TRADITIONAL METHODS OF
FOOD PROCESSING
Food
can be processed, preserved or stored either in traditional or modern ways, but
on this article we are going to explain on traditional methods that were used
to preserve the different types of the foods without losing their flavor or
nutritional contents.
Why Learn Traditional Food Preservation Methods?
Learning
how the food is preserved is very crucial thing, you must know how was our
ancestors were able to keep the food for the future usage, of course there are
techniques that they had been using to preserve the food, our ancestors were
able to preserve all sort of foods like fish, fruits, vegetables, meat for a
very long period of time without ruining the nutritional content or the flavor
of the food
And
then they would get healthier than we are now.
CURING
This
is the method where the salt, sugar, spices or vinegar substance is added to
the certain types of foods fore examples animal product like meat and fish curing
binds or removes water from the food making it unsuitable for the growth of
micro-organism. Therefore, it makes the food stay longer. It also maintains the
test of food, sausages, bacon and corned beef are made by curing meat
DRYING IN THE SUN
This
is the method of preserving the food where the food is exposed to sunlight and
left there to dry, drying the food in the sun can also be called
Dehydrating
Foods
that are well-suited for drying include many fruits like raisins, dates,
apricots, and the like. Some vegetables also work well. These vegetables
include tomatoes, mushrooms, and herbs. bananas, beans peas, lentils, meat,
fish, cassava and green leafy vegetable.
The
food is left to dry in the sun for a long period of time this work because the
dryness of the food makes it impossible for the microorganism to survive,
reducing the amount of moisture in the food limits the growth of microorganism,
some food such as bananas and cassava needs to be cut into small pieces to
speed up drying, dried grain or cassava can be pounded into flour
SMOKING
Smoking
is the process of preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or
smoldering materials, the wood are being arrange or designed as if it were a
table and then on top of it the food were placed and below it the fire would be
started however what is needed here is only smoke and not fire, so smoke will
hit the food and after a while the food will get dried by the smoke, this
reduces the moisture content of the food to prevent growth of microorganism
that can spoil the food, grains, meat and fish can be dried slowly by smoking
The
foods that can be smoked include fish, avocadoes, meat, pineapple, asparagus,
eggplant and many more, this method has been used all over the world throughout
different tribe as it works perfect well.
COOKING
Cooking
include boiling, deep frying, steaming, baking in hot ash, grilling and roasting,
these processes help to kill microorganism soften food improve flavors, and
preserve food for example potatoes, green bananas and maize can be boiled
before drying meat can be boiled, grilled or deep fried
SALTING
Salting
is the addition of salt to food salt removes water from the food and kills
microorganisms that would spoil the food, salting dries your foods and insure
the surviving of the microbes is zero and extending the lifespan of foods in
the process without ruin the flavor or the nutritional contents that are
available in the food.
The
common foods that can be preserved include the following fruits, vegetables,
meats, fish and eggs
One
of the most food that can use the method of salting is meat and fish, it is
advised to avoid using too much salt in food as it can cause diseases such as
hypertension
Example
if you are going to preserve fish using salt then take the salt and rub a thick
layer of salt all around the fish, then hang the fish on cold area where the fish
will be hit by wind or cold air leave it there for a few months then you can
cook it, it is amazing that you will find the food hasn’t gone bad and still
have a good flavor
FERMENTATION
Fermentation
is the conversion of carbohydrates such as sugars into an alcohol or acid,
fermentation can occur naturally or can be induced artificially,
For
example, milk can be fermented into yoghurt by keeping it in a container for
some time, pickling foods such as cucumber and mangoes can be done by putting
them in salty water with vinegar. After some time, bacteria produce lactic acid
that gives the food its distinctive flavor and helps to preserve it
fermentation
is the process of taking advantage of microorganisms to kill the harmful
pathogens that are available in the food, this help to preserve the food from
getting bad,
however,
the fermentation method of preserving the food may alter the test of the food,
Fermentation is used to preserve food like kimchi, kombucha, pickled cucumbers,
and yogurt. Even wine and beer are made from the process fermentation.
Final word
Old
time method of preserving the food helped our ancestor to survive for long time
now in our modern world people discovered some new methods on how to preserve
the food but however some of the traditional ways of preserving the foods are
still used by some tribes until today.
What are the advantages
of using traditional method of preserving the foods?
It
is not expensive, almost many of the methods were able to be practiced by
anyone for example smoking doesn’t cost a thing you just have to set up a fire,
drying in the sun also doesn’t cost nothing all you need is sun
Maintaining
the flavor and nutrients contents of the food, traditional methods would
maintain the flavor of the food and some of them would improve it for example
once some foods have gone through fermentation then the flavor of that food can
improve and bring a new good flavor.