WEevils

Craig1 · Guru

WEevils

Tony Bev · Guru

Perhaps the supermarkets could put signs up, explaining about use-by dates

I am not a shopper, (so I may be wrong here)

My understanding is that

Food WILL spoil after the use-by date
Food MAY spoil after the best to use by date

Mike Harding · Guru

It would be ten years past now... I was deep in the High Country had been there for two weeks and run out of bread, much too far to drive out for a loaf but I knew I had a couple of packs of bread mix tucked away so I dug them out and noticed they were five years out of date. Well, needs must, so I checked them for weevils (not that I'd know what a weevil looks like) and baked them - they made delightful bread.

I normally buy rice in 10kg or 25kg bags from Springvale, new season Thai Jasmine rice can't beat it. However now that I have no live-in family it lasts a long time and I noticed the last batch, towards its end, had some small creatures in the rice saucepan. They are some sort of rice weevil and, apparently, harmless so I fished out the ones I could catch and ate the others, no harm has befallen me :)

"Use by" dates should be considered rather than taken as gospel.

Whenarewethere · Guru

If it's sealed in plastic stick it in the freezer for 24 hours.

If it's in paper, wrap & seal as best as one can. Stick it in the freezer for 24 hour. Then place in fridge for 24 hours. If it fits in the butter compartment then stick it there for 24 hours. You need to raise the temperature slowly to avoid condensation.

Izabarack · Guru

Lesson from the Doomsday Preppers is to vacuum seal flour and rice then freeze for about 48 hours. The freezing kills the weevil eggs.

Iza

-- Edited by Izabarack on Friday 27th of March 2020 07:20:13 PM

iana · Guru

Here's me thinking this subject was about an evil dougWE

Craig1 · Guru

Bit of a typo there Ina, No way could we suggest Chief was ever weevil. Chief Sitting Bull maybe, Chief Little Wolf, nah, father to Makita, a great singer. Running Bear, well not much of a swimmer.

Cupie · Guru

I put a few bay leaves in any opened container of things like pasta, flour or the like. If you want to be neat then just sticky tape them to the underside of the lid.

Because I have an ample supply from a Bay Tree in the garden, I also spread small branches about all my van drawers & cupboards.

The freezer idea sounds good. I'll give that a go too even though I never get weevils.

Mike Harding · Guru

Don't bay leaves have cyanide in their stems... or something...?

Cupie · Guru

Mike Harding wrote:
Don't bay leaves have cyanide in their stems... or something...?

Perhaps. I don't know but people have been using them in cooking (and selling them as spices) for many generations.

You may be referring to the California Laurel Cherry and not the Noble/Bay Laurel

(The leaves contain about 1.3% essential oils (ol. lauri folii), consisting of 45% eucalyptol, 12% other terpenes, 8-12% terpinyl acetate, 34% sesquiterpenes, 3% methyleugenol, and other - and -pinenes, phellandrene, linalool, geraniol, terpineol, and contain lauric acid also.)

Crushed sweet bay and redbay leaves have a wonderful bay aroma while laurel cherry smells like bitter almonds or artificial cherry scent. That bitter almond smell is poisonous cyanide and the so the leaves of the laurel cherry should not be used as a seasoning or consumed in any other manner.

Some members of the laurel family, as well as the unrelated but visually similar mountain laurel and cherry laurel, have leaves that are poisonous to humans and livestock.^[11] While these plants are not sold anywhere for culinary use, their visual similarity to bay leaves has led to the oft-repeated belief that bay leaves should be removed from food after cooking because they are poisonous. This is not true; bay leaves may be eaten without toxic effect. However, they remain unpleasantly stiff even after thorough cooking, and if swallowed whole or in large pieces, they may pose a risk of harming the digestive tract or causing choking.^[13] Thus, most recipes that use bay leaves will recommend their removal after the cooking process has finished.^[14]

villatranquilla · Guru

a few years ago I was cooking for a small mustering team near the Burdekin Dam. The last meal of the week before the men left the property for a few days off was a beef stew. Simmered all afternoon and about an hour before serving time thickened it with flour. Half an hour later I noticed white things floating on the top of the stew.
OMG - must be maggots. I was distraught because there was nothing else out of the freezer to cook. Husband came in and I showed him the big problem. A'h, he said its weevils. Having lived in a cooler climate I had never seen or had this problem before. So I just kept stirring and scooping and by dinner time there was not a weevil to be seen. Flour stayed in the freezer from then on.