans own salad dressing. Pull a Carlin.. Ack it got on me by accident aaaaahhhhhhh...!!!!!

[wheelz]

Turning an O.J. into a B.J.? Sounds like a pretty darn good deal to me.

[Guest]

Ok so now I know about the bottled stuff but now I have another type of inquiry. My girlfriend took a can (carboard type) of frozen orange juice concentrate out of the freezer and put it into the fridge so it'd be easier to mix. Now about 3 months later it's still in the fridge and I'm wondering if it would be safe to mix with water and guzzle down. I'm at home surrounded by 4 ft. of snow, have a wicked O.J. craving, and the only thing I have is this! What should I do???

[jacquie@batnet.com]

I always drink my 'bad' (freshly squeezed, bottled at the store, and then HURLED into the dumpster a day later)...orange juice.
It's great. Frmented, and if I want to make it 'healthy' I throw in some psyllium seed powder. To sweeten --admittedly it IS sourish, fizzy--i throw in either sugar or some whey protein powder.
I am convinced that it's STRICTLY for business reasons, rather than health ones, that food has sell-by dates.
For seven years I've operated the Salivation Army frm the local dumpster here in NorCal. Never once been sick.

One of my friends fell ill, from panic. The other guests that night were less prone to panic about pollution issues. I always prepare my guests for the idea of 'orphan food'. See my food blog at phelanfood.com

[karenp]

Here are the stages from my experience:
1. yummy orange orange juice that tastes, smells and pours like orange juice
2. sits on a shelf in the garage for a year - no refrigeration and not being opened - turns brownish and the heavier part of the juice settles to the bottom - looks yucky. After opening, it tastes less like orange juice - just close your eyes and gulp. It's still fine after opening, for a few weeks, without any fermentation. Not very pleasant looking and not real sweet. Just change the way you think about it and it'll be fine - mix with other juices to tone it down.
3. Several weeks have passed, and you'll know when fermentation has occurred, because when you open the top, you hear the fzzzzzzzzzz sound. Tastes like beer. Since I'm not a beer drinker and find it disgusting, am trying to find a recipe that calls for beer or some fermented or fizzy drink in the baking - like a cake or muffin. It will serve the purpose of some liquid and provide some fermentation for the batter, but obviously has no nutritional value at this point. It' s just a matter of trying to make it useful. I'm all for that!

I don't know if the fizzzzz is strong enough to clean out a toilet bowl. Haven't tried that yet.

[statorbabe]

I didn't have an ice pack for my daughter's lunch bag, so I used a frozen orange juice instead. Needless to say, she never emptied her lunch bag when she returned home from school, right before Christmas. The frozen orange juice container consequently melted, and I took it out of her bag this morning (almost two weeks later). I left the container in the sink, meaning to throw it away when I returned home from work.
When I got home today, the orange juice container was gone, and I didn't think much about it, until my daughter tasted the orange juice that was in the pitcher, and asked why it tasted so "funky". My son had made the juice when he got up this morning, thinking that I had left the juice in the sink to thaw out...He had about 16 ounces of the old juice, and he seems to be no worse for it, yet.

[WHAT'S IN THAT CONTAINER]

Only label I believe in is the one that says what the product is. There are so many products whose quality only degrade and do not present a food safety issue. Most of these foods end up at your Food Bank. I ran a summer food program, never getting any kid sick, on said food.

Now, the other story. The label story. And this is a true story:

Out drinking one night.
spent night at my brother and sisterin-laws.
got up for a swig of oj cause I was so.ooooo thirsty.
chug-a-lug , and came up for air when I realized it was so salty!

What was it?

HER URINE SAMPLE

Couldn't decide if I should vomit and taste it again or leave well enough alone. Decided I couldn't bear the thought of tasting it again and was glad to learn urine can't hurt you it's just well..... you know....pee (and minerals, water)

It may say OJ on the bottle but it doesn't mean it is OJ!!!

[Hamil]

For the second time recently, I mixed up some frozen OJ and put it in an old OJ bottle with an air tight cap. I drink the juice from the bottle and this is why it might have fermented?? After mayby a week or so, I open the juice and there is a whoosh or fizz. The OJ has fermented and has a tang to it. If I shake the juice it foams. Not a bad taste actually, sort of like a mimosa.

[Guest]

I had a previously opened, refrigerated bottle of Indian River Select Valencia OJ (NOT from concentrate, pasteurized) in my refrigerator. It was still orange in color. I shook it up before I poured the last 12 oz into a glass and drank all of it. It tasted fine, I didn't notice any loss of flavor. The "best by" date was 12/17/09, so that makes it over 7 months past the "best by" date !!! I saw at the end of the original article that the lady at the OJ company suggested that once you open OJ, it should be refrigerated and if not consumed, thrown away no longer than a week later. REMEMBER, they're in the business of selling you MORE OJ !!! They don't care if you keep throwing away your unfinished OJ just because it has been open more than a week, they want to sell you "fresh" OJ EVERY week, NOT when you finish drinking your "old" OJ.

[just wondering?]

I put vodka in some orange juice and left it in my fridge for about a month ive been told that i shouldnt drink it coz the orange juice would have gone bad but because theres vodka in it then it would last longer right?

[Guest]

Just curious.