To prepare nutritious and delicious meals, it’s essential to choose quality ingredients and handle them properly. Here are some tips on how to do just that.
How can you tell good-quality products from poor ones? Let’s take a look at two fish lying side by side. One has bright red gills, clean and shiny scales, bulging and clear eyes, and a firm belly. This fish is absolutely fresh. The other has brown gills, sunken cloudy eyes, a soft belly, scales covered in slime, some of which have fallen off, and an unpleasant odor. This fish is not fresh. With such fish, the flesh easily separates from the bones.
Another example: we have meat that is bright red with a fresh, meaty smell. When you press your finger on its surface, it leaves a dent that quickly returns to normal. This meat is fresh. If the meat is left in a warm place for a while, it darkens, takes on a brownish hue, later develops greenish spots, the smell becomes unpleasant, and the dent left by your finger takes longer to return to normal: the meat has lost its firmness. These signs indicate that the meat has spoiled.
Why do products spoil? Why do sugar and salt, when kept in a dry place, last a long time? Why do dry products keep better than salted ones, and better than fresh ones, and why do they last longer in the cold than in the heat?
The culprits behind food spoilage are microbes that come into contact with them. As soon as conditions become favorable for microbes—warmth, moisture, and a suitable environment—they quickly begin to multiply and break down the components of the food. In meat, fish, and dairy products, microbes decompose proteins, producing harmful substances that can affect human health.
Salt and sugar are low in moisture, so microbes do not thrive in them. They not only provide an unsuitable environment for microbes but can also inhibit or even kill them. We use this property of sugar when making jams and preserves, and we use salt for preserving meat, fish, fats, and vegetables.
While cold doesn’t kill microbes, it does slow their reproduction. That’s why we use refrigeration to store perishable foods.
As mentioned earlier, microbes are abundant on the surfaces of products. Unwashed vegetables and fruits, meat, and fish can be sources of illness. Therefore, proper handling of food before cooking is crucial. Soaking salted fish in cold water with frequent water changes preserves the fish’s quality and prevents poisoning from its decomposition products. Soaking the same fish in warm water that isn’t changed makes it unsuitable for consumption. Pre-soaking peas, beans, and certain grains in boiling water speeds up their cooking and enhances digestibility.
The components of the foods used to make dishes acquire qualities during cooking that allow for better absorption. For example, in potatoes, the starch granules swell, the cell walls break, and their contents become more accessible to digestive juices.
Improper cooking can significantly reduce the nutritional value of food. Vegetables placed in cold water for cooking and those placed in hot water will contain different amounts of vitamins once cooked. The vegetables in hot water will have more vitamins. In potato soup, if it sits on a hot stove for three hours, only one-fifth of the vitamins remain.
Extended cooking also alters the proteins in meat, legumes, and other products, diminishing their nutritional value. These considerations regarding cooking time are especially important when preparing food for children and infants.
The quality of food is also greatly influenced by the dishes in which it is prepared and stored. Containers made of galvanized iron are completely unsuitable for this purpose. When vegetables are prepared and stored in galvanized buckets, or when fats are stored in them, zinc oxide can leach into the food, making it unfit for consumption.
Copper cookware is very harmful, especially if it is tarnished. Copper oxidizes, and its oxide can transfer into food. Cookware with damaged enamel is even more dangerous: first, pieces of enamel can injure the stomach and intestines when ingested, and second, vegetables and fruits cooked in it lose their vitamins.
Certain types of ceramic dishes (glazed, clay) may contain lead. If jam, preserves, or compotes are stored in them, this harmful substance can leach into the food and pose health risks.
Safe options include aluminum, well-enamelled, glass, and properly treated copper and cast iron cookware.
The cleanliness of the people preparing and storing food is of utmost importance. The cleanliness of dishes, kitchen counters, meat grinders, and other kitchen utensils, as well as the space where food is stored and prepared, is essential for good and healthy nutrition.
Home cooks often need to store hot food. In most cases, this is done in the oven or over an open flame. However, this can lead to overcooking, drying out, burning, and loss of flavor.
It’s better to keep hot food on a “water bath.” For this, a container with food is placed in another container filled with water and heated over low heat.
Hot food can also be stored in a thermos.
You can make a thermos yourself. First, construct an outer box from boards that are 2-3 cm thick. Place a 10 cm layer of insulating material at the bottom. A smaller inner box made of plywood (4-5 mm thick) is placed inside, 15 cm lower and 26 cm narrower than the outer box. The gaps between the walls are filled with insulating material (dry sawdust, hay, cotton, ash, peat, etc.). The inner box is covered with plywood on top, and the outer box is covered with wooden slats, lined with felt.