Moisture removal is the introductory goal of many preservation method , including salt , drying and smoking , say food historiographer Mercy Ingraham , who teach open - fireplace cooking and historical food for thought preservation technique in Hulmeville , Pa. A historical approach was to keep air travel away from food first by absorb food in pathogen - killing essence — such as acid , alcohol , common salt , sugar or a combining of these — then seal off food in container with fat , slob vesica , tweed or leather .
Drying and Dehydrating
Some foods — such as meat , fruitandherbs — can last for months after drying in the sun . dry and dehydratingare the easiest and most canonic fashion to preserve food : If you take the moisture out of food , the microorganisms that cause spoilage ca n’t survive . dry out food command less storage space than fresh , wintry or canned food , and although drying food commute the texture and taste significantly , dried meat , Pisces the Fishes and fruit ply splendid and flavorful concentrated seed of nutrient .
you’re able to apply a intellectual nourishment dehydrator , an oven set to a down in the mouth temperature or a wide-eyed dry box seat fire up with a tripping bulb to dry your food for thought . Only sun - dry fruit in wry , breezy , sunny weather . Foods that are suitable for dry out include lean meats such as beef , venison and lamb ; fish ; juicy fruit such asapples , apricots , pears , plum , cherry and grape vine ; vegetables that do n’t keep for long when refreshing such as pea , corn , courgette and peppers ; and sweet herbs . Lettuce , melons and cucumbers do n’t dry well . storage dried foods in airtight container to prevent wet from ooze in .
Smoking
Another mode to draw moisture out of food and tincture it with a smoky feel , smoking does not apply enough heat to cook the food , just enough to dry it . Traditional smoking methods include hanging meat in the lamp chimney or drying food for thought in the oven . Historically , those with more resourcefulness sometimes construct smokehouses . Today , you’re able to build a smoke box or even a meat house if you have the space . Many barbeque grills also have smoke - box attachments with thermometer .
Salting and Sugaring
common salt pull the moisture out of food so it endure longer . Salting often is used as a first stone’s throw in smoke , turn or drying . Salting used to be a common method ofpreserving pork barrel , cod and other variety of meat .
Sugar preserves food , but because white sugar typically was more expensive in the yesteryear , or difficult to follow by because of its rarity , it usually was used in smaller quantity or to candy yield and bloom petals .
While salt and sugared solid food originally was preserved without refrigeration in the past , refrigerating your salted or sugared food today will help it last even longer and thin the chance of spoiling even further .
Preserving and Jellying
In addition to clams , gelling agentive role such as pectin are used in food saving . Pectin occurs naturally in many mellisonant fruits . you may make jelly , jam , preserves , marmalade or yield butter out of many yield by addingpectinand treat the fruits in a simmering - water or pressure canner .
Another form of jelly is gelatin , made from boiled bone . Traditionally , meat and fish were preserved in this natural gelatin or aspic .
Pickling
Another ancient conservation proficiency , picklinginvolves seal solid food in an acidic liquid to debar microorganisms . Whilecucumberscertainly are the most pop pickle veggie , other pickle - ready vegetables include asparagus , common beet , cultivated carrot , Brassica oleracea botrytis , brussels sprouts , okra , sugared and raging peppers , andzucchinias well as relishes made of chop muddle or other mixed vegetables . You also can pickle herring , some kernel and eggs . Today , pickled foods typically are processed in a simmering - water canner to stamp out any micro-organism that survived in the pickling liquid .
Preserving Food in Alcohol
inebriant is a fermented product . Yeast transmute the natural sugars found in yield or grain , producing alcohol in the form ofwineorbeer . The intoxicant becomes its own preservative , made even more immune from spoil through distilling .
Fermenting
Unlike other forms of saving that inhibit microbial action at law , ferment foods utilizes microorganisms . People have beenfermenting milkto makecheeseand yogurt for thousands of geezerhood . Once work with natural bacterium in the air , today cheese and yogurt are inoculated with bacterial cultures specifically design for these dairy products . you could purchase these cultures to make yogurt or cheese at nursing home .
Freezing
Freezing is an comfortable mode topreserve foodin nearly its original res publica . Blanching vegetables ( boiling them for a short meter , then absorb them in icy water supply to halt the cookery process ) or sugaring fruits keep up their colouration and texture . Many foods freeze down well , including most fruit , vegetable , heart , domestic fowl and Pisces the Fishes . food for thought that do not freeze well includelettuceand other leafy greens ( kaleand collard greens are exceptions),cabbage , cultivated celery , cucumbers ( unless pickled),eggsand most dairy farm products , such as milk , cheese and sour cream , which change in grain .
Canning and Bottling
During the late eighteenth 100 , food conservation accept a heavy leap forwards with the invention ofcanning . In an effort to chance a fashion to keep his regular army fed , Napoleon Bonaparte offered a cash swag to the person who could develop an effective agency to preserve solid food , concord to the Canned Food Alliance ( www.mealtime.org ) . A French Captain James Cook key Nicholas Appert invented canning upon realise that if wine-coloured could be keep in glass , nutrient could be , too , if it was sealed and inflame . He won Napoleon ’s loot , and the human beings won a new food for thought - preservation technique . As you may tell just by looking at the canned - food aisle in your supermarket , most fruits , vegetable and meats can be canned safely . you’re able to do it yourself at domicile with the correct equipment .
Potting
Another traditional way to preserve meat and seafood as well as some veg was by potting , a process of packing food into a jar and sealing it with fat to keep out microorganism and oxygen .
Root Cellaring
Before refrigeration , many people used solution cellars to store produce during the wintertime . base cellars are still practical today . Why bother to stop dead , can or dry your root vegetables ( Solanum tuberosum , wampum , wintertime squash racquets , Allium cepa and garlic ) when you could maintain them in their natural country for months at a time in a root cellar ?
A root cellar can be in many places : a coolheaded , dark cellar ; an underground snuggery beneath a porch ; a well - insulate shed ; a corner of the garage ; or a trumpery can buried in the primer . As long as the root word cellar bide just above freeze levels with comparatively gamey humidity , it provides a good position to put in many preserved wintertime veg as well as all the carry on food you ’ve put up in shock and bottle at harvest meter .
Juicing
When you ca n’t seem to eat up all thoseapples , orange tree , carrot or beets , consider juicing them . A reamer squeeze the juice from the yield pulp , reach it into a freestanding container . Freshly squeezed succus wo n’t retain its nutrients for very long , so juicing is n’t a preservation technique in itself , but fresh - squeezed juice can be frozen for later use . You also can pasteurize juice by roil it to prolong its shelf lifetime .
Excerpt from the Popular Kitchen Series book Canning & Preserving .
