Cooks in the kitchen who have excess fruits and veggies from a bountiful garden or a large shopping binge at the farmers’ market may wonder how to extend their stock. It’s never been a better time to learn how to preserve food properly at home.
Whether you cultivate your food or buy in quantity, home food preservation allows you to stock up and save money.
In addition, it adds diversity to meals, and the flavor of food preserved at home can rival that of most commercially available options. Best of all, you have complete control over what goes into your body.
Ultimately, you can savor the benefits of a surplus fruit crop or even a big pot of chili when you’re rummaging through your cupboard or freezer for a last-minute supper by learning how to preserve goods at home securely. And here is how you do it!
What is Food Preservation?
Food preservation encompasses a wide range of methods for keeping food from rotting. Food preservation is all about preserving nutritional content, texture, and flavor. Some of the many ways to preserve your food at home include:
- Pickling
- Canning
- Freeze Drying
- Drying
- Curing
- Freezing
- Fermentation
With so many options, it is pretty simple to start preserving your food at home. Of course, some preservation techniques are best suited for certain foods, but food preservation is excellent for beginners because they can choose the methods that are easiest or work best for them.
10 At-Home Food Preservation Techniques
Preserving your food at home can be a healthy and cost-effective choice if you want to enjoy market products all year. Use our preservation methods to extend the summer abundance into the winter season with berry preserves, pickled peppers, and more.
1. Cold Temperature Storage
Cold food storage is the most basic method of food preservation. Refrigerators, root cellars, cold basements, and pantries are all good places to look for it. Cooling food helps to preserve it by reducing the growth of bacteria that cause it to deteriorate.
Before the invention of the refrigerator, cooling for food storage was widespread in root cellars and iceboxes. Potatoes, onions, yams, apples, garlic, beets, turnips, cabbage, and carrots are all good root cellar foods.
2. Food Drying
By reducing moisture content, drying foods reduces the growth of germs, yeasts, and mold. Sun-drying seeds have been used to dehydrate the food of primitive peoples from ancient times.
Electric food dehydrators, freeze-drying, and ovens are now speeding up what was previously done by the sun and air. Fruits, beans, vegetables, spices, meat, and fish are all good dehydrators.
3. Freezing
Freezing foods preserves fresh flavors and textures while requiring little specialist equipment. It also slows the growth of microbes and enzymes that might ruin food. For optimal results, freeze room-temperature items, remove all air from the freezer bag, and eat within six months of freezing.
Vacuum-sealing frozen products prevents the formation of ice crystals and extends the shelf life of the food. Essentially, you can take fresh foods, freeze them immediately, and enjoy them as if they were just purchased or grown months later.
4. Water Bath Canning
Nicolas Appert, regarded as the “Father of Canning,” created the packing, heating, and sealing procedure for food goods that we still use today in the 1800s. Food is placed in canning jars and heated to a high temperature to kill the germs that cause food to deteriorate.
Air is pushed out of the jar during the heating process, and as the cans chill, a vacuum seal forms.
High-acid foods are best canned in a boiling water bath. These foods include:
- Fruits
- Fruit juice
- Pickled vegetables
- Salsa
- Condiments
- Vinegar, and
- Sauces
Water bath canning necessitates a long boiling time at a low temperature to kill mold, yeast, and enzymes that cause spoiling while creating a vacuum seal for long-term preservation.
5. Freeze Drying
Freeze-drying is a reduced-temperature dehydration method that involves freezing food and then sublimating—or turning ice into vapor—to remove the ice. This process can be performed in a freezer (which takes several weeks), on dry ice, or with modern freeze-dryer equipment (which takes less than 24 hours).
6. Using Salt and Sugar to Preserve
Before the invention of modern refrigeration, most foods were preserved by using sugar, salt, or a combination of the two. Salt and sugar help preserve meats, fruits, and vegetables by reducing water content and inhibiting microbial development.
Jams and jellies are frequent sugar-preserved meals, while some of the most commonly salt-preserved foods include:
- Salt Cod
- Bacon
- Corned Beef
- Salt Pork
7. Fermenting
Fermentation is a chemical reaction in which anaerobic conditions convert carbs to alcohol or organic acids by microorganisms such as bacteria or yeast. Our favorite sour foods, such as cheeses, yogurt, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, and sourdough bread, are made using this method.
8. Pickling with Vinegar
Vinegar pickling provides an acidic environment that kills germs and changes the flavor and texture of the food. Commonly pickled foods include:
- Apples
- Cucumber
- Okra
- Peppers
- Beets
- Onions
- Cauliflower
- Plums
- Carrots
- Green Beans
These foods are pickled with vinegar, salt, and sugar after being heated and applied to fruit or vegetables.
9. Alcohol
The fruit has been preserved in alcohol for a long time. Throughout the eighteenth century, fruits, including peaches, cherries, and apricots, were soaked in brandy and given as dessert after a European meal.
Alcohol, like salt and sugar, sucks water out of food, preventing microbial development. This process is ideal for extracting and infusing alcohols, such as cordials and rumptopf (a German way of storing summer fruit in alcohol).
10. Preserving with Olive Oil
Extra-virgin olive oil is a natural preservative that protects food from spoiling by isolating it from the air and creating a barrier that inhibits oxidation and mold. It’s used to keep fresh herbs, vegetables, and fish fresh for a long time.
When storing low-acid foods like garlic, mushrooms, chili peppers, or herbs in oil, keep food safety in mind—these low-acid items can be a source of bacteria and should be kept in the refrigerator as a precaution.
Which Food Preservation Method is Better?
It all relies on what you’re attempting to store and the conditions under which you store it. Here are a few things you should know….
Canning
While certain nutrients are lost during canning, a current study has found that refrigerating fresh fruits and vegetables also causes nutrient losses, particularly of fragile vitamins like vitamin C. Because plant foods are alive, they continue to utilize nutrients even after they have been stored.
It’s safe to presume that root cellar storage results in nutrient loss of the same. After six months of storage, frozen food loses more nutrients than canned food. Most nutrients are lost when food is dried.
Considering this, canning should be done as soon as possible after harvest, while nutrients are at their height, to preserve as many nutrients as possible.
Dehydration
Drying meals under mild circumstances can help you make a high-quality product at home. Food drying is the least destructive way of food preservation compared to canning and freezing, both of which involve harsh temperatures.
Freeze-Drying
According to Sheffield Hallam University research, freeze-drying strawberries resulted in no loss of vitamin C or phenolic content and an 8% reduction in total antioxidant capacity.
On the other hand, after being cold for the same amount of time, fresh strawberries lost 18 percent of their vitamin C, 23 percent of their TAC, and 82 percent of their phenolic content. So, freeze-drying is the best method to maintain nutritional integrity.
The Bottom Line on Home Food Preservation
At-home food preservation is an excellent way to make your favorite foods last as long as possible. While some methods require specific skills and equipment, others are fantastic for beginners – it gives them time to try food preservation without the hefty investment.
Remember that what you plan to preserve, your equipment, and how you plan to preserve your food play a massive role in which techniques will work best for you. For example, fermentation offers nutrition but shortens the shelf life of fermented goods.
Dried goods have a long shelf life and take up relatively little space. Dehydrated foods can be used in soups, stews, and other recipes that benefit from lengthy, slow cooking with plenty of liquid and snacks. It’s best to utilize it within the next two years.
So, as you can see, this practice will require a fair amount of research to ensure you are learning the correct way. However, as you learn more, you can preserve almost any food in your kitchen!
