Newlyweds Sue and John Stockton entered the kitchen on New Years Day to make black-eye pea chili and stewed greens for supper with neighbors from down the street. Both Sue and John honored the January 1 tradition of eating black-eye peas for good luck and greens for wealth, but John’s family took the superstition a step farther, stirring an actual dime into the greens as they simmered. 

“We need all the luck we can get,” John said, dropping a coin into the pot.

As part of their cooking spree, the Stocktons also emptied the refrigerator and freezer of holiday leftovers, a process that led to boiling a turkey carcass to make broth to freeze and deploy in soups over months to come.

As the Stocktons tidied the kitchen after dinner with the neighbors, Sue plucked the coin from the bottom of the stewpot. 

“I’ll save your lucky dime for a rainy day,” she told her husband. Then she opened a tub of frozen turkey broth and placed the dime on the icy surface before closing the lid and stashing the container behind a carton of frozen steaks someone sent as a wedding present.

That spring, the Stocktons took a two-week-long belated honeymoon, during which thunderstorms knocked down trees and disrupted power to many nearby houses. The neighbors from down the block went four days without electricity and, as a consequence, disposed of all the food in their refrigerator and freezer. 

“It’s 10 o’clock now, but the oven clock says 8, so we know power was out for at least two hours,” John said when they returned home. “Two hours with no electricity wouldn’t be a problem.”

“But power could have been been out for 14 hours, or 26 hours, or 38 hours. Or even longer,” Sue said. “If the food thawed in that time, it could be spoiled. We should probably throw it away, just to be safe.”

“Even the steaks?” John whimpered.

“Especially the steaks,” Sue said. 

“What a waste,” John said as he set a frozen tub beside the fancy mail-ordered ribeyes. “Spending all that time making broth, just to throw it away.”

“Wait a second,” Sue said, studying the tub of broth. “This food is fine!”

“Even the steaks?” John asked,

“Especially the steaks,” Sue answered.

How did Sue know the foods were safe? 

THE SOLUTION / SPOILER ALERT

Sue knew the food was safe as soon as she saw the tub of broth with a dime still on top. If the electricity had been out for too long, the broth would have thawed and the dime would have dropped to the bottom of the tub. No need to chuck the steaks.

While the fictional Stocktons in this story were lucky, Judy Wright over at JudysChickens blog is just plain smart. She always keeps a small container of ice with a penny as a telltale for just such occasions. Read about Judy’s clever Thaw Detector over at JudysChickens.org.

Meanwhile, Buttercup loves a house riddle, so please share any quirky mysteries that you’ve encountered. We’ll make them into a Buttercup Mystery. Thanks for playing!