The jury is out on certain foods that require refrigeration after opening - condiments being what first springs to mind. There is often consternation especially living in a shared household that certain things like Jam or peanut butter wind up in the fridge or vice versa. Far be it for me to dictate room temperature or chilled preferences, it is only the matter of immediate spoiling that concerns me. To find the indication on the label in tiny words 'Refrigerate after opening' somewhere amongst the didactic of serving suggestions, toll free numbers and artificial ingredients is not only time consuming but concievable only by terrorists or other such devious types.
A simple alternative is a series of stickers that can tell me instantly what goes where. A small round blue sticker suggests refrigeration, a red sticker means cupboard is ok and a half red half blue sticker means either is appropriate.
Unfortunately this system does not cater to colour blind people, so they will have to scour the text for information.-- benfrost, Jan 29 2005 Yeah but when you get the half and half sticker arn't you going to be frozen with indecision? I know I would be. I think it would just be easier to have the decision made for me. Who applies these stickers and makes the decisions, a hugely ineffectual branch of the bureau-politic?-- cuckoointherye, Jan 29 2005 Icons like a wee snowflake for cold items, a red-barred snowflake for warm items, and a snowflake shrugging its shoulders for indeterminate items?-- robinism, Jan 29 2005 hey, enlightening ben. I always thought it was a matter of taste. I like my daddy's sauce at room temperature.-- po, Jan 29 2005 two pots of jam? Or a warm fridge?
Benfrost's Jam and Daddy's sauce - am I the only one who finds this amusing in a kinda juvenile way?-- yamahito, Jan 29 2005 I thought Ben kept his Jam on his nightstand.-- robinism, Jan 29 2005 ha ha ha ha!-- Pericles, Jan 29 2005 Lucky you don't share with me, I'd be putting blue stickers on your shoes, toothbrush etc. And red on your ice cream. <evil cackle>-- wagster, Jan 29 2005 I wish that I could remember the freezer that we had in my youth...it had some weird symbol stuff on the inside of the lid. I think we were allowed to keep reindeer in there for up to 6 months, although no-one ever tried.-- gnomethang, Jan 30 2005 I like this. A snowflake with an expiration date below it would be great.
By the way, is it true that the French don't refrigerate eggs? Is this safe?-- Zimmy, Jan 30 2005 Or you could put everything in the freezer and have a receptacle that turns a different colour when room temperature is reached.
Or, Like going to the shops and buying an 'ice-tray' of jam and putting it in the freezer. Then whipping it out and microwaving your jam spread to perfection.
Or, Maybe it all could be frozen and bread shaped like fake cheese and you could just drop it on top of a bit of toast and nuke it to perfection. Obviously getting it right would take practise or a heat reading gun built into the microwave.-- BlownUpGnome, Jan 30 2005 Mais bien sure des eoufs sont parfaitment degustible en temperature de chambre, et ils sont invintee par quelcon francais. Naturellement.-- zeno, Jan 30 2005 my comprehension of French is based on my guessing words that look similar to Spanish. [zeno] Does this say that eggs (eoufs?) are perfectly ok to keep at room tempurature? Also does it say that it is done commonly by the French Naturally?
I had to guess at a majority of the words. (and looked up some)-- Zimmy, Jan 30 2005 Zimmy- Eggs start out above room temperature, when they come out of a chicken. When they are collected in a good and timely manner, they can be kept for quite a while without refridgeration. Pioneer people would not have refrigerated their eggs. Somewhere people even eat eggs in which the chick is partially grown, which would take a while before they are even collected... Kinda sic hey! The industrialization of the egg industry has led to the refridgeration of most eggs as a saftey factor to help guarantee freshness... I think... ty-- fity, Jan 30 2005 sp: oeufs BTW I read somewhere recently the question of 'why do people put bananas in fridges given that they are tropical fruit'.-- gnomethang, Jan 30 2005 fity/zeno, I'd take your chicken to the vets, if I were you. Room temperature? Shirley not.-- yamahito, Jan 30 2005 yamahito, fity said "above room temperature."-- robinism, Jan 30 2005 I think eggs go bad when they change temperature too often. I keep my eggs out of the fridge. Tomato too!-- not_only_but_also, Jan 31 2005 It's completely safe to keep eggs at room temperature. They will last longer in the fridge though.
[fity], eggs do start out above room temperature, yes, but then so does chicken. Chicken should definitely be kept in the fridge/freezer.
[Zimmy], [zeno]'s French is about as good as yours. He's saying that eggs are ok at room temperature, and they were invented by someone French.-- david_scothern, Jan 31 2005 I resent that! I Guess at french words by looking if they slightly resemlbe english words!-- zeno, Jan 31 2005 I'm fairly certain that in the near future all foods will have "refrigerate after opening" written on them, to avoid the slightest chance of legal liability on the part of the manufacturer. At that point, you won't need a symbol. Just a seperate refrigerated pantry.-- Worldgineer, Jan 31 2005 Refrigerate them. Or, in the case of french eggs, don't.-- Worldgineer, Feb 01 2005 I think you just need to read. It's not that hard to find the statement "refridgerate after opening". FISH-- macncheesy, Feb 01 2005 random, halfbakery