[Rosinante]

No, I'm not pregnant with cravings lol!

We do get dill pickles in England but they're not the regular kind of thing they are in the States. So I got some last week but could only get a giant jar. Had some yesterday, put the jar back in the fridge but the label says 'consume within 5 days'. It's a heckuva big jar for 5 days - do they really go off so quickly?

and

I found a great recipe for a soymilk/oat/banana smoothie.
Instruction 1: put banana in freezer overnight. Check.

OK, got banana out this morning and, obviously, the skin is frozen too. So um I guess that means you peel them before you freeze them? Don't they go black and ishy if you do that?

BTW, even with a room temp banana the smoothie was fantastic:
1/2 cup oats, blended to fine
1 small (2oz) banana
3/4 cup vanilla soy milk
1 tsp sugar

blitz. beautiful. based on a vegweb recipe.

[kittycat40]

My pickles stay in my fridge for months. But of course I can't see your jar. I'm thinking if it says 5 day then maybe you have 7?? What type exactly are they? Sour, half sour, gerkhin? The fresher they are when you get them the less time they last.

Chec the label and report back! Can you tell I love pickles?

[bargoo]

I freeze bananas all the time, I peel them and slice them.,they do not get black and squishy, they stay pure white and taste fresh.

[nelie]

I freeze peeled bananas all the time. As for pickles, I have had pickles go bad in a fairly short period of time but not within a week, usually a month.

[MugCanDoIt]

That smoothie recipe sounds really good! I will have to try it!

[kaplods]

A bit of Pickle trivia (that may be relevant)
Pickles predate refrigeration, and some pickles were kept in a salt brine safetly for months without refrigeration (the brining process creats acid, so the brine is both salty and acidic by the time the pickles are ready to eat). When my grandfather was little, the grocery stores had a pickle barrel, and people (especially kids) reached in with their hands and grabbed the pickle they wanted. Apparently the brine was salty and acidic enough that no one got sick eating those grimy pickles. When I was little, there were still a couple "old-fashioned" stores in our area that still had the pickle barrels, but the store owner or clerk would get your pickle, first putting on a clean plastic gloves before reaching in the barrel (I once was allowed to grab my own pickle, but the owner of the store put the plastic glove on my hand first).

Why this may be relevant, is that some people (not so much anymore, because there are fewer people alive who were raised without refrigeration), like to keep their pickles in the pantry, not the fridge. If your pickle jar does not also say "keep refrigerated," I'm thinking the 5 days may be how long the pickles are safe if not kept in the fridge.

If the pickles were on the unrefrigerated shelf in the store, they usually would be safe in the fridge (if prepared in the US or in the way they are in the US) for months.

However, if the pickles were refrigerated in the store, they could be a "fresh pickle" and do have to be eaten more quickly (but usually one month would still be safe).

If the first ingredient listed in the pickles is vinegar, and the pickles are sour to the taste, it's very likely that they will last MONTHS in the fridge. I think that perhaps it's an unfamiliar food to whatever regulatory body is responsible for British food labeling (just a guess).

It it's an imported food from the US or Canada, the brand and ingredients might give us a clue (for example if it's Vlasic Classic Dills, and the ingredients are the same and listed in the same order as the Vlassic Classic Dills sold in the USA, I'd feel more confident in telling you that they will last for months in the fridge).

I know my grandmother used to make homemade pickles, and she had some very specific ideas about when a pickle shouldn't be eaten from the jar (or either homemade or store bought). I've read some of these in canning manuals too (I make homemade pickles, but I'm afraid of the canning process, so I make refrigerator pickles - they're refrigerated instead of processed, so have to be eaten fairly quickly, but even those tend to last for several months in the fridge if you take several precautions that extend the life of a jar of pickles).

Don't use your fingers to remove pickles from the jar (this probably is obvious). Use a clean fork or other utensil, and if possible use a non metal utensil, such as a plastic fork. Metal doesn't make the pickles spoil, but I've been told it can change the taste of the pickle.

If the pickles do get cross contaminated (a bit of something from the table gets into the jar, or someone sticks a dirty fork into the jar) err on the side of caution.

Always make sure there's enough of the pickling liquid in the jar to cover the remaining pickles. There should be plenty in the jar to keep the pickles covered.

If there's any sign of "weirdness" with the pickles, throw them out. Things like mold, obviously, but also if the pickles change color, taste or texture, or there seems to be a film or "oilyness" on top of the pickle juice (the canning liquid).

(This may be erring on the side of caution, but it's pickle wisdom I'm passing down from grandma, so this may not be nearly as risky as I've been told - still it's worth considering) --- Never add fresh onions or garlic to a jar of pickles (again, this might seem obvious), unless you're going to eat them quickly. You can make pickles with garlic or onions, but adding fresh garlic or onions AFTER the pickling process (or so I've been told) can result in a risk of bacterial contaminations, especially botulism. Even when I make refrigerator pickles, if I add onions (like in bread and butter pickles), I don't keep them more than about 10 days, just to be safe.

Because most pickles are fairly acidic, generally the flavor is going to suffer long before they become unsafe to eat.