AITA for cooking my brother’s strawberry without permission?

A Reddit user shares a situation involving her brother, who often lets food spoil in the fridge. When he went on a work trip shortly after buying a bag of fresh strawberries, the user noticed some were going bad. Feeling down, she decided to use the strawberries to make a cheesecake, transforming them into jam for the topping.

Upon her brother’s return, he was upset to discover his strawberries were missing, insisting that she should have asked for permission before using his food. The user is now questioning whether she is in the wrong for her actions. Read the original story below for more details.

‘ AITA for cooking my brother’s strawberry without permission?’

So I have a brother (29M) who loves buying foods that will leave to rot in the fridge. Last week, he bought a bag of fresh strawberries, and when on a work-related trip the day after. Last night, I was feeling down, and I opened the fridge, and saw the strawberries.

No one likes fresh strawberry in my family, so no one bothered to eat it. I checked it and noticed that some are going bad. Since my brother loves to let his food rots, I decided to make a strawberry cheesecake out of it.

I picked strawberries that are still in good condition, while removed the bad parts. Then, I turned them to jam and put them as a topping to the cheesecake. My brother returned home this morning, and noticed the strawberry cheesecake.

He loved it, but realized his strawberry is missing. When I told him that’s the ingredient I used since it is going bad, he got angry. He said I should have asked permission first before cooking his food. Our mom agreed with him.AITA? I just don’t want to waste that bag of strawberries.

Check out how the community responded:

ThePhilV −  Okay, first of all, I doubt your brother “loves” to let food rot. He probably has plans when he buys stuff like that, then gets busy or o**rwhelmed and forgets it’s there, then feels guilty afterwards. You’re acting like he’s getting off on the idea of rotting food in the fridge.

Secondly, if there were plenty of good ones in the fridge the day you made the cheesecake, and then he was home the next day, you had no reason to use them. Third, unless he was off the grid, you probably could have phoned him or texted him.. So yeah, YTA.

Trick_Photograph9758 −  YTA because you should have gotten permission. If he was gone for a month, then I would say NTA. But you were able to use quite a lot of good strawberries, and the very next day, your brother noticed they were gone, so they would still have been good for him to eat. Also, “no one likes fresh strawberry”??? What the what??

NoUnderstanding477 −  ESH. I understand that you didn’t want them to go to waste and that you had a use for them.
Next time let him know that they would have to be thrown out soon but you could make something with the remainder before they went bad.

If he wasn’t happy with that arrangement then not much you could do about it. But if he was ok with it, he can’t exactly complain afterwards that you used his strawberries.

SandrineSmiles −  Sorry y’all, but NTA. Come on. OP didn’t say the brother literally loves wasting food. Learn how to read.
Also, if he lives there, he can’t exactly just buy food whenever, leave it to rot, and let it use up space, as the bacteria could spread to the rest of the fridge anyway!

Foxlikebox −  ESH your brother shouldn’t waste food, but you should have asked first. At the end of the day, you didn’t pay for it, it wasn’t yours.

Exact_Purchase765 −  I’d never turn my nose up at using my strawberries for cheesecake. I see both sides and going with NAH.

Now, OP, here’s a household hint, when the strawberries come home give them a quick wash in cold water with a splash of vinegar and then dry the off. The vinegar will help kill the bacteria that causes them to go bad so quickly. They will last a whole lot longer. Next time shoot your brother a text before you use them, though.

TaxesSucks −  YTA. It takes less than a minute to message someone and ask them if they can have some strawberries.

Old-Host-57 −  NTA, Leaving food in a communal fridge to rot is an AH move. Using the good bits to prefent at least some food waistage is not.

Ivetafox −  NTA. Should you have asked? Probably. Was it left rotting in the communal fridge? Yep! Would I have put the whole thing in the bin rather than try to salvage the good ones? Also yes. It was going in the bin if you didn’t save them, so you can’t be an AH, especially if he also got cheesecake out of the deal!

He’s far too old to be having these kinds of dumb arguments. It’s a punnet of strawberries. He’s nearly 30. This is the kind of argument I expect of 18-20 year olds.

Princesslolligag −  Buy him a $3 container of strawberries, tell him you are sorry but you thought he would enjoy the cheesecake and move on. A strawberry is not worth your relationship with your brother 🤷‍♀️