How can you tell when vegetables go bad, or are getting rotten?!
Answers: like broccoli, green peppers, cauliflower, etc.
Typically, green vegetables will wilt when they are stressed. This does not mean that they are bad. Wilted lettuce (like green leaf) can be brought back to life if cut from the stalk and submerged in warm water for about 10-15 minutes. YES, I did say warm!
Green peppers tend to slime when they are worn out. Bits and pieces of the good part are still salvageable. Cauliflower will get brown specks on it, but they can be trimmed and you can still use the rest. Broccolli will yellow in the flowering area and might also turn limp. Remove the yellow areas and use the remaining parts for soup. When in doubt throw it out is an old wives's tale.
John Kowalski
Executive Chef
Woodlands Country Club
The Woodlands, Texas
They will be soft and smell funny. Sometimes turn brown.
they lose their color, you start seeing mold, you start smelling it, it gives off sour odors....basically when in doubt, throw it out!
Well, different vegetables decline in different stages, but your normal visual signs are discoloring, (they tend to lose their brightness from when you first purchased them) mold spots, smell is off odors, touch is soft mushy spots when holding it, loss of that "snap" when you break them and next taste. If you are really unsure, then wash that particular veggie off, then cook a piece. Taste it...................but please, only if you're really indoubt. You'll know rotten when you see it...............I hope this helps and you know the Golden Rule:
"When in doubt, throw it out"!!!!!!!!!!
The leaves and flowers turn yellow, then brown, then become some stinky, mushy mess. Green beans get spotty and dry. Radish, pumpkin, cucs, zucchini become moldy, soft and watery. Carrots develop dark spots, especially near the stem and the center. Lettuce turns to water. Potatoes turn green or black.
they stink, are wilted, turn brown. If you can't get to them within a couple of days after purchase, cook them and you will have a couple more days to eat them without them going bad.
They get all limp and juicy, and leak nasty brown stuff.