Preservation of fruit, berries and vegetables

photo by healthyfood.com

Preservation of fruit, berries and vegetables 

    At the beginning of the Norwegian Food Culture course, we learned about various preservation techniques: we made juice, cooked jam, pickled vegetables with vinegar, canned fruits, and dried fruits. 

We preserve the food to avoid the food spoilage. This topic is discussed in Amy C. Brown’s Understanding Food: Principles and Preparation book, in the 28th chapter, which titled Food Preservation. Brown discusses the biological, chemical, and physical changes that cause food spoilage and introduces different preservation methods. She divide cold and hot preservation methods. Cold preservation methods include refrigeration and freezing, which slow down the biological, chemical, and physical processes that lead to food spoilage. Heat preservation methods include boiling, pasteurization and ohmic heating. Heat is effective for preserving food, because many of the microorganisms responsible for food spoilage or foodborne illnesses are susceptible to heat. Brown also lists additional preservation methods, such as irradiation (cold pasteurization), pulsed light, ozonation, and pascalization. (Brown, 2019, pp. 540-554)

Our first assignment was prepare two kind of food using preservation techniques. I chose to make strawberry jam and canned plums. Usually the techniques of making jam and canning we are learning from our parents or grandparents, this is in my case as well. This is a good example for the phenomenon that Fabio Parasecoli writes about in the Introduction of the book Culinary Cultures of Europe: Identity, Diversity and Dialogue: "Many dishes and products are characterised by specific techniques that, in the case of artisan products, are transmitted in very codified ways through generations, constituting a coherent and structured heritage that often plays an important role in the definition of the identity of a local community. (...) Today, although procedures tend to be industrialized, the production of many handmade products cannot easily be automated without losing certain specific traits such as nuances in flavor and texture. Besides, well-off and discriminating consumers often prefer a traditionally made product, even if it is more expensive.” (Parasecoli, 2005, pp. 15-16)

I believe that when something is handmade—especially if it’s made by our own hands—it always has its own unique, magical charm.

Canned plums

Canned plums in sunshine
photo by Anna

In my everyday life, no matter where I am, I always try to buy locally grown vegetables and fruits. When I arrived in Volda, fresh Norwegian plums were in all the grocery stores at a very low price, so I bought some for myself. I really liked them; their taste were a bit different from the ones we have back home in Hungary. And although we do make canning in Hungary, for some reason, we rarely make it with plums - but this might just at my family. When we received the assignment to prepare food using a preservation method, I immediately knew I want to canning these delicious, local plums so that I could bring home for my family to taste as well.

During the process the most unusual thing for me was, that the recipe, what I had to follow (our teachers gave to us), suggested to peeling the plums. I followed this instruction – mostly because of my curiosity – and then I was happily surprised, because after putting the plums in boiling water, it was very easy to peel them—the skin practically came off from the fruit on its own. After peeling, my little naked fruits looked so pretty. Another difference from how we make compote at home was that the recipe didn’t mentioned for use any spices; I only needed three ingredients: plums, sugar, and water. Simple, but great!

Ingredients

700 g plums

3 dl sugar

1 l water

Ingredients for canned plums
photo by Anna

Directions

Step 0: Disinfect the jars. Place the clean mason jars in an oven at 100°C for at least 10-15 minutes. Put the lids in boiling water and cook them for at least 10-15 minutes as well. It is very important to always use clean and disinfect equipment when preserving food!

Step 1: Put the plums quickly in boiling water, and after that, you can easily remove their skin.

Step 2: Pit the plums and cut them in half!

Step 3: Place the plums in the disinfected jars, then pour the sugar syrup - which you made from 3 dl of sugar and 10 dl of water - over them. Fill the jars as much as possible, leaving no room for air, because that can cause them to spoil more easily and quickly.

Finished canned plums:)
photo by Anna

 Strawberry jam 

Strawberry jam in sunshine
photo by Anna

Strawberries were my favorite fruit as a child, so I was very excited about making my own strawberry jam. Naturally, I had made jam many times at home with my mom and grandma, but this was the first time when I made it completely on my own (but definitely not the last time!:)).

Two things surprised me during the jam-making process:

The first was how incredibly much sugar was needed for preservation. I know it’s important in the preservation process, but I was still surprised how much is.

The other thing that surprised me was how simple the whole process was! Of course, I wasn’t making several kilograms of jam like we usually do at home, I just maked it from 1 kg fruits, but I was happily surprised by how quickly I finished and how simple was the process.

Ingredients

1 kg strawberry
350 g sugar
0,5 bag jam powder

Ingredients for strawberry jam
photo by Anna

Directions

Step 0: Disinfect the jars in the same way.

Step 1: Cook the cleaned strawberries until they reach a jam-like consistency. This took me about 30 minutes. You don't need to mash them; the heat will do the work for you.

Step 2: Once the mixture has a jam-like consistency, add the jam powder and the sugar, then cook for another 1-2 minutes while stirring continuously.

Step 3: Remove from heat and pour the jam into the still-warm sterilized jars.

Finished strawberry jam:)

photo by Anna

In the end

Looking at my finished jars, made me proud of myself. I hope they taste as good as pretty they are, and that they truly won't spoil during the months. I suppose I will enjoy eating them more than the ones I buy at a store. But all of this I'll only find out during the winter time, when it comes time for tasting.

 

Bibliography

Brown, A. C. (2019). Food preservation. In Understanding food: Principles and preparation (6th ed., pp. 540-554). Cengage.

Parasecoli, F. (2005). Introduction. In K. Merkle & D. Goldstein (Eds.), Culinary cultures of Europe: Identity, diversity and dialogue (pp. 15-16). Council of Europe Publishing.

Cover photo. https://www.healthyfood.com/advice/50-easy-ways-to-eat-more-fruit-and-vegetables/