In this post I will be talking about the importance of food preservation. Food preservation is considered one of the oldest sources to conserve food in good conditions. Preserving foods will prevent spoilage of products and with this you will be able to store them for future use. Among some old methods of preservation there’s drying, refrigeration, and fermentation but as the years, science and technology progressed modern methods are now used like canning, freezing, pasteurization, etc. All methods have great impacts with food products that end up benefiting people for example one of them being, preservation will help you decrease your food waste. When people buy food in big quantities lots of it goes to waste due to the conditions of not being able to store it correctly. With the prevention of trying for food to not to go to waste this will essentially make their shelf-life increase which will ensure a continuous food supply.
Something that we need to “protect” our produce from to ensure that these can last longer is mold. Mold tends to grow on most foods but it is most likely to grow on fresh and high water based produce like bread, veggies and fruits. Produce can get contaminated at any time of their production process from the soil, air, surfaces, and even machinery.
A few things we can do to reduce or eliminate the growth of bacteria and fungus is through the application of heat, freezing, and by controlling the concentration of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Also several preservatives are permitted but strictly managed by the Food & Drug Administration. The FDA approves if these chemicals are safe enough to put in food products to suppress mold & yeast.
One of the preservation methods that I read about and hit most closely to home was “Salting”. This process of salting is done in two different ways, in granule or brine form. Preserving with salt granules is known as dry curing and it is when the salt is poured on to the meat and then they store this one for various days or even weeks. The salt minerals prevent bacteria from growing which can cause food poisoning and other diseases.
Specifically I want to share with you all the beef jerky recipe I used to have when I was in elementary school. Back in the day when I used to live in Mexico I used to buy beef jerky from the schools cafeteria so during our lunch times I would always make sure I had enough money to buy myself at least one package a week or so. I think the thing that surprised me the most was when I found out the cafeteria ladies would make this one themselves!! & as the little
Photo taken by: Tanya K, keto-friendly beef jerky from home.
girl who loved beef jerky I remember asking my grandmother to help me find a recipe so that we could make our custom beef jerky from scratch. Once a while my grandmother and I would get together to make the best beef jerky using this salting method, one of the sources to preserve food.
For this beef jerky recipe we will need:
- 500 grams of beef
- 80 ml of natural orange juice
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of pepper with lemon
- 50 ml of oil
STEPS:
- Cut the beef into strips, they should be as thin as possible
- Then we mix the orange juice, salt and lemons with pepper
- Toss the beef strips into this mixture we have created in order to marinate the beef and leave it overnight
- On the next day we take out the strips out of the sauce and to seal the seasoning better we cook the strips in a hot frying pan with a little bit of oil
- Once the beef strips are sealed we set these in the oven or smoker at a temperature of 150ºF to 200ºF for 7 to 8 hours
- You’ll know it is done once the meat is brown, hard and dry
Blog Post By: Andrea Uc