What’s the oldest comestible in your kitchen cupboards?

I just found a bag of pearl barley with a best-before date of 2012. Pretty sure the cardamom pods predate my children and the star anise have seen at least two house moves. What about you?

The shelves on the back of the door to our pantry have a part used jar of dried (when bought) juniper berries purchased in a supermarket in Luxembourg whilst I was working for a firm selling stuff driving to customers in near Europe. That employment ceased in '98.

It never goes off, but we have an unopened bottle of absinthe that has moved house four times with us. It’s s good luck charm now.

My Grandad had a can of Ovaltine in his cupboard dated 1986 that “was still good”

Ovaltine in his cupboard dated 1986

That will be the good stuff from Kings Langley;
http://www.kingslangley.org.uk/ovaltine.html

Very strong start to this thread. My wife has different ideas about shelf life, so I lost a lot of herbs that were very dear to me when we moved in together. Other people’s kitchen cupboards are an endless source of fascination for me.

Dried lentils that expired three years ago but they’re still fine.

Incredible. Like a citrus-y Turin Shroud.

Lentils are the cockroaches of food: bombproof.

When I was very young, I had a fascination with taking labels off the tins in my parents’ kitchen. Most of the time I was caught after one or two. But once I managed to remove all the labels from all the tins. My father grimly recounts the story of having ‘cupboard surprise’ for dinner for weeks afterwards. But there was one tin left that they never opened - I assume because he got fed up with this. So I remember the somewhat tarnished silver tin sat there in the same cupboard for years until we moved house and I assume it was disposed of, as I never saw it again.
CSB, etc.

You guys are so boring. I have a 40 year old uncracked emu egg in the cupboard.

Any Iranian in your family?
https://ottolenghi.co.uk/whole-dried-lime-shop

Other over-priced metropolitan elite online shops are available

I was about to have some porridge when visiting parents a few years ago, I recognised the box, a cereal box from my childhood. That familiar red and blue box with an old quaker fellow at the top, I remembered him sitting next to boxes of honey nut loops and special K; Chris Evans was on the radio1 breakfast show, we all had spliffy jackets and world dance record bags.

checked the use by date.

1992

it survived a house move in 1994 and a two kitchen refits.

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I went to many World Dance events! Hardcore oats.

Whole Cardamoms dated Nov 2002. There still good ! (?)

I finally finished this tub of (insert secret ingredient here) the other day. Nom nom nom

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I've only just found this thread. Last week I finished a large tub of yoghurt which was dated best before 28th April. Still tasted like yoghurt when I finished it.

Haha famous last words
Apart from that, great thread, we have two boxes with loads of overdue stuff in it.

I just had look in the fridge and there is a jar of jam from Ikea that went off in 2018.

that went off

*citation needed

Go on, do it

Lingonberry?

I've got herbs, spices and a bottle of fish sauce that theoretically expired in 2009 and have survived three house purchases.

Looks fine! I don't eat a lot of jam.

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Soy sauce, I bought some of that once. Hardly touched it in 20 years.

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How? I use about a bottle every 3 months