7 ways of preserving food for healthier consumption

 7 Natural and Simple Food Preservation Techniques

I had food poisoning only three days before. I had been informed that the meat might be a little past its prime, but it smelled wonderful and I was hungry, so I went ahead and ate it. One of my biggest regrets from 2016 is this. Food poisoning is one of the few instances in which you will cry out to God and feel as if he has turned his back on you, whether you believe in him or not.

We all appreciate a nice “buy one, get one free” deal at our favorite grocery shop, but if we don't know how to preserve our food creatively, we'll end up losing both money and food if we can't get through the ready-to-eat food (think of the starving children in Africa!).

Food can be preserved in a variety of ways, including sugaring, salting, burying, jellying, jugging, and smoking. So, to prevent you from addressing a Supreme Being, here are five natural ways to preserve food, along with a few simple recipes to try.

1. Drying

This is one of the oldest ways of food preservation, dating back to 12,000 BC. It's also the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly option you can use this summer.

Solar power has been used to preserve fruits, vegetables, and meat for generations. Sun-drying is beneficial since it preserves all of the natural flavors. For this to be a delightful success, all you need is an environment with high temperatures and little humidity. Why don't you try this?

Tomatoes (Sun-Dried)

The best tomatoes to sun-dry are Roma or Pomodoro, but any kind will suffice. To ensure that the tomatoes dry evenly, slice them at a constant thickness. Arrange them on a frame with top and bottom stainless steel screens. Season your tomatoes with herbs and salt, then dry them for several days in direct sunlight with as much airflow as possible. When your tomatoes are no longer "stodgy" to the touch, you know they're done. You can store them in glass jars with olive oil or vacuum-sealed plastic bags once they're done.

Fruit

Fruit is less likely to deteriorate when drying because of its high sugar and acid content. Cut apricots and peaches in half and remove the pits. Apples, pears, and apricots, which are prone to browning, should be soaked in lemon juice for about five minutes before eating. Dry your fruit in a particularly hot and dry stretch of 85 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, just like the tomatoes. Bring your fruit inside and cover it with a cloth in the evening to prevent moisture from coming into touch with it.

You'll need to condition and pasteurize your fruits once they've dried sufficiently. Place the dried fruit in glass jars for seven to ten days to condition, shaking the jars every day to spread any remaining moisture. You can pasteurize your fruit in one of two ways: in the oven at 160 degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes, or in the freezer at 0 degrees Fahrenheit for 48 hours.

2. Pickling

Pickling agents like salt and vinegar help to preserve food while also killing microorganisms. Salt, in particular, is a versatile component that is underappreciated. Many people used to preserve food with salt in order to stay alive during droughts, harsh winters, and when traveling. Salt pulls moisture from your food, preventing it from rotting. Pickling can be done with almost any vegetable that fits into a jar. Here are two recipes to try, both of which take about 10–20 minutes to prepare!

Pickles

• 1 pound cucumbers cut
• 3 teaspoons salt
• ½ cup cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pickling spice/mustard seeds
• 4 cloves garlic cut

Fill the jar halfway with cucumbers. In a saucepan, bring the remaining ingredients to a boil. Pour the sauce over the cucumber slices once it has cooled. Fill the jar with water if necessary, allowing room at the top to stir. Refrigerate.

Red Cabbage

• 3 cups sliced red cabbage
• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 garlic clove cut

Fill the jar halfway with red cabbage. In a saucepan, bring the remaining ingredients to a boil. Pour the sauce over the cabbage segments once it has cooled. Refrigerate.

3. Canning

In the early nineteenth-century, a French confectioner created this process. Cooking food, putting it in sterilized cans or jars, and then boiling the containers to remove any leftover bacteria is the process of canning. Air is extracted from the container during the heating process, and when it cools, a vacuum seal is produced, preventing any air from re-entering the container.

Canning can be done in two ways:

Bathe in boiling water

Cooked food is placed in a container with boiling water and cooked for a period of time. Foods like jams, fruits, pickles, and tomatoes perform well with this strategy.

Pressure canning

Food is placed in containers inside a pressure cooker filled with water in this approach. Meat, veggies, and seafood are the finest choices.

To get you started, try these two Food.com recipes:

• Zesty Canned Salsa
• Makes 6 Pints

The Ingredients

• 10 cups roughly sliced tomatoes
• 5 cups sliced and seeded bell peppers
• 5 cups sliced onions
• 2 1⁄2cups hot peppers, sliced, seeded
• 1 1⁄4cups cider vinegar
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, minced
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1(6 ounces) can tomato paste

The Directions

• Syndicate all ingredients not including tomato paste in a large saucepot.
• Simmer till desired thickness.
• Stir in tomato paste.
• Ladle hot salsa into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head-space.
• Process 15 minutes in a hot water bath.

Note: For a spicy salsa, use more hot peppers; for mild salsa, useless. It depends on the heat level of your peppers and how spicy you prefer your salsa.

Canning Tangy Spaghetti Sauce

• Makes 7 Quarts

The Ingredients

• 3 medium onions, sliced
• 2 cups green bell peppers, sliced
• 3⁄4cup Hungarian wax chile, sliced (banana peppers)
• 1(8 ounces) can mushrooms, sliced, sliced, and drained
• 3 teaspoons milled garlic
• 16 cups tomatoes, peeled, cored, and sliced
• 3(12 ounces) cans tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 4 teaspoons salt (canning)
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 1⁄2teaspoon cumin

The Directions

• Put all ingredients to stockpot.
• Heat to boiling.
• Reduce heat.
• Simmer, partly covered for 2 hours.
• Stir sometimes.

After it has simmered, fill clean sterilized jars to within 1/2 inch of the top of the jar. Put on cap, screw the band finger tight.

Process for 35 minutes for quart jars in a water bath.

 You can likewise freeze in quart-size freezer bags.

This sauce is unlimited on any pasta dish.

4. Freezing

This is the simplest of all the methods. Food can be frozen to keep it fresh for longer. It's fantastic since practically anything freezes nicely, including bread, meat, fruit, and even milk.

When freezing meat, chop it into meal-sized chunks, and store it in freezer bags for easy access when it's time to defrost things. If you want to freeze green vegetables, you'll need to blanch them first.

5. Dehydrating

This simply implies that the food gets dehydrated while the nutrients are kept. Slice the meat into thin strips to dehydrate it. To remove the extra water, place it on a tray in the oven on low heat. When you're ready to eat your dehydrated vegetables, make sure it's fully hydrated first.

You can also buy a dehydrator, which slowly heats food to remove the water, resulting in unique and delectable snacks and dinners.

The following is a recipe for dehydrating tomatoes in a dehydrator, but it may just as easily be done in a low-heat oven:

Tomatoes Dehydrated

The Ingredients

• 70 paste tomatoes
• Mixed spice (non-compulsory)

The Directions

1. Slice your paste tomatoes 1/4 inch thick.
2. Slice as several tomatoes as you necessary to fill the dehydrator.
3. You will perhaps have to do this in more than one batch subject to the size of your dehydrator.
4. Fixed the dehydrator to 110’F and dry for 15 hours.
5. When done let them sit on a cookie sheet for a few hours.
6. Use in all sorts of recipes of your high-quality.
7. Place in a glass jar and store in a dark dry place.

6. Smoking

Smoking has the extra benefit of imparting a great flavor to the dish. This is the most difficult of the ways given here, and caution must be exercised to avoid contamination and food poisoning.

It can be done either hot (in a kiln or smokehouse) or cold (on a low heat for up to 24 hours).

• Smoking can be used to preserve food in three ways.
• Microbes in the food is killed by the heat.
• Preservatives are found in the compounds contained in smoke.
• Because the food dries up, bacteria have a smaller surface area to thrive on.
• Try this wonderful dish from The Food Network if you want to try smoking.

BBQ Gravy with Smoked Turkey       

The Ingredients

Rub:

• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons pounded sage
• 1 1/2 tablespoons thyme
• 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon Neelys Seasoning, recipe monitors

Turkey Brine:

• 1-gallon water
• 2 cups salt
• 3 cups apple juice
• 1 cup bourbon
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 (22-pound) turkey
• Olive oil
• 4 cups hickory wood chips, saturated in water for 60 minutes

BBQ Gravy, recipe follows

For the rub:

• Neelys Seasoning:
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups paprika
• 3 3/4 tablespoons onion powder

BBQ Gravy:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Drumstick, from turkey
• Neck, from turkey
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 8 cups turkey stock or chicken stock
• 1/4 cup BBQ Sauce (suggested: Neelys BBQ Sauce)
• Salt and freshly pounded black pepper

The Directions

For the rub:
Blend all ingredients in a slight bowl and reserve.

For the brine:

In a 5-gallon bucket lined with a resealable bag, combine the water, salt, apple juice, bourbon, peppercorns, and sugar. Stir until the sugar and salt have completely dissolved. Place the turkey in the brine bag and seal it. Place the bucket in an ice chest lined with waste bags and surrounded by ice. Allow to brine for 6 hours or overnight in a cool area. After 3 hours, turn the turkey. Using paper towels, pat the turkey dry after removing it from the brine.

Olive oil should be rubbed into the turkey and massaged in.

1 hour before cooking the turkey, soak wood chips in water and drain well. Light the chimney starter by filling it with charcoal. Burn until they are completely consumed by ash. To one side of the grill, place the charred coals. Wood chips should be placed on top of the coals. 2/3 fills a regular loaf pan with water after lining it with aluminum foil. Place opposite the coals in the grill.

Place the turkey on the grill, directly over the pan of water. Keep an eye on the temperature of the thigh with a probe thermometer as it cooks. Close the vent and place the cover on the grill.

The temperature should be kept at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Every few hours, you may need to add more coals and chips.

Check the turkey after 1 hour and cover with foil if the skin is golden brown. Cook for another 4 to 6 hours, or until a probe thermometer reads 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the dish from the oven and set it aside for 20 minutes before carving. Serve with a side of BBQ Gravy.

Seasoning by Neelys:

Combine all ingredients in an airtight jar and store for up to 6 months.

Gravy for the BBQ:

In a medium-high-heat saucepan, heat the vegetable oil. Sear the drumstick and neck until they are brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Reduce the heat to low and add the onions. Scrape up the fond from the bottom of the pan before adding the stock. In a saucepan, combine the drumstick and neck. Cover and cook for 1 hour, or until it reaches a boil. The sauce will be substantially reduced. Parts of the turkey should be removed. Whisk together the BBQ sauce and add it to the pan. The gravy will thicken as it sits. Salt & pepper to taste.

7. Salting

Salting has been used to preserve food for centuries, and while the procedure is simple, the science behind it merits greater examination.

The following is a description from Chemistry:

Osmosis is the process through which salt sucks water out of cells.

Water travels across a cell membrane to try to balance the salinity (or salt content) on both sides of the membrane. If you add enough salt to a cell, it will lose too much water to stay alive or proliferate. A high concentration of salt kills bacteria that degrade food and cause sickness. Bacteria are killed by a 20 percent salt solution. Lower concentrations prevent microbial growth until the cells' salinity is reached, which may have the unintended consequence of giving optimum growing conditions!

These are the simplest and most natural methods for preserving food without using a lot of chemicals. We strongly advise you to try this, especially if you have an abundance of produce. Fruits and vegetables can also be enjoyed out of season by canning, pickling, or drying.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

Have you tried any of them at home? We'd be delighted to hear from you.

 

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A Step-By-Step Guide For Beginner’s Canning And Preserving: The Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes Principles