Think, Eat, Be Healthy

Food Preserving Techniques To Save Money

food preserving by fermentation

Food preserving techniques include fermenting vegetables to make sour pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi and more. This is a great way to extend shelf life and take advantage of low prices by buying in bulk when vegetables are in season.

Why food preserving?

Food preserving has probably been practiced since we started eating. Think about it – even animals preserve food for the future. Squirrels bury nuts when they are abundant for use during the leaner winter months. Lions and other large cats bury carcasses too large to eat in one meal for the future or to share with the rest of the pride. Some birds make seed stashes during times of plenty. Humans are no different but we have discovered better food preserving methods.

Food preserving is nothing more than a way of spreading the food supply out over the course of the year. It allows us to save a considerable amount of money and effort by taking advantage of an abundant supply and low prices on seasonal crops. Why buy fresh organic tomatoes from California or Texas or Peru at $4.99 per pound in December to make fresh pasta sauce when you can buy locally grown tomatoes for $1.09 per pound in August, make enough sauce for the winter and can it? Why do without okra or green beans for most of the year when they can be fermented into pickles and enjoyed any time? Making food preserving a regular part of the kitchen routine will result in a cheaper healthy whole food diet.

Methods of food preserving

There are many methods of food preserving. Some extend the usability of the food by only a few days or weeks. Some will keep food nourishing and edible for years. Other methods fit in between these extremes.

This post is not a detailed how-to about food preserving. Instead I want to plant the seed in your thoughts that various methods of food preservation are valuable money-saving tools. When you stumble upon a tremendous deal at the produce stand, the supermarket or the fish store, knowing how to preserve will allow you to take maximum advantage of those low prices. And the prices are probably low because those foods are the peak of their season, fresh and flavorful and more nutritious than the out-of-season equivalent at the supermarket.

The most common food preservating techniques are refrigeration and freezing. These will also keep food for the shortest time. Refrigeration and freezing have surely been used since ancient times but were purely seasonal until the advent of electricity and modern mechanical refrigeration. Obviously, freezing is longer-term than refrigeration, but still good only for several months before flavors and nutrition start to degrade. Using proper techniques gets the most longevity from these methods.

Fermentation has been used as a food preserving technique for tens of thousands of years. Properly fermented vegetables will last many months at room temperature in closed containers. They will last even longer if refrigerated and longest yet if canned after fermentation is complete. Canning does kill the beneficial bacteria present in fresh fermented foods but allows truly long-term preservation. Another advantage of fermentation is that the nutritional value of the foods are actually improved by the action of the the fermenting bacteria.

Canning is a way to preserve foods for long periods of time without refrigeration. Water bath canning is very simple, requires minimal equipment and can be used for any foods that are acidic enough. Less acidic foods need to be pressure canned, a slightly more complicated process that requires a pressure cooker with temperature control. Both methods of canning allow large batches of food to be preserved in one session. Please read up on canning and follow all safety guidelines exactly to avoid food poisoning(recommended books at the end of this post).

Curing with salt, sugar, smoke or other methods, has also come down through the ages with us. Depending on the type of cure and the specific food, curing can keep foods edible and nutritious for weeks to months. These methods are most commonly used to preserve meats and fish.

Drying will also extend the life of foods. Drying works well for many fruits. Meats can also be dried into jerky.

gravlox

Gravlox is a traditional Scandinavian cure for salmon using both salt and sugar. The cured fish will keep for several weeks refrigerated.

The most practical food preserving for the modern kitchen

I practice two methods of food preserving nearly every week: freezing and fermenting. Neither requires any special equipment nor large investment of time. There are no special safety rules to follow. Once the initial preparation is done, they are both very low maintenance, needing only a quick spot-check every few days.

For short periods of freezing, a few weeks or less, any ziplock bag will work. For longer-term freezing, one to six months, heavier gauge bags designed for freezing give much better results and are worth the few extra cents each. Less loss to freezer burn and improved flavor and nutrition make the thicker bags a good investment.

Any glass or ceramic container from a pint canning jar to a gallon olive jar to a large ceramic casserole dish can be used for fermenting vegetables. If you do much fermenting, however, it is worth getting a dedicated fermentation crock with a water-lock collar around the lid. They work better and faster and are more fool-proof because they prevent contamination better. I used to lose about one batch out of 10 when I used gallon jars but have not lost a single batch in the past year since getting a fermentation crock. I usually have a batch of something fermenting every week or two.

I am not an experienced canner. I plan to start canning more in the immediate future to save time in the kitchen. It would be much more convenient for me to have canned sauces in the pantry for use rather than make them fresh at every meal. I would also save a lot at the produce stand by being able to buy large batches of over-ripe tomatoes and other vegetables and fruit at reduced prices. Setting up for one type of canning, say tomato sauce or red chile sauce, should produce a year’s worth of product for a few hours’ work. Money is saved on the produce and much time is saved on shopping and cooking the rest of the year.

Summary of food preserving

Taking advantage of the healthy diet tips above will make any healthy whole food diet more affordable and easier in the kitchen. The average food bill can be reduced substantially by taking advantage of simple, cheap and time-proven food preservation methods. Freezing, fermenting and canning allow taking advantage of sale prices and low prices on local in-season crops. Frozen and canned foods, if prepared properly and carefully, lose little flavor or nutrition compared to fresh produce. Fermented foods can be considerably higher in nutrients, particularly the B-vitamins, than their fresh counterparts.

The time it takes to ferment two gallons of cucumber spears or kimchi is little more than required to make one quart. The same applies to canning in larger batches. Enough of a food for a year can be prepared in the same time as getting one or two meals ready. This makes these methods of preservation well worth learning and practicing.

Resources for food preserving

Click on the following book titles to read reviews of the books.

“Can It!” by Jackie Callahan Parente

“Preserving Everything” by Leda Meredith

Click the following links to read more articles on how to save money in the kitchen.

“Eating a Healthy Whole Food Diet on a Budget”

“How to Save Money with Cheaper Cuts of Meat”

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