Best Ways to Store Food for the Year
January 15, 2013
•Emily Murray
•San Francisco
• 0 Comments
Best Ways to Store Food for the Year
Storing food is an ideal way to prepare for future meals without compromising its original flavor. It’s also a great way to cut down on wasting excess food and money, as you will learn in any college of culinary arts or cooking school in California.
Freezing Meats
One of the easiest foods to store within a household is any type of meat. Meat such as ground beef is usually portioned into sections and then stored within the freezer. Meat is stored within the freezer because it extends the period in which we can consume it. Most meats will remain fresh within a freezer up to a year, which is useful for preparing for different seasons. The meat's freshness will depend on how well you sealed it within a container. Removing as much air as you can from the package will help preserve the taste of the meat.
Canning Food
Canned foods are often overlooked as they are considered to have mediocre taste. However, if prepared correctly, canned foods can be a delicious addition to a holiday meal. After cooking food and canning it, we prevent bacteria from deteriorating the food over time. In addition, canned foods have a significantly longer shelf life than other stored foods; often lasting a year or greater. Canned foods are relatively compact and are able to be stored within small spaces, making them an ideal food to store for the year.
Smoking
Another method of food preservation which has enhanced the way our food tastes is smoking and it is often taught as part of meat preparation and preservation in college of culinary arts classes. Although this requires cooking the food before storing, smoking meats will lengthen the time in which it is safe to consume. Smoking is a limited method, and can only be applied to meats. Smoking is also paired with curing meat, in which salt must be applied. Salt dries out the meat, which helps to preserve the meat for years. Combining smoking with the curing process will allow you to store meats for extended periods of time, while creating a unique flavor for your meats.
Pre-Packaged Foods
Purchasing prepackaged foods allows you to easily store foods without having to preserve them. Packaged foods often come in vacuum-sealed bags with a printed expiration date on the box, adding to the convenience of prepackaged foods. These foods also come with the option to purchase in bulk, which allows you to store large quantities of food throughout the year. For those who wish to store fresh foods for the year, a vacuum-sealer locks out the elements which essentially preserves the food. Food sealed within a vacuum-sealer should be stored in a freezer, depending on the type of the food.
If you enjoyed learning these techniques and would like to learn other ways of cooking, perhaps enrolling in cooking school in California would be a rewarding move for you.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in San Francisco. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in San Francisco offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/San-Francisco for more information.
Find disclosures on graduation rates, student financial obligations and more at www.chefs.edu/disclosures. Le Cordon Bleu® and the Le Cordon Bleu logo are registered trademarks of Career Education Corporation. Le Cordon Bleu cannot guarantee employment or salary. Credits earned are unlikely to transfer.