What's Safe in the Pantry?

November 10, 2023

my wife made this beef stroganoff with an opened chicken broth she had been keeping in the pantry

anyways, if I need to be hospitalized this right here is why

(editor’s note: I was fine)

As a quick guideline, here are things you can keep safely outside of the fridge after opening:

vinegars
oils
dry goods
rice, pasta
breads, pastries
cookies, biscuits
(unopened) tins, jars
jerky
the UNNATURAL peanut butters (you know, the good ones)
cookies, crackers
most alcohol - excepting cream-based ones and low-proof, low-sugar ones (vermouth) which should be refrigerated

basically, if it has no liquid, lots of alcohol, lots of sugar, or lots of acid you’re usually in the clear.

Jury’s kind of out on hot-sauces, ketchup and HP sauce which have a medium-high amount of sugar and acid in them: sometimes you’ll see them in someone’s pantry and go “ick”, but it’s probably fine.

Chicken broth, on the other hand, even with its high salt content, is basically just ‘warm, nourishing liquid’, you might as well put your bacteria in that agar gel that biologists use to feed it.