Traditional Welsh Recipes

Preparing Food And Storing It

In these days of advanced awareness of the shortages in the world and the recent economic problems in the whole world, but particularly in the rich Western countries, which are the powerhouses of most Third World countries' progress, people are more conscious of waste. It is a sin again to throw away food, like it was 50 years ago. So preparing food and storing it properly is important again.

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

However, saving does not inevitably mean 'not buying', it can and should mean 'not throwing away'. In other words, preparing food and storing it properly is the way to go so that you do not let your food go off.

Preparation and storage are the key words. With that thought in mind, here are a few of my tips for preparing and storing food properly.

Bread - tons of bread is wasted every day, because it has gone stale or mouldy and yet it is completely 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 need to defrost as it only takes a minute or two at room temperature.

Bananas - most people know 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 undamaged.

Cake - to prevent cake from going stale, store it in a tin with an apple. The moisture in the apple will prevent 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 adequate 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 absorb the moisture before the salt.

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