299268 Sat Nov 20 12:49:45 -0800 2004 8 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1657157 Thanks for the lime juice tips - now I'm on to the cupboard. The Worcestershire sauce had a best-if-used-before date of 2002, but that seems like a product that might last longer. Any opinions? How about Tabasco - no date on that bottle. Any general tips on this topic would be appreciated. (e.g. the kinds of sauces/products that have a long half-life) Thanks ... spring cleaning in November. Sat Nov 20 12:49:45 -0800 2004 0 Lisa Z 1 1657162 I keep opened Worcestershire in the refrigerator door, where it stays happy for a good 8 months. In fact, I've kept it longer, and have never had the first problem. Tabasco I don't refrigerate, and I can't believe anything untoward would grow in vinegar and cayenne peppers. The sauce in one bottle turned kind of brown, and I tossed it, but again, nothing bizarre occurred in my or anyone else's alimentary canal. Sat Nov 20 15:23:51 -0800 2004 1657157 0 Tom Steele 1 1657165 I keep both in the fridge and they seem to last forever. I buy the Tobasco in the lage bottles at Sams. It the fridge it never oxidizes and just goes on and on. Sat Nov 20 15:38:50 -0800 2004 1657157 0 Candy 1 1657166 I'm pretty sure they're good indefinitely....the shelf life thing is probably because they know everyone uses these items sort of slowly, and they're trying to push you to buy it more often. Sat Nov 20 15:55:24 -0800 2004 1657157 0 coll 1 1657175 Hot sauce shelf life is longer some of ours. As for Worcestershire sauce I made a wonderful discover. L&P has been the best I have tasted (I am sure there are better but I know of none). One day years ago I got a gallon of a off brand (at Costco)for the price of one small bottle. Well the taste was no where as good. Lack flavor and depth. Well instead of dumping it I put away to the cupboard and forgot about it for a few years. Then one day I need worcesherhsire sauce and there was none left in the samll bottles. So while I looked all over for another bottle I ran accross this gallon jug. Will I pour a little just to see if it was still good. Well to my surpise it tasted like the real thing. I checked the labels and saw they were made in the same factory. Then I remember a old tv spot when they said that L&P had to be aged. Will it true. Now I buy by the gallon and let it sit and I have a good supply of worceshire sauce at a very cheap price. Sat Nov 20 20:05:01 -0800 2004 1657157 0 yimster 2 1657197 Perhaps you are right about this one type. But I always tell folks to read W sauce labels. L & P has a greater range of natural ingredients than the second rate types I've seen in stores. ed Sun Nov 21 12:39:50 -0800 2004 1657175 0 e.d. 3 1657233 I did read the ingredient label and it was exactly the same in the same order. You may be right in that not all are the same. But this bottle sticks to my mind. Same orders of ingredients and same address. I really need a life because in my mind it was in Minnesota. I was in a store today and show the same bottles but did not have the time to read it today but I will be back. Sun Nov 21 23:43:22 -0800 2004 1657197 0 yimster 2 1657244 Interesting point that poor worcester sauce turns good after long storage. As an aside, I will mention that all right thinking Brits always buy L & P. The storage point echoes the tale of the sauce's discovery. Story approximates as follows. Rich Brit in India develops a taste for something similar made by his cook. Brit returns home with a vague recipe for it. He hires a pair of pharmacists to make some for him. End result is useless. Pharmacists put the unwanted barrel of it in their basement or wherever and promptly forget about it. A few years pass and the pharmacists stumble across the barrel. Just on the off chance, they taste the contents. To their amazement, its wonderful. Pharmacists go into the condiments business and get very rich. Mon Nov 22 10:00:23 -0800 2004 1657175 0 alex james 3 1657356 I just luck out with the storage of the cheap sauce, just did not want dump it because it was kind of thin in taste. But now that you have retold this story I kind of remember a TV ad by L&P tells the same kind of story. I did spot a gallon bottle of French's Worcesterhire sauce. I intend to buy the bottle and put in the shelf for a couple of years. Maybe then we will see if it works again. But I fear it will take a couple years to find out. Tue Nov 23 11:54:06 -0800 2004 1657244 0 yimster