Preparing And Storing Food - A few Handy Tips

by Owen Jones

In these times of superior alertness of the shortages in the
world and the recent economic problems in the whole world,
but especially in the wealthy Western countries, which are
the powerhouses of most Third World countries' expansion,
people are more aware of waste. It is a sin again to throw
away food, like it was 50 years ago.

This can only be a good thing although it is a disgrace that
it took an international financial crisis to make us recall
the lesson. Nowadays, waste of any kind is greeted with
public censure and so it is at home too. Most people spend a
very high percentage of their outgoings on food and so
anyone who wants to cut back, has to first look to this
quarter to make a saving.

However, saving does not inevitably mean 'not buying', it
can and should mean 'not throwing away'. In other words,
prepare your food and do not let your food go off.
Preparation and storage are the major words. With that
thought in mind, here are a few of my tips for preparing and
storing food properly.

Bread - tons of bread is thrown away every day, because it
has gone stale or mouldy and yet it is totally unnecessary.
Keep your bread in the deep freezer and not in the bread
bin. A whole loaf will slice frozen with the proper knife
and sliced bread will come away slice by slice. There is no
requirement to defrost as it only takes a minute or two at
room temperature.

Bananas - most people understand that banana skins go black
if stored in the fridge, but most people do not know that
bananas can be frozen solid. Yes, the skins will still turn
black, but the fruit will be unharmed.

Cake - to stop cake from going stale, store it in a tin with
an apple. The moisture in the apple will stop the cake from
going hard.

Watercress - to prevent watercress from wilting, store it
upside down in water, that is stalks up.

Salt - salt often gets damp, especially if stored in a
steamy kitchen without sufficient ventilation, but you do
not have to worry about that if you put two or three grains
of rice in the salt cellar. They will soak up the moisture
before the salt.

Cereal - stop cereal from going soft by resealing the bag
with a few clothes pegs. Your cereal will last weeks more.

Jam - boiling jam produces a scum which has to be skimmed
off and thrown away. This wastes jam, goodness and flavour.
However, if you whisk a knob of butter into the mixture at
the last minute the scum will not appear, saving time and
goodness.

Funnel - you always seem to need a funnel when you do not
have one. Then you promise to get a funnel for the next
time. Do not bother. Just cut the top nine inches off a
plastic bottle of cola. It makes an excellent throw-away
funnel. Some of the larger bottles even have a handle on
them which is even better.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics,
but is currently involved with researching the
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