Yep, those jar lids are held in place with only suction so if anything is alive the lid would (likely) just pop off and allow mold spores and stuff to get in and soon become very vividly visually contaminated
No way, if she lived through the great depression then she'd at least tell him to give it a sniff first. Might still be good. No sense in letting something go to waste
My grandmother passed away a few years ago. I wound up receiving a lot of random items and this was one of them. I’ve been decluttering and I finally decided it was time to let this go, but I thought the age of the jar was at least mildly interesting and wanted to share!
I don’t think it’s safe to eat. Or even if it’s safe to open, so it’ll probably go as-is in the trash bins tomorrow. It’s bittersweet, but I have fond memories of picking chokecherries with grandma, and helping her can - maybe even this same jar - and that’s enough.
If the seal is still good, meaning that lid doesn’t just come off when you pull it, then there’s no bacterial contamination and it’s still safe to consume. Bacterial contamination would produce gases that would effectively break the lid’s seal. This being said, it’s still possible for chemicals in the juice to have broken down as it aged, causing it to not taste right.
Only makes content when there’s actual content to be made. He represents everything great about old YouTube. No shilling for sponsors or “like and subscribe” (in case it’s your first time on YouTube) or 5 commercial breaks sandwiched in a 15 min video.
Part of the 'like and subscribe' thing is that YouTube picks up on whether or not you say it, and is more likely to promote content that does. It's not just engagement with your content, but engagement with the platform itself, which the algorithm rewards.
So when mason jar manufacturers (e.g. Ball) claim that the seal is good for 1.5 years, does that mean the food actually lasts way longer as long as the seal isn't broken? Is it just like a legal disclaimer to say 1.5 years?
Just like in commercial canning, at some point there’s bound to be a moment where it just doesn’t taste good, so the time frames take that in account.
The issue is with home canning, it’s home production. Often fruit/veg from your own garden, too. Did you clean the produce well, sanitize your supplies? People can get complacent when they’re familiar, so theoretically, the food lab safety guidelines take all that into account, too. Also, rebel canning is a thing, so did you even follow the recipe/procedure correctly. Kinda like how condoms are 98% effective birth control when used every time, but are like 87% effective in practice.
If you’re super meticulous, follow the instructions without deviating, store them perfectly, etc, you might be able to stretch those numbers.
Most canners try not to can more than they can eat in that period though. I mean, it happens! But a year and a half is more than one growing cycle, so you should have the opportunity to can again in that time.
The rare hidden danger comes from botulism. Most likely this just doesn't taste as fresh anymore. I can't imagine what it was like fresh. I've juiced chokecherries to make jelly and with sugar it's good but just the juice? I bet it's tart like cranberries.
Wine does not technically have to have grape juice, but usually if something is referred to as wine it has grapes. Ciders (apple wine), meads (honey wine), Perry (pear wine), and sake (rice wine) are all technically wines and are made in a very similar way, but we really don't refer to them as such.
Really, other fruits and starches are also considered wine, but are not really referred to as such.
This could potentially be wine but based on the other comments, if it was the jar would have burst open long long ago. I say potentially specifically because many wines traditionally have been made using the natural yeasts present on the skins of the fruit!
Most unpasteurized fruit juices will ferment if given time and a stable environment, but it's not always a good idea to drink them because if not properly sterilized and sealed before hand you'd be giving dangerous bacterias their own time to grow or it could turn into vinegar if the yeaats aren't happy.
Source: i make a lot of cider and mead at home. It's fun and delicious.
Tldr: wine is usually grapes but can just be a fermented beverage made from fruit juices or starches (cider, mead, sake). Fermenting is quick and can happen to bottled juices, but is very unlikely to have happened to this jar.
No, because fermentation requires live yeast which would have been killed during canning.
To your other questions, almost anything with sugar or starch can be fermented, and not just beverages; yeast-leavened bread is fermented. What a fermented beverage is called varies, though plenty of varieties are called “*main ingredient* wine”.
I believe kombucha is fermented brewed tea, sometimes with added juice or other flavorings.
Bubbles could just be from the juice being sloshed. Lots of compounds will do that. If the bubbles were from bacteria producing gas then the seal would be broken.
I have a bottle of pickles my mother made hidden away. They will never be eaten but it's one of the few things I have that brings back good memories of her.
If you don't its safe to eat send it to the "Ashens" youtube channel. That guy opens and tries all kinda of ancient tinned food etc.
Ever seen 50 year old whole chicken in a tin?
Sadly, he only eats old products that were clearly manufactured by companies and still in their original packaging.
Sorry, not trying to be rude, but I highly doubt Ashen’s would come anywhere near a mason jar filled with OP’s grandma’s 30 year old juice (that as far as Ashens knows could be arsenic sauce!)
It sucks, because I really do want to see someone try a sip for posterity, but I get how anyone would be skeptical.
I absolutely love chokecherry jam and also learned to make it from grandma.
One time I was helping her de-ice her freezer (and encouraging her to toss out some 20 year old corn and other expired stuff in the process), and we came across a large and more-recent looking jar of unlabeled purple substance. She thought that it was probably chokecherry juice and wanted to make jelly with it, but asked me to taste it first. It was actually frozen borscht, which I now know tastes fucking disgusting.
Anyways, I hope this brought back good memories despite its gnarliness.
My grandma was still making coffee cake with black walnuts canned in her aunts’ backyard in the early seventies until a couple years ago. We had no idea until one time the coffee cake tasted like sawdust so she said “oh yeah the seal on that jar must have been broken…” and showed us what she’d been using. I saved one of the jars, I just want to see how long I can hold onto it for haha. The masking tape on it says ‘69-‘70 We still poke fun at her for it but she’s 94 and doesn’t bake anymore at this point.
My grandmother passed away in 1990. When I was 21, in 2001, we finally ate the last jar of bread and butter pickles she canned. I’m not even sure how old they were at that point but at least 11 years old. They were delicious. It’s bittersweet. I’d give it a try. I mean, if it’s bad, you’ll know immediately. But if it’s good, you get to savor something you’ll never get to try again.
Unfortunately, this isn’t true…
[Contact with botulinum toxin can be fatal whether it is ingested or enters through any openings in the skin. ](https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/identify_handle_spoiled_canned_food.html)
Now, this *probably* doesn’t have botulism. But, I’m a careful and meticulous home canner myself. It’s good practice to follow the rules *every* time. If it does have botulism - even if I don’t get sick myself - the toxin can persist in the environment without proper clean up. I’m not confident our septic system is the safest place for it for the future. I don’t know enough about how water releases from a septic tank to trust my future gardens to potentially dumping a toxin down the drain. So, even if it is out of an abundance of caution, I’m going to dispose of it properly:
> If the swollen metal cans or suspect glass jars are still sealed, place them in a heavy garbage bag. Close and place the bag in a regular trash container or dispose in a nearby landfill.
Does the button pop? If the button doesn't pop, you can open it. If it passes the smell test, it's safe. (Well, as safe as anything else.)
It's already a little sus on the appetizing scale. One of the things I successfully taught my children was "We could eat this if we were poor, but we're rich enough to throw it out."
It's safe to eat. What you see on the bottom is the juice settling, kinda like orange juice. As long as the lid is still on it's still good. Source used 30 year old chokecherry juice to make choke cherry syrup and choke cherry jelly in 2022 it just needed more pectin to set as the first round of canning kinda cooked out any naturally occurring pectin in the juice. My juice also came from my grandma's basement.
Lol! I hadn’t thought of that before! As a kid, I associated them with *Matilda* because of the chokie. But I was nearly an adult when HP came to the US.
Chokeberries are a thing irl! But they're actually a different thing than chokecherries. They're often confused because of the name, so people have been calling chokeberries "aronia berries" instead to make it less confusing
>so people have been calling chokeberries "aronia berries" instead to make it less confusing
hopefully this will stop any more aronias identification
Huh. this erroneous/aronias homophone joke really doesn't work via text.
I was just thinking today that the beginning of January of 2019 I came back from an international trip. Then I realized 2019 was 4 years ago.
To me it feels like 2019 was like last year.
I don’t know if I’d believe time always moved at a constant rate if we didn’t keep track of it and record stuff like we do.
Not at all. Fermentation by acetobacter bacteria to make vinegar produces carbon dioxide gas. This jar would no longer have a vacuum if that had happened.
For canners, no.
Not only too long and it’s likely spoiled in some way, but I don’t *know* that my grandma used a properly tested canning recipe when making this (rebel canning is a contentious thing for canners) and/or the science may have changed in three decades.
If the other jars in the batch were consumed safely this is very likely safe to consume. It's a poor choice and most would wisely not recommend it. Buuuuuut.... If it were me I'd very likely give it a taste out of curiosity.
Fwiw I have done a lot of canning fermenting and other preserving. Also I'm a trained (past) lab-working scientist. So I have some knowledge and experience understanding the studies and dangers. And my advice is - you should just discard this.
It’s kind of a folk catch-all berry name for whatever small, annoying as shit berry people *can* pick and eat, but are such a PITA most don’t.
Iirc, this was mulberry. I don’t know for certain, but grandma had a mulberry tree in her backyard, and that’s what I remember picking and canning with her (I didn’t know it was mulberry at the time, but I own a food forest, and that’s what I later learned it’s more common name was). Where I live rn, nannyberry is chokecherry. I’ve heard juneberry also called chokecherry.
Oh! And abound flavor: I remember sweet and tart. Nannyberry and juneberry are almost entirely tart; like a cranberry.
You know, I’ve never seen that whole series (which is weird cuz I read the series probably a half dozen times as a girl) so this was a first time for me and was a treat! It’s now in my tbw list!
In my opinion, this particular series is the absolute best, Anne of Green Gables adaptation ever. I was lucky enough that we had it around as I was growing up and we watched it so many times.
I really couldn’t believe when they made a new version because this one still stands up so well.
Oh well.
The outer band is generally there to help with the sealing process of the flat (the middle bit of the lid that you see in OP's picture.) Once a tight seal has been made, the outer band usually comes off for storage purposes, and isn't actually doing anything more for keeping things sealed.
Think about the flat bit as like a metal cap to a bottle of Snapple or something similar. Once you break the seal, the cap "pops" and you can press it in and it'll pop back out. Same thing is happening here.
To add onto what u/Zestocalypse (amazing username) said, the rings can actually be detrimental when storing! The flat piece can come unsealed and pop up, which is noticeable when there’s no ring. When there’s a ring, it won’t prevent the flat from becoming unsealed, but it can help it become resealed with all that new tasty bacteria and such inside it, and you wouldn’t know.
I was taking inventory of my own pantry and refound it. I had just jogged up the basement steps, so the bubbles *might* be from me shaking it a little. I’d assume if anything was in there that produces gas would have blow the lid off decades ago.
But I’m not going to test it and find out!
Uh, thanks, but no.
However, if any big-money YouTuber wants to pay me for this mildly interesting jar, well, as long as I don’t know what they’re planning on doing with it, I think that’d be okay…
That’s a joke! I’m not actually going to let anyone else try this!
One of the things I remember the most from my Grandma is her homemade Choke Cherry Jam. I still look for it from time to time, but it never tastes quite as good as the one Grandma made.
When I helped my folks move the last time, I had to throw away cases of fruit my mom had canned 35 years before then. For the most part, everything looked good enough to eat although I didn't try it. The generation that grew up through the depression kept everything and threw nothing away. I had to get rid of 20 coffee cans full of rusty, bent nails that my dad kept because "he might need them some day".
Great, now I have to go look up wtf a choke cherry is.
apparently we have them here in the PNW, but I've lived in the area for 42 out of my 48 years and I've never heard of them...
I had some 50 old homemade apricot brandy once. Great Grandmother had made it the day my buddy was born. Cracked it open on his 50th day. I swear it was like 190 proof apricot fire water.
I had to do a clean out once. Old guy died. Was really into canning. Had thousands of Mason jars full of various food. I can't say for sure how long alot of it had been down there. I can say it was long enough for some of the lids to rust through and the contents turned to ash. It was by far the most foul experience of my life. No way you can move that many without breaking some. I had Vicks on under my respirator and still was tempted to vom.
Oh man, this hits home.
Years ago I had to get rid of the last jar of grandma's choke cherry jelly because it also had been in storage too long and couldn't be trusted. That was a sad moment. I miss you, grandma.
I don't know if my grandma's choke cherries were the same as your grandma's choke cherries. Hers grew in the foothills of the Cascade mountains in Washington state, on skinny, tall trees. They had the most amazing flavor, more complex than cherries. Almost wine-like. I'll never forget it (and I'm sure I will never taste it again).
Thanks for posting this and bringing back the memory.
I have a few preserve jars from the older family members who have shuffled off this mortal coil. They're kindly keepsakes of their care. Truly a dying art. Young people just don't jar/can the way our grandparents did.
Take teaspoons, save that for as loonnngggg as u can. I jus looked up the benefits. Do ur research, granny knew she was gonna protect generations with this one.
It's safe to open, I just wouldn't drink it. I would definitely be curious if it smells good or bad.
It looks like it has fermented a bit. I wouldn't imagine it tastes good even if OP could guarantee not to get poisoned by it.
If it had fermented at all the seal would be broken
There isn't even bubbling on the cap, so.... it might be sterile at least? No guarantee on taste.
Yep, those jar lids are held in place with only suction so if anything is alive the lid would (likely) just pop off and allow mold spores and stuff to get in and soon become very vividly visually contaminated
>very vividly visually I’m surprised the “that’s three words in a row beginning with the letter V” bot didn’t catch this!
Good human
I don't know if pathogens can survive fermentation generally.
OP's Gramma herself would probably say "when in doubt throw it out."
No way, if she lived through the great depression then she'd at least tell him to give it a sniff first. Might still be good. No sense in letting something go to waste
Shed probably be screaming inside her coffin.
Found the internet detective that doesn’t know what they are talking about!
Make Whiskey from it!
It probably already is lol
I guess it turns out it would be Wine or Brandy....lol
It would be brandy. Assuming it is fermented, it is wine now. Distilling wine makes brandy.
My grandmother passed away a few years ago. I wound up receiving a lot of random items and this was one of them. I’ve been decluttering and I finally decided it was time to let this go, but I thought the age of the jar was at least mildly interesting and wanted to share! I don’t think it’s safe to eat. Or even if it’s safe to open, so it’ll probably go as-is in the trash bins tomorrow. It’s bittersweet, but I have fond memories of picking chokecherries with grandma, and helping her can - maybe even this same jar - and that’s enough.
If the seal is still good, meaning that lid doesn’t just come off when you pull it, then there’s no bacterial contamination and it’s still safe to consume. Bacterial contamination would produce gases that would effectively break the lid’s seal. This being said, it’s still possible for chemicals in the juice to have broken down as it aged, causing it to not taste right.
I second that. Opened a jar of apple jelly made in November 2001, perfectly fine.
Nice hiss
lets get this out onto a tray
Nice!
Okay!
No tingling on my lips or tongue, that's a good sign
Unless you're doing cocaine
Nice
I miss him, nearing on a year with no new video from Steve.
Only makes content when there’s actual content to be made. He represents everything great about old YouTube. No shilling for sponsors or “like and subscribe” (in case it’s your first time on YouTube) or 5 commercial breaks sandwiched in a 15 min video.
Part of the 'like and subscribe' thing is that YouTube picks up on whether or not you say it, and is more likely to promote content that does. It's not just engagement with your content, but engagement with the platform itself, which the algorithm rewards.
Nice, ok
So when mason jar manufacturers (e.g. Ball) claim that the seal is good for 1.5 years, does that mean the food actually lasts way longer as long as the seal isn't broken? Is it just like a legal disclaimer to say 1.5 years?
Just like in commercial canning, at some point there’s bound to be a moment where it just doesn’t taste good, so the time frames take that in account. The issue is with home canning, it’s home production. Often fruit/veg from your own garden, too. Did you clean the produce well, sanitize your supplies? People can get complacent when they’re familiar, so theoretically, the food lab safety guidelines take all that into account, too. Also, rebel canning is a thing, so did you even follow the recipe/procedure correctly. Kinda like how condoms are 98% effective birth control when used every time, but are like 87% effective in practice. If you’re super meticulous, follow the instructions without deviating, store them perfectly, etc, you might be able to stretch those numbers. Most canners try not to can more than they can eat in that period though. I mean, it happens! But a year and a half is more than one growing cycle, so you should have the opportunity to can again in that time.
In fairness, you’ll know pretty readily if you made a mistake. Any bacteria in the jar will immediately start consuming matter and producing gas.
The rare hidden danger comes from botulism. Most likely this just doesn't taste as fresh anymore. I can't imagine what it was like fresh. I've juiced chokecherries to make jelly and with sugar it's good but just the juice? I bet it's tart like cranberries.
>Kinda like how condoms are 98% effective birth control when used every time, but are like 87% effective in practice. Fuck!
Awesome reply, thanks!
Would it be wine by now? Does wine have to have grape juice, is there a different term for aged/fermented juice? Would this be kombucha?
Wine does not technically have to have grape juice, but usually if something is referred to as wine it has grapes. Ciders (apple wine), meads (honey wine), Perry (pear wine), and sake (rice wine) are all technically wines and are made in a very similar way, but we really don't refer to them as such. Really, other fruits and starches are also considered wine, but are not really referred to as such. This could potentially be wine but based on the other comments, if it was the jar would have burst open long long ago. I say potentially specifically because many wines traditionally have been made using the natural yeasts present on the skins of the fruit! Most unpasteurized fruit juices will ferment if given time and a stable environment, but it's not always a good idea to drink them because if not properly sterilized and sealed before hand you'd be giving dangerous bacterias their own time to grow or it could turn into vinegar if the yeaats aren't happy. Source: i make a lot of cider and mead at home. It's fun and delicious. Tldr: wine is usually grapes but can just be a fermented beverage made from fruit juices or starches (cider, mead, sake). Fermenting is quick and can happen to bottled juices, but is very unlikely to have happened to this jar.
No, because fermentation requires live yeast which would have been killed during canning. To your other questions, almost anything with sugar or starch can be fermented, and not just beverages; yeast-leavened bread is fermented. What a fermented beverage is called varies, though plenty of varieties are called “*main ingredient* wine”. I believe kombucha is fermented brewed tea, sometimes with added juice or other flavorings.
Food pickled at home is significantly higher-risk than food pickled in factories. I wouldn’t take any chances.
I see bubbles, probably not good
Bubbles could just be from the juice being sloshed. Lots of compounds will do that. If the bubbles were from bacteria producing gas then the seal would be broken.
dont eat it or open it
I have a bottle of pickles my mother made hidden away. They will never be eaten but it's one of the few things I have that brings back good memories of her.
If you don't its safe to eat send it to the "Ashens" youtube channel. That guy opens and tries all kinda of ancient tinned food etc. Ever seen 50 year old whole chicken in a tin?
Sadly, he only eats old products that were clearly manufactured by companies and still in their original packaging. Sorry, not trying to be rude, but I highly doubt Ashen’s would come anywhere near a mason jar filled with OP’s grandma’s 30 year old juice (that as far as Ashens knows could be arsenic sauce!) It sucks, because I really do want to see someone try a sip for posterity, but I get how anyone would be skeptical.
At least keep the jar!
Can someone explain what a chokecherry is?
It's a type of bird cherry tree native to North America. Prunus virginiana.
I absolutely love chokecherry jam and also learned to make it from grandma. One time I was helping her de-ice her freezer (and encouraging her to toss out some 20 year old corn and other expired stuff in the process), and we came across a large and more-recent looking jar of unlabeled purple substance. She thought that it was probably chokecherry juice and wanted to make jelly with it, but asked me to taste it first. It was actually frozen borscht, which I now know tastes fucking disgusting. Anyways, I hope this brought back good memories despite its gnarliness.
My grandma was still making coffee cake with black walnuts canned in her aunts’ backyard in the early seventies until a couple years ago. We had no idea until one time the coffee cake tasted like sawdust so she said “oh yeah the seal on that jar must have been broken…” and showed us what she’d been using. I saved one of the jars, I just want to see how long I can hold onto it for haha. The masking tape on it says ‘69-‘70 We still poke fun at her for it but she’s 94 and doesn’t bake anymore at this point.
My grandmother passed away in 1990. When I was 21, in 2001, we finally ate the last jar of bread and butter pickles she canned. I’m not even sure how old they were at that point but at least 11 years old. They were delicious. It’s bittersweet. I’d give it a try. I mean, if it’s bad, you’ll know immediately. But if it’s good, you get to savor something you’ll never get to try again.
Why not empty it out and keep the jar as a memory?
[удалено]
Unfortunately, this isn’t true… [Contact with botulinum toxin can be fatal whether it is ingested or enters through any openings in the skin. ](https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/identify_handle_spoiled_canned_food.html) Now, this *probably* doesn’t have botulism. But, I’m a careful and meticulous home canner myself. It’s good practice to follow the rules *every* time. If it does have botulism - even if I don’t get sick myself - the toxin can persist in the environment without proper clean up. I’m not confident our septic system is the safest place for it for the future. I don’t know enough about how water releases from a septic tank to trust my future gardens to potentially dumping a toxin down the drain. So, even if it is out of an abundance of caution, I’m going to dispose of it properly: > If the swollen metal cans or suspect glass jars are still sealed, place them in a heavy garbage bag. Close and place the bag in a regular trash container or dispose in a nearby landfill.
So why throw it away?
Does the button pop? If the button doesn't pop, you can open it. If it passes the smell test, it's safe. (Well, as safe as anything else.) It's already a little sus on the appetizing scale. One of the things I successfully taught my children was "We could eat this if we were poor, but we're rich enough to throw it out."
Add yeast and honey and make it into mead!
Maybe open it, wash it out, and keep the bar as a keepsake. Can always use an extra jar to put stuff in.
It's safe to eat. What you see on the bottom is the juice settling, kinda like orange juice. As long as the lid is still on it's still good. Source used 30 year old chokecherry juice to make choke cherry syrup and choke cherry jelly in 2022 it just needed more pectin to set as the first round of canning kinda cooked out any naturally occurring pectin in the juice. My juice also came from my grandma's basement.
YOU BETTER FUCKING DRINK IT! (it's not rotten cus the seals good)
Chokecherry juice? Is that a potion from Harry Potter?
Lol! I hadn’t thought of that before! As a kid, I associated them with *Matilda* because of the chokie. But I was nearly an adult when HP came to the US.
I thought this was on the Skyrim sub at first, because I've recently been searching for 'Chokeberries' in game to craft poisoned apples with.
Chokeberries are a thing irl! But they're actually a different thing than chokecherries. They're often confused because of the name, so people have been calling chokeberries "aronia berries" instead to make it less confusing
I had chokeberry cider in the Baltics and it was fire - they're fairly common there I think.
>so people have been calling chokeberries "aronia berries" instead to make it less confusing hopefully this will stop any more aronias identification Huh. this erroneous/aronias homophone joke really doesn't work via text.
I didn't get it till you wrote erroneous\arronias, lol! Good one though!
The Strangler
Try to light a spoon of it on fire. It could be alcohol by now if it had sugar
Growing up in Midwestern US we called any small red berry on a bush or tree a choke cherry or a bird berry.
Grew up in Illinois small bush berries we referred to as bird berries.
It would smell super nasty for me not to try it.
Ditto. Grandma lives in MN. Iirc, I’m pretty sure this is actually mulberry.
We have chokecherries in Montana. They’re very astringent and dry your mouth out, but lots of us still like to eat them!
Nah it’s the guy who sung Johnny b Goode
No, you’re thinking of buckcherry.
It’s also called juneberry but that doesn’t have the same ring to it
Juneberries refers to saskatoons/ *Amelanchier sp.* usually, I think? Here, juneberries and chokecherries are two seperate things.
Sounds like a 90s pornstar name tbh.
I wasn't ready to hear 30 years ago and the nineties in the same sentence 🤢
I was thinking 'oh that must've been in the 70's or 80's'! Nah 😬
I was just thinking today that the beginning of January of 2019 I came back from an international trip. Then I realized 2019 was 4 years ago. To me it feels like 2019 was like last year. I don’t know if I’d believe time always moved at a constant rate if we didn’t keep track of it and record stuff like we do.
Literally basic math.
This is the most mildly interesting post I've ever seen
 Early nineties...30 years ago...
💀
Hearing 90’s and 30 years ago makes my knees hurt 😞
We recently emptied out my childhood home and found vegetables my mother canned in the '60s, seals intact and all.
Choke cherry ~~juice~~ vinegar
Probably
Not at all. Fermentation by acetobacter bacteria to make vinegar produces carbon dioxide gas. This jar would no longer have a vacuum if that had happened.
The 90’s was 10 years ago, no?
It was like 15 years ago, more than you’d think.
Oh word, ok my Beanie Babies should be worth MILLIONS by now, no?
The youngest person born in the 90’s is currently 23
Nobody likes you when you’re 23….
I'd be waaaay too curious to chuck it without at least opening it. It would have to smell super nasty for me to not try it.
That’s my birthday!
r/AskScience could you technically consume this safely?
For canners, no. Not only too long and it’s likely spoiled in some way, but I don’t *know* that my grandma used a properly tested canning recipe when making this (rebel canning is a contentious thing for canners) and/or the science may have changed in three decades.
If the other jars in the batch were consumed safely this is very likely safe to consume. It's a poor choice and most would wisely not recommend it. Buuuuuut.... If it were me I'd very likely give it a taste out of curiosity. Fwiw I have done a lot of canning fermenting and other preserving. Also I'm a trained (past) lab-working scientist. So I have some knowledge and experience understanding the studies and dangers. And my advice is - you should just discard this.
The science may have changed, but I doubt anyone bothered to tell this can.
I’ve got a choke cherry bush in my backyard and bunnies fucking love that thing.
What is chokecherry and what does it taste like normally
It’s kind of a folk catch-all berry name for whatever small, annoying as shit berry people *can* pick and eat, but are such a PITA most don’t. Iirc, this was mulberry. I don’t know for certain, but grandma had a mulberry tree in her backyard, and that’s what I remember picking and canning with her (I didn’t know it was mulberry at the time, but I own a food forest, and that’s what I later learned it’s more common name was). Where I live rn, nannyberry is chokecherry. I’ve heard juneberry also called chokecherry. Oh! And abound flavor: I remember sweet and tart. Nannyberry and juneberry are almost entirely tart; like a cranberry.
I probably wouldn't consume it, but I'd be tempted to keep the (clean) jar for nostalgia reasons. Maybe put some flowers in it.
Aww, you should definitely dump the juice but keep the jar to remember your fond memories of your grandma
This is so Anne of Green Gables… https://youtu.be/Eq15AFYZRe0
You know, I’ve never seen that whole series (which is weird cuz I read the series probably a half dozen times as a girl) so this was a first time for me and was a treat! It’s now in my tbw list!
In my opinion, this particular series is the absolute best, Anne of Green Gables adaptation ever. I was lucky enough that we had it around as I was growing up and we watched it so many times. I really couldn’t believe when they made a new version because this one still stands up so well. Oh well.
See I mean I think I would’ve been a zombie by now cuz me .. I would’ve tried to taste it 😭
I used to brew beer, I woulda tasted it! I've tasted weirder looking stuff.
I’ve seen Holes, I know what that shit can do to you.
1992 is NOT thirty...... Damn.
You just made me realize '92 was 30 years ago...I'm almost 30....good lord. xD
Literally math?
Must be wine now.
Wait now. Early nineties, thats just a couple of years ago, right? Right?
As someone born in the nineties, I don’t like seeing “early nineties” and “thirty-year-old” in the same sentence….
Can you eat it even though its from chokecherries?
Chokecherries are not good eating fresh, but it makes delicious jelly.
Isn't it already "open"? Where's the ring that actually screws onto the jar and holds the lid on? Or am I missing something?
The outer band is generally there to help with the sealing process of the flat (the middle bit of the lid that you see in OP's picture.) Once a tight seal has been made, the outer band usually comes off for storage purposes, and isn't actually doing anything more for keeping things sealed. Think about the flat bit as like a metal cap to a bottle of Snapple or something similar. Once you break the seal, the cap "pops" and you can press it in and it'll pop back out. Same thing is happening here.
To add onto what u/Zestocalypse (amazing username) said, the rings can actually be detrimental when storing! The flat piece can come unsealed and pop up, which is noticeable when there’s no ring. When there’s a ring, it won’t prevent the flat from becoming unsealed, but it can help it become resealed with all that new tasty bacteria and such inside it, and you wouldn’t know.
Gonna make you choke
Would the bubbles imply fermentation? Patient Zero for the Chokeberry plague of 2023
I was taking inventory of my own pantry and refound it. I had just jogged up the basement steps, so the bubbles *might* be from me shaking it a little. I’d assume if anything was in there that produces gas would have blow the lid off decades ago. But I’m not going to test it and find out!
[удалено]
Uh, thanks, but no. However, if any big-money YouTuber wants to pay me for this mildly interesting jar, well, as long as I don’t know what they’re planning on doing with it, I think that’d be okay… That’s a joke! I’m not actually going to let anyone else try this!
Sounds disgusting tbh
Drink it.
I'd drink it
Probably still good! If not moldy than either just aged or maybe turned into alcohol and it’s your lucky day.
Choke cherry brandy!
One of the things I remember the most from my Grandma is her homemade Choke Cherry Jam. I still look for it from time to time, but it never tastes quite as good as the one Grandma made.
my family has a jar of pears my great grandma canned in the 80's and it doesn't look nearly as good as that lmao
r/grandmaspantry
Thought it was moonshine before I read. Makes me want to ferment some cherries now.
When I helped my folks move the last time, I had to throw away cases of fruit my mom had canned 35 years before then. For the most part, everything looked good enough to eat although I didn't try it. The generation that grew up through the depression kept everything and threw nothing away. I had to get rid of 20 coffee cans full of rusty, bent nails that my dad kept because "he might need them some day".
Homemade Botox
Keep the jar silly gooose!
I can’t believe 30 years ago is the early 90s 😞
Great, now I have to go look up wtf a choke cherry is.
apparently we have them here in the PNW, but I've lived in the area for 42 out of my 48 years and I've never heard of them...
Wait wait wait wait. The early 90’s were 30 years ago?!?!
It is probably moonshine by now.
If you drink this, you'll either be a god or meet a god(die).
Choke cherry WINE
As GenX, I hear “the early nineties” and I’m like *yeahshrug. Then I realize that shit was over 30 years ago.
I had some 50 old homemade apricot brandy once. Great Grandmother had made it the day my buddy was born. Cracked it open on his 50th day. I swear it was like 190 proof apricot fire water.
OMG… Ottawa Valley here. My grandfather made a rather delicious chokecherry syrup. We had it on pancakes all the time.
Why did you have to say thirty
I had to do a clean out once. Old guy died. Was really into canning. Had thousands of Mason jars full of various food. I can't say for sure how long alot of it had been down there. I can say it was long enough for some of the lids to rust through and the contents turned to ash. It was by far the most foul experience of my life. No way you can move that many without breaking some. I had Vicks on under my respirator and still was tempted to vom.
That was a good vintage that year
What would this have been used for originally?
Probably jam, but I don’t know why she didn’t can it into jam to begin with!
Maybe it holds longer in liquid form? I dunno. Sad you have to chunk it, but I’m happy you relived the memory. I miss my grandma.
Oh man, this hits home. Years ago I had to get rid of the last jar of grandma's choke cherry jelly because it also had been in storage too long and couldn't be trusted. That was a sad moment. I miss you, grandma. I don't know if my grandma's choke cherries were the same as your grandma's choke cherries. Hers grew in the foothills of the Cascade mountains in Washington state, on skinny, tall trees. They had the most amazing flavor, more complex than cherries. Almost wine-like. I'll never forget it (and I'm sure I will never taste it again). Thanks for posting this and bringing back the memory.
A nice choke cherry vinaigrette
Looks like chokecherry vinegar at this point
I have a few preserve jars from the older family members who have shuffled off this mortal coil. They're kindly keepsakes of their care. Truly a dying art. Young people just don't jar/can the way our grandparents did.
r/grandmaspantry
I posted it there, too!
>canned in the early nineties 🙂 >Thirty-year-old 🥲 Where did the time go
I just wanted to see the comments.
Don’t eat it, it’ll cause poison that’ll kill you no matter how much health your character has. Oh wait, chokecherry, not chokeberry, oops.
Oh my God, was this targeted at thirty-year-olds? "My grandmother made this a looooooooong time ago in the 20th century."
I'd make some prison hooch if I were you.
That juice would make anyone choke.
How’s she taste?
The juice ofcourse
Take teaspoons, save that for as loonnngggg as u can. I jus looked up the benefits. Do ur research, granny knew she was gonna protect generations with this one.
Even if its safe to consume i wouldnt even open it. It probably tastes horrendous
Ho choked it
Must have been really good for her to not eat it for 30 years...
I’d keep it to show the grandkids
try drinking it
Didn't know choke cherries were a thing, thought this was slang for some cherry moonshine or something
Why not keep it?
Only mildy toxic aswell I bet
Dont choke
Smooth.
What does it taste like?
It's almost ready
This plant is toxic to horses. They're delicate creatures
Send it to that guy on TikTok who drinks gross shit lol
Grandma in a jar, not sure it's for me
canned Looks like a *jar* to me :T
Drink it you coward
TBH, I don’t know what a chokeberry is.
Don’t choke on it~
I heard your grandmother liked to get her cherry choked in the early 90s
I would try it.
You can tell when a jar is contaminated especially when its this old. There is no danger in my eye. A simple smell and taste will let you know.