What's the weirdest thing in your fridge?
I'm not talking about mysterious leftovers, I'm talking about the things that a guest in your house would look at and say, "What the heck is this?"
Right now, in my fridge, I've got a quart jar full of fresh whey left over from making yogurt and straining it.
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80 Comments:
These Asian condiments even I don't know what the hell they are because they are written all in Asian language, But they sure make the dishes I make taste good.
pjracz10 at 2:18AM on 11/13/08
Kefir "bichos (bugs)" - hanging out in water with a little sugar to keep them going until they're put back to use in milk again.
thinkingincrayons at 2:30AM on 11/13/08
For a while I had a bag of tiny crispy fat globules that one is supposed to sprinkle over Japanese noodles and a bag of red bean paste. Now it's a tie between tons of lemon zest leftover from my roommate's experiment with making limoncello and a jar of umeboshi (Japanese pickled plum) paste.
emmab at 2:37AM on 11/13/08
A jar of pickled dried figs which I made a few years ago and can't bring myself to eat, and a bottle of distilled witch-hazel!
snowmoonelk at 4:25AM on 11/13/08
A bag of suet, for plum pudding. We get the whole, fresh, unrefined blob from the slaughterhouse each year, then I render and bag it.
mongoose at 4:53AM on 11/13/08
Camera film (a huge bag), batteries and syringes (for teeth whitening).
floridayaya at 7:40AM on 11/13/08
Swedish sweet pickled anchovies, horseradish jelly, animal rennet, and bluefish cheeks.
schnitzel at 8:09AM on 11/13/08
Sambal Oelek. No one I know would have a clue.
izatryt at 8:22AM on 11/13/08
Splenda. I still use a packet or two of artificial sweetener in my coffee, every morning even though I've cut out faux foods pretty much everywhere else in my diet.
HeartofGlass at 8:57AM on 11/13/08
A jar of cherry hot peppers stuffed with tuna and preserved in oil.
cooked7 at 9:30AM on 11/13/08
A jar that used to contain pepperoncini, that now contains the leftover juice and two peeled hard cooked eggs.
Kerosena at 10:00AM on 11/13/08
Well in my house I never buy unusual items because I cook very dull food. The only thing I have that is slightly different is a bottle of hot sauce that I used 4 drops of and the hubby HATES with a passion! I am just starting to try new items but here in the midwest there is no real oddities to even be found!
love2cook at 10:07AM on 11/13/08
A wet paint brush wrapped in plastic wrap. It's a good way to save the brush for using the next day without having to clean it. Guess you know what I'm doing today.
dhorst at 10:27AM on 11/13/08
Milk thistle and dandelion extract. Homeopathic supplement for my chihuahua.
bodaciousgirl at 11:08AM on 11/13/08
Pickled herring in wine sauce, next to a giant jar of sauerkraut. Yes, I am German and Scandinavian. Oh, and don't even get me started on the number and variety of jars of mustard that I have.
Traveller at 11:14AM on 11/13/08
@Traveller - apropos mustard, I may beat you there:-)
I don't consider it weird though, and I don't know that I have any weird things in my fridge, other than a jar of pickled mango which I really need to get rid of since, apparently, I'm not fond of pickled mango.
Sometimes absolutely ordinary things may seem weird to other people - for instance, my MIL keeps asking me what miso is and why I have 2 kinds of it in the fridge. She also was shocked to discover that I have a bag of prawn shells in my freezer.
brooke29 at 11:45AM on 11/13/08
strawberry moonshine (actually it's in my freezer) It was a wedding present.
missjess at 11:55AM on 11/13/08
missjess i've got peach moonshine lol also syringes and meds, as far as food strange, probably the 6lbs of raw pumpkin seeds i'm planning on turning into roasted flavored and pumpkin seed brittle in the next few days, at least once it stops raining.
huneybumper at 12:10PM on 11/13/08
There's nothing weird in my fridge! I'm Asian so all those Asian pastes, sauces, powders, etc. aren't weird. They're in everyone's fridges, right? :P
I guess if my family were to pick out anything weird, it might be the marmite that I quite honestly should throw out. I haven't opened it in 5 years.
Or they'd gasp and point out how weird I am for NOT having onions, pickled garlic, kim chi, and various items (stinking up) in the fridge.
Cassaendra at 12:31PM on 11/13/08
Nearly empty shelves, empty white wine sleeve, empty meat drawer, even getting a lot of room on the shallow shelves on the door. Trying to use up what I can before I move, but this is getting critical. I do have a bottle of clear orange "stuff" that was given to me by a friend. It came from Africa and she called it African ketchup. I keep thinking about trying it, but haven't broken the seal yet. She didn't know how it tasted - savory or sweet. I'm guessing sweet. It looks like bottled orange jello.
PerkyMac at 12:52PM on 11/13/08
Skunky beer. Not so much weird. More like....a cryin' shame.
juliebugsmama at 12:58PM on 11/13/08
Mango-pineapple jam. Some company sent it to me to try, to possibly write about. It's actually really good on Trader Joe's 10-grain toast with a little butter!
CookiePie at 3:00PM on 11/13/08
Good call, @brooke...I have lots of random scraps of things waiting to become soup in the fridge and freezer-meat scraps, cheese rinds, etc.
Kerosena at 3:21PM on 11/13/08
A dozen cartridges of super-8 film leftover from college. Including some that still need to be developed...
sailordave at 3:23PM on 11/13/08
My roommate likes to put her unfinished Starbucks cups in the fridge. The thought of a reheated latte is vomitous.
All of my stuff is considered weird by others...I have half a dozen hot sauces, provolone stuffed cherry peppers and a giant hunk of ricotta salata that I eat in chunks.
I am a hot sauce and italian cheese FIEND.
sweethunibabi at 11:38PM on 11/13/08
Breast milk for baby's lunch while I'm at work tomorrow.
buffy at 11:50PM on 11/13/08
@ dhorst - I swear I thought this was my husband posting! He shoved a brush and bowl of paint wrapped in foil into our vegetable drawer. . . and it's still there!
csbrown at 9:35AM on 11/14/08
Aloe. Even though it's the middle of November, we keep it in the fridge for random sunburns - especially from football games!
orangeobsession at 10:08AM on 11/14/08
OH! Orangeobsession reminded me of drinks I like to buy that I think most ppl frown upon but tastes and is fun to drink...my cans of grass jelly and aloe drinks. I love being able to chew on chunks of jelly while drinking...which is probably why I love bubble tea so much (with the exception of durian).
Cassaendra at 10:23AM on 11/14/08
I have a carton of 100 year eggs I'm afraid to try. I even turned them around so I don't have to look at the picture of the purple egg on the front every time I open my fridge.
cm82 at 12:17PM on 11/14/08
I guess what's "weird" would depend on who you are. When my husband and I first started dating, he would have considered some ingredients weird. Right now, I have two hefty ham bones waiting to be soup or braising liquid for some greens; a cryo-vac-ed pack of assorted Japanese fish cakes; three good sized Korean radishes/turnips (I only know its Korean name: moo); two bulbs/heads/things of kohlrabi; a stalk of brussels sprouts (love buying 'em that way); some fermented black bean paste; dried tiny anchovies for sauteeing; dried large anchovies for making Korean soup bases; Korean red pepper threads...in my pantry I have dried fernbracken, I could see weirding out some of my neighbors with that one.
wookie at 12:45PM on 11/14/08
Devonshire clotted cream. I've had it for a couple years with no visible change in texture. Bought it as a luxurious treat for "sometime" after having some at a tea shop, haven't opened it because it's the only one I have. =)
@buffy - my youngest is 2 1/2 and still nursing, but I haven't been storing milk in a while. After we had the power outages here in Ohio courtesy of Hurricane Ike, I finally threw out the last few (thawed) bags. I'd been keeping them for sentimental reasons...we did offer one (fully thawed) to the 2 1/2 year old in a bottle, but he took a couple sips and laughed at us, and said "yech". =)
akk328 at 1:43PM on 11/14/08
@floridayaya I keep my batteries there too!
"weirdest" to me makes me think of what ppl say when they see it. I have an absolutely fabulous bottle of Alpen Bitter in the fridge; tastes sort-of like Jagermeister but slightly more citrus-ee or grapefruit-ee. Nice for after a meal.
"Tasting Notes:
Alpenbitter No. 7 is a delicate blend of 11 different alpine grown herbs and botanicals including; cinnamon bark, chamomile, gentian root, sandalwood, cloves, cola nut, curacao, ginger root, cardamom fruit, St. John’s Bread, and Angostura Bark. It has a complex taste, gentle sweetness, and a rich fruity aroma with an understated herbal finish. Alpenbitter can be enjoyed on its own, or in a range of unique tasting cocktails." - Kittling Ridge
who here keeps their PB in the fridge? I've seen it once and been like--what? Am I missing out or what?
hungrychristel at 3:36PM on 11/14/08
@christel - if it is organic/all natural, has no preservatives and the oil can go rancid if not refrigerated. having said that, cold peanut butter (except in ice cream) sounds weird to me too.
akk328 at 3:55PM on 11/14/08
A Jerusalem Cricket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_cricket
It was found late one night; we caught it in an old tupperware container. Being unsure of what to do with it, (and not knowing what it was!), it went into the freezer. Who knows why we haven't removed it now that we know what it is, but I like to think it's our little freezer friend.
Great conversation piece when guests come over.
littlelimelion at 3:58PM on 11/14/08
That reminds me, I had crickets in my fridge when I had a pet lizard in college...
(When they're cold they slow down and they're easier to feed to the lizard and easier for the lizard to catch.)
...now THAT was a creepy thing to have in the fridge.
akk328 at 4:15PM on 11/14/08
My daughter's nail polish.
OmahaMann at 4:56PM on 11/14/08
Garbage (in the freezer). I will splain if required.
bessfour at 4:58PM on 11/14/08
@ Perkymac: I know what you're talking about! It goes by various names depending on the region but it's basically a thin ketchup-like tomato-based sauce, kind of sweet kind of sour, delicious! I used to put it on everything and I have a couple of bottles that I can't bring myself to open... Also in my fridge is a jar of fermented coconut water called M'nazi from Tanzania (local moonshine) that I'm sure is lethal by now and some preserved bee larva from SE Asia that is actually delicious...
oregonpinot at 6:55PM on 11/14/08
@csbrown--If the paint and brush are there too long--offer them up as a utensil and "dressing" the next time you have salad. I got the tip from my 10 year old son who watches home improvement shows, and I was thrilled that it works.
dhorst at 7:24PM on 11/14/08
Umeboshi jam. I got it as a gift from a friend and I'm not sure what to do with it.
omarac at 7:49PM on 11/14/08
A container of seriously unappetizing looking...and seriously deelish homemade Jamaican Jerk sauce.
DeaconVolker at 8:39PM on 11/14/08
Peeled garlic cloves. Five pounds of them (I didn't buy it).
We are only 2; I have no idea how I will get through all of it in 3 weeks.
renzata at 9:32PM on 11/14/08
A human head.
Kidding. Bad joke. I had acupuncture today and the acupuncturist looked exactly like "Dexter" so now I'm obsessing.
Weirdest thing in the frige would probably me a year's worth of "cheese of the month club" cheese. My brother-in-law signed us up for Christmas and we often forget to eat it until it's too late.
Best thing in the frige right now--a pan of rice krispie treats my husband made, using homemade marshmallow. I have the hunger.
maered at 10:13PM on 11/14/08
@izatryt-- I know exactly what u mean. My aunt who lives in my house would put a small bowl of it and the smell will stick to everything else in the fridge and it would drive me nuts! It's worse when she use this stinky Terasi thingy (fermented shrimp paste?) in it.
nindi_18 at 11:44PM on 11/14/08
In the freezer I have a dozen frost-coated egg yolks seperated in an ice cube tray. We watched a show that said to save them when making things like angel food cake as they can be useful. We made angel foodcake - yum -- and it's been months that they have been in there.
blizcheetah at 11:58PM on 11/14/08
@renzata to get some extra life out ofthe garlic cloves, try poaching them in a little veggie stock. SO thought it was cute once seeing the giant container of prepeeled cloves and brought it home. It was either eat garlic and nothing else for the next 2 weeks or find some way to extend its life. I poached it in a little stock till the cloves were mostly soft, and surprisingly the taste was similar to oven roasted, I stored them in the fridge air tight container with a paper towel dampened with oil over the top. It held up really well and made a good add in to soups especially.
huneybumper at 8:46AM on 11/15/08
I'm also guilty of the nail polish in the fridge. It's just a habit I picked up from my grandmother. Of course, she only kept the Chanel polish in the fridge. The rest was left out to remain room temperature.
lwalther at 8:53AM on 11/15/08
I'm notorious for keeping bagged rice and grits in the refrigerator. I cook most everyday and buy fresh vegetables regularly so my refrigerator looks like June Cleaver's. However, I do have a tube of anchovy paste which I love to use in ragus and sauces.
deber at 9:16AM on 11/15/08
Vacuum sealed bags of chestnuts, whole and ground, from our tree out front last year. This year's crop was bad but we have pounds leftover from last year.
KTempesta at 11:04PM on 11/15/08
Odd is in the beholder, right? Many people think that my my little tupperware container of clarified bacon grease is odd until they taste something that I've sauted in it. Then they are enlightened and become ONE with the glory that is the pig.
Bunnyman at 12:48AM on 11/16/08
chayote espinosa. (don't know the English name, but espinosa means spiky or thorny) I had never heard or seen it till last weekend but my boyfriend is really excited and slightly nostalgic about it. Apparently, he had it a lot as a kid in a village in Mexico. But I don't want to touch it! (no really, its covered in thorns and it hurts to hold).
I also have preserved lemons that might be strange to some people.
blankplate at 8:40AM on 11/16/08
Not so much weirdness after hurricane Ike. Had to toss a bunch of "interesting" stuff, including fermented shrimp paste, and most tragically, my master looing sauce, which I'd had some form of for at least ten years. Sob.
Right now my little condiment drawer has miso paste, dried salted turnips, fermented black beans, dried tangerine peels. Not that weird, huh?
hungryinhouston at 11:08AM on 11/16/08
i have a jar of whey from yogurt in the freezer, too.
since i just cleaned it, nothing too untoward in there at the moment, except for perhaps a bag of nutritional yeast. i like to sprinkle it on popcorn and use it in vegetable stock and vegetarian soups, a great tip for deepening flavor from edward espe brown.
cybercita at 12:23PM on 11/16/08
@bessfour - I have compostables in my freezer! I can't compost in my second-floor apartment so I keep bags of trimmings in the freezer and take them to the greenmarket compost stand every week. I don't think anything in my fridge is weird, but I'm probably not the best person to ask.
producestories at 7:41PM on 11/16/08
I have some hundred-year eggs too. But not in the fridge.
I have some sugar syrup from a year ago - it was left over after I candied a whole bunch of orange peel. I kept saying I'd add it to tea, but never did. Oh well.
shoneyjoe at 7:41PM on 11/16/08
In the freezer there is a margarine container full of some sort of berry mixture. I have no idea what it is or who put it there. I live by myself.
Marls Barkley at 7:52PM on 11/16/08
@Maris ~ you never know what could happen when you have tubs of margarine around..........that stuff is evil. call 911 and get out, NOW!
PerkyMac at 8:00PM on 11/16/08
I have some turkey liverwurst in a tube and salt cod.
Goodythecook at 9:45PM on 11/16/08
Flu vaccine(my wife is a nurse)
nhfoodie at 9:14AM on 11/17/08
Rectal suppositories! For nausia and vomiting.
queenlalisa at 9:57AM on 11/17/08
@ Bunnyman (or anyone else who knows):
How do you clarify bacon grease? I've heard it's a delicious alternative to olive oil or what-have-you, but when I make bacon (usually in a cast-iron skillet) the leftover grease is full of brown bits and gunk. Any advice on saving and reusing it?
cupcakelust at 2:11PM on 11/17/08
As previous posters have mentioned, I think it all depends on who you ask!
Some of the more unusual items in our fridge and freezer include miso, kishke, vegetarian salmon fillet, vegetarian fish sauce, and lime leaves.
ophelia783 at 3:17PM on 11/17/08
I had a puppy in my freezer for a few days. She was the only stillborn in a litter of seven and we weren't quite sure how to dispose of her body so we put her in the freezer in a Ziploc bag for a few days til we figured it out.
Jilly at 3:33PM on 11/17/08
@Jilly--oh, that's so sad.
dhorst at 3:43PM on 11/17/08
An empty can of Cougar Gold Cheese from Washington State University.
EMPTY!!
I just can't seem to throw it out!
Hunnyoil at 4:59PM on 11/17/08
Jilly wins.......
Hunnyoil at 5:02PM on 11/17/08
Years ago some member of the family put a very large black plastic beetle into the fridge in hopes of scaring the rest of us. We keep shifting the beetle around as fancy dictates and it's become a permanent fixture. We moved a few years ago and the beetle now lives in our new fridge, even though it's only counter depth and there isn't much room in there.
tessadec at 5:49PM on 11/17/08
My compost. It's in the freezer actually. I'm too lazy to take it out every day and I hate bugs. So into the freezer it goes, and out comes a bug-free, smell-free compostsicle! (Which as an urban dweller, I deliver to my yard waste container about once a week.)
Beth M. at 7:35PM on 11/17/08
A couple of homemade salted duck eggs. Some cured fat pork that makes a hollow "toktok" sound when you smack it against the counter.
A single solitary little scallop snack (a whole scallop, frilly mantle and all, seasoned and half dried and individually packaged in plastic. If you look closely enough you can see the multitudes of little black "eyes" dotting its edge)
The crisper is full of dried fungus, conpoy, squid, fish.
The fruit bin is where the veggies live, now.
fuuchan at 12:13AM on 11/18/08
Come to think of it last year I had ladybugs in the fridge. I had mail ordered them for the garden (natural pest control), and the company said it was best to release them at night after a chill in the fridge.
dhorst at 9:40AM on 11/18/08
I suppose weird is relative; for example, I'm not certain whether or not the little pot of duck fat counts a weird.
The weirdest (perhaps 'inappropriate' would be a better term) thing I've ever had in the refrigerator was the cat I was dissecting in my Vert. anat. class. I brought it home so I could do some illustrations of it, and kept it in the otherwise unused vegetable crisper drawer.
mongoose at 10:12AM on 11/18/08
I have the hundred/thousand year old eggs too, along with bamboo shoots in chili oil. Apartment visitors from non-asian households are sometimes puzzled by them. The first "weird" thing I thought of was actually preserved black truffle I have. It looks like a gnome passed a kidney stone in a tiny jar. (Btw, I don't recommend preserved truffles. Truffle salt packs much more truffle punch for the price.)
JH4285 at 11:14AM on 11/18/08
umm.
a deer head. kind of like the godfather, but a deer.
are deer brains edible? i'm not sure i could do it but it would be a gnarly bet. let me know if anybody has a recipe.
natemcguire at 1:59PM on 11/18/08
An emu egg. Anyone know how long those last?
Tara Mataraza Desmond at 2:40PM on 11/18/08
as I am a poor college student, my shared mini-fridge has two things of mine in it: a bag of green onions (for to make ramen more better) and some smoked gouda cheese.
my roommates additions are miller light, and cookie dough, to be consumed raw.
guess which one of us is a culinary major, and which one is an engineering major? lol
delilah at 2:50PM on 11/18/08
Nate, according to this site deer brains are indeed edible. I'll stick to the rest of the deer, thank you.
nightowl at 2:56PM on 11/18/08
****warning really gross*****
We had a placenta in the freezer...... my crunchy granola step sister heard that the "afterbirth" makes great fertilizer and that it is traditional to bury it under a tree. When she heard that there is a new tree in the backyard she sent it over to be planted under the tree. eeew
Sweetie at 4:20PM on 11/18/08
And ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
maered at 11:32PM on 11/18/08
How about a Georgian (the country, not the state) sauce made from sour green plums? I'd tell you the name, but it is in a cyrillic script! Pretty good but I haven't had an inspiration yet for what to do with it.
MichaelNatkin at 9:57AM on 11/19/08